[ad_1]
On January 16, Jay Batchu D’18, TH’20, TH’21 visited the Magnuson Center to speak with Dartmouth students about entrepreneurship and biotechnology. Batchu is a senior analyst and entrepreneur who resides at Xontogeny, where he works on technology acceleration and investment. In addition to Xontogeny, Bachu is also the founder of his own biotech startup, the purpose of which has not yet been made public. Mr. Bachu has worked on multiple projects in biotechnology and medical technology, including research on antibodies, cell therapies, nanoparticle delivery systems, and urinary tract microvalves. Dartmouth caught up with Bachu to discuss his career, new trends and techniques in biotechnology, and advice for students interested in entrepreneurship.
Can you tell us a little bit about Xontogeny and your work with Xontogeny?
JB: Xontogeny is both an accelerator and a venture investor. On the accelerator side, the idea is to work with first-time founders, technical founders, and so on. The important thing is that we can take a partnership position and start writing checks as investors. As the company matured, his second funding vehicle, the Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund, operated by Xontogeny, was born. Perceptive is a hedge fund based in New York City. They are arguably one of the most successful hedge funds focused solely on life sciences and healthcare.
Can you tell us about your biotech startup?
JB: My startup is currently in stealth mode and I don’t talk much about it, but what I can reveal about it is that I have raised a seed amount of funding from Xontogeny for the company. My company is involved in the antibody field. Although we have not discovered antibodies, we are in the business of making better antibodies biologically, and we have unique conjugation technologies that allow us to do this. We can generate modifiers and attach these modifiers to antibodies in a highly consistent and site-specific covalent manner. Depending on the modifiers used, the properties of the reference antibody can be changed accordingly. The idea is to select appropriate modifiers from a library of modifiers under development and combine them to modify assets and modifiers, depending on the context of the antibody you are trying to modify or improve. Let’s move forward further.
Are there any projects in your career that you are particularly proud of?
JB: I have worked on various projects. This includes projects in both the autoimmune and oncology cell therapy fields. I worked on artificial antibodies, enzymes, nanoparticle delivery systems, etc. I also did quite a bit of work in the medical technology field. I researched microorganisms in urine for incontinence and urinary retention. So I guess you could say it’s like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. But overall, the antibody project I’m currently working on is the one I’m most proud of. I’m very grateful for all the experience I’ve had working on the project so far.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected biomedical innovation?
JB: On the investment side, due to the impact of the coronavirus, both investors and entrepreneurs have become more comfortable raising funds virtually. In the past, it was much more common to have meetings and pitches in person. But now that process is much more decentralized. Therefore, there is a wider choice of companies to consider from an investor’s perspective. You don’t have to go to Boston or San Francisco or the RTP area to pitch for funding.
It has also, in a sense, brought nanoparticles back into biotechnology. It kind of challenged what I call the “cold touch of biotechnology.” Here, the technology kind of captures the central dogma of the phase, but there is no commercializable success, no clinical success, no meaningful success emerging in the short term. Pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical technology stakeholders tend to have a “cold attitude” toward these technologies, believing them to be dead assets or dead types of technology. I actually don’t tend to work on it much anymore. This is basically what happened with nanoparticles in the late 2000s and early 2010s. However, the pandemic and the success of lipid nanoparticle approaches to vaccines have renewed the attention of nanoparticles.
I also think the pandemic has made it clear that there needs to be more integrity in the supply chain. I know that’s a semi-obvious answer, but it’s just as important.
Are there any biomedical development technologies that you are particularly interested in?
JB: The ADC (antibody drug conjugate) field, and the antibody field in general, seems to be gaining more interest in this field. Antibodies aren’t going away, at least for the foreseeable future, and more and more versions of them are being developed. Cell therapy is also on the rise again. It’s a space that I find really interesting.
One of the things I’ve learned as an investor is that as long as the innovation environment is healthy, there will always be some really exciting and cool new technologies coming out. There’s no shortage of great new technology. That said, while the medical technology sector remains impressive and interesting, it simply doesn’t have as many investors as biotech. As a result, innovations in the medical technology field are relatively rare. But when it comes to antibodies and cell therapies, these are some of the things that I’m particularly excited about.
During your time in college, you worked on a number of projects focused on supporting student entrepreneurship, including DEN Associates (now called the Magnuson Student Leadership Board) and TuckLab. How did your experience on these projects prepare you for your career endeavors?
JB: They played an invaluable role in preparing me for my current position. Without a doubt, my time at university was difficult but rewarding. And it was difficult in a good way. I intentionally chose to address these challenges in order to develop this type of technology. My first few projects didn’t really work, but it wasn’t for technical reasons. But in the end I wouldn’t call these failures because I still learned a lot. I learned how to pitch, how to network, and how to communicate. You learned how to plan and run experiments. Overall, my time at Dartmouth was very helpful in learning and honing my skills. Also, Dartmouth’s alumni network, especially the Entrepreneur and Investor-oriented section, has been really good to me. Without them, it would have been much harder to get here, and that’s one of the main reasons I’m so grateful to Dartmouth.
What advice would you give to students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship, especially biomedical science?
JB: There is definitely a short-term and long-term answer to this question. The short-term answer to just finding your way into biotechnology is to read research papers, work with professors, or simply attend conferences. I think attending speakers and conferences is highly underrated and Dartmouth students should take advantage of the talent of speakers that visit campus. However, to enter biotechnology professionally, especially as an entrepreneur, it is generally very helpful to consider obtaining some sort of graduate degree, whether it’s a master’s degree or a Ph.D.
Starting a business is difficult, but very rewarding. It’s one of the most immersive experiences anyone can have, and I highly recommend pursuing entrepreneurship if you’re interested, especially at a place like Dartmouth. But in general, take advantage of the resources here and just go for it.
[ad_2]
Source link
