Yale Life Sciences Pitchfest
Event overview
The annual Yale Life Sciences Pitchfest is a one-day event held each December to showcase Yale faculty innovators presenting breakthrough research projects in therapeutics, medical devices, and digital health. Over the course of the day each Yale faculty-led team presents their projects in 5-minute pitches followed by a 3-minute Q&A with a panel of judges. Following a full-day of pitches, the judges deliberate to determine the faculty awards, recognizing the most exciting life science research coming out of Yale laboratories this year.
The Yale Life Sciences Pitchfest serves as the semifinals for The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale. The Fund, supported by a grant from The Blavatnik Family Foundation, is a Yale Ventures accelerator for Yale faculty that supports the commercialization of applied research and technology in the life sciences. Since its inception over 7 years ago, The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale has funded 46 early-stage life science projects resulting in the creation of 12 ventures that have collectively raised $210M, many of which call New Haven home.
2024 Yale Life Sciences Pitchfest
Award Recipients
1st Place
Richard Kibbey, MD, PhD, Ensign Professor of Medicine and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Project: Small Molecule Incretin Amplifier for the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes
2nd Place
Ranjit Bindra, MD, PhD (W. Mark Saltzman, PhD) Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Professor of Pathology
Project: B3 Therapeutics: Bypassing the blood brain barrier for the treatment of primary CNS tumors and brain metastases
Audience Choice Winners
Christine Ko, MD, Professor of Dermatology and Pathology
Project: Harnessing p53beta as a medical treatment of skin cancer
Mohini Ranganathan, MBBS, Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Project: Simulated Psychedelic Immersive Experience: Healthcare Intervention for Depression (Si-PHI)
Berna Sozen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics
Project: Implantoid Platform for Infertility Medicine
Steven Tang, PhD, Assistant Professor
Project: Towards small-molecule contraceptives targeting sperm-egg fusion
2023 Yale Life Sciences Pitchfest
Award Recipients
1st Place
Daryl Klein, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology
Project: Rosevix (Rosziqumab) A ROS1 Biologic for Invasive Cancers
2nd Place
Jason Sheltzer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery (Oncology) and of Genetics
Project: Expanding the universe of cancer therapies by targeting aneuploidy
3rd Place
Amber Wimsatt Childs, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Director of Training, YSM Doctoral Internship in Clinical and Community Psychology, Psychiatry
Project: M-Select
2022 Yale Life Sciences Pitchfest
Award Recipients
1st Place
Anthony Koleske, Ensign Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and of Neuroscience; Deputy Dean for Research, (Basic Science)
Project: A screen for small molecule regulators of TRIO GEF1 activity
2nd Place
Kevan Herold, C.N.H. Long Professor of Immunobiology and of Medicine (Endocrinology)
Project: Engineering beta cells for resistance to immune attack and reversal of diabetes
Farida Ahangari, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
Project: Targeting Profibrotic Macrophages Using Mir-33 Inhibitors, a Novel Therapeutic Approach for Pulmonary Fibrosis
3rd Place
Anton Bennett, Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Pharmacology and of Comparative Medicine; Director, Yale Center for Molecular and Systems Metabolism
Project: Allagium Therapeutics, driving change to better health
Ruslan Medzhitov, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology
Project: To identify a new class of therapeutics for inflammatory diseases
Ian Odell, Assistant Professor of Dermatology
Project: Epiregulin Inhibition to Treat Scleroderma Skin and Lung Fibrosis
4th Place
Nicholas Economos, MD/PhD student
Project: Hybridex Biosciences, enabling the next generation of safe gene editing therapeutics.
Rohan Khera, Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine and Health Informatics
Project: ENSIGHT-AI
One Year Free Bench Space c/o BioLabs New Haven
Choukri Ben Mamoun, Professor of Medicine and Microbial Pathogenesis
Project: Potentiators of AntiMicrobial Susceptibility
