Friday, May 16, 2025
5/16/2025
Alzheimer's-focused Celdara Medical High-Potential Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program (A-CHEF) - While the majority of biomedical scientists end up in professions outside of academia, most receive little-to-no training in preparation for this transition. Here, we seek to establish a comprehensive training program to prepare scientists for their actual careers: to meet the nation’s greatest biomedical and clinical needs. This program includes a core curriculum covering key aspects of drug development (e.g., due diligence, preclinical development, clinical unmet need, intellectual property management, regulatory path, financing, competitive intelligence, and scientific communication), experiential learning, regular, structured collaboration with biotech professionals, training in SBIR grant mechanisms and writing, engagement with multiple early-stage biotech companies, a complementary online training platform, and a formal mentoring program. This program will be focused on one of the most critical disease-challenges of the 21st century: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and is named the Alzheimer’s-focused Celdara Medical High-Potential Entrepreneurs’ Fellowship (A-CHEF). Celdara Medical (CM) is an entrepreneurial biotech company that builds academic innovations into high-potential therapeutics. A-CHEF will be run by CM in collaboration with eight universities: Brown, Dartmouth, Maine Medical Center, MDI Biological Laboratory, UDel, UNH, URI, and UVM. CM currently collaborates with each of these universities through its leadership of the NIGMS-funded Regional Accelerator Hub, the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub. CM has previously run a fellowship program (Celdara fellowship) in collaboration with Dartmouth College that acts as a pilot study for A-CHEF. The Celdara fellowship provides evidence of success, as well as a basic training structure to formalize, expand, and improve upon. A-CHEF Annual Milestones: 1) Train ≥ 5 diverse scientists from the Northeast IDeA states each year in biomedical entrepreneurship / drug development; each Fellow will (annually): a) Complete A-CHEF didactic training b) Complete due diligence on ≥ 30 AD-relevant therapeutics; c) Prepare at least one AD therapeutic pitch and present to the CM and DRIVEN teams; d) Create and iterate upon an adaptive individual development plan (IDP). 2) Create a complete funding and development plan (preclinical to clinical) for ≥1 AD therapeutic. Successful completion of the aims and milestones outlined in this application will provide invaluable immersive training and career development for biomedical scientists while also expanding the AD research workforce and advancing AD therapeutic development.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).