Guest author Neil Littman is CIRM’s Business Development Officer.

CIRM works closely with UCSF on a number of initiatives, from providing funding to academic investigators to jointly hosting events such as the recent CIRM Showcase with J-Labs held at the Mission Bay campus.

Beyond our joint initiatives, UCSF also provides many other valuable resources and educational opportunities to the life sciences community in the Bay Area. For instance, I was a mentor in UCSF’s “Idea to IPO” class which focused on helping students translate concepts into a commercializable product and viable business.

Another opportunity that may be of interest to all you budding entrepreneurs is UCSF’s Lean LaunchPad course, which kicks off in January (application deadline is Nov 19th). The course teaches…

“scientists and clinicians how to assess whether the idea or technology they have can serve as the basis of a business. The focus is on the marketplace where you must validate that your idea has value in order to move into the commercial world.”

See more at: Lean Launchpad for Life Sciences & Healthcare.

The course is being run out of the Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF, which is a division of the UCSF Office of Innovation, Technology & Alliances (ITA).