From Bench, to Bedside, to Boardroom

[00:00:00] Erin Spain, MS: Welcome to Science in Translation, a podcast from NUCATS, Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. I'm your host, Erin Spain. NUCATS is helping Northwestern University scientists get their research to market by fostering biomedical innovation and entrepreneurial activity. There are many examples of how this is done, but today we're shining a light on an opportunity within the Chicago Biomedical Consortium, a group whose mission is to stimulate collaboration among scientists throughout Chicagoland and advance entrepreneurship by transforming life science research into biomedical applications that improve human health. Today I am joined by Northwestern Medicine Neuro-oncologist, Dr. Priya Kumthekar, who has a leadership role within one of the consortium's exciting programs that's housed here at Northwestern. She has expertise in innovative clinical trial research, Including being the overall principal investigator of five investigator initiated treatment trials, as well as the site PI of over a dozen additional collaborative brain tumor treatment trials. She is also an associate professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee department of Neurology's, division of Neuro-Oncology, and in the Department of Medicine here at Feinberg. And she's also a member of NUCATS. So welcome to the show, Dr. Kumthekar. It's nice to have you here.

[00:01:27] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:29] Erin Spain, MS: Tell me about your Northwestern career. For people who don't know, you came here in 2007

[00:01:33] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Yeah, I came here after medical school. I came here for my residency. Never did I expect almost two decades later to still be here. But this is really where my career blossomed and where I chased and continue to chase my dreams. I did my residency. Again, here at Northwestern. At the time, you know, I really knew I wanted to do neuro-oncology, and it was a very, it was a program in its infancy. There were only a handful of accredited programs across the country, but luckily, Northwestern happened to be one of those early programs. So I stuck around for fellowship and then really jumped at the opportunity to be here.Really because by that point, I understood what I really wanted, which was I wanted to give the best patient care I possibly could to my brain tumor patients. And I wanted to, at the same time, forward the science in a meaningful way in my career. And I just felt like this was the home where I could do that.

[00:02:27] Erin Spain, MS: Talk to me about what it's like to be a physician scientist.

[00:02:31] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Yeah. So my role in the science world is really as a clinical trialist and as a translational scientist. So specifically I work to help ideas that really generate in the lab and in an early phase, and actually help to work with those really talented scientists. I'm so lucky I get to work with some of the smartest people across this campus. I get to also work with small companies and really help bring these scientific advancements to our patients in the clinic. I always say my, my lab is my clinic, right? These are my patients who we wanna bring the best to. So at Northwestern we do this through translational efforts and clinical trial efforts, and we really work to design the studies in the lab that we know will springboard then into clinical trials and ultimately to new therapeutics and new diagnostic tools for our patients.

[00:03:24] Erin Spain, MS: So you mentioned working with small companies and working with startups. Tell me about some of your more specific experiences with that, with translating science into a startup.

[00:03:35] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Working with startups has been a really fascinating part of my career recently. I almost think of them as a small lab, right? or a lab of any size. These wonderful ideas are generated there, but they need kind of help to get that. to the start line of clinical trials. Right. And so, I often find actually that working with these companies is very similar to working with scientists on campus and other physicians because a lot of these folks in small growing startups are doing. What they do at work for the same reasons that we in healthcare are doing it. They're very patient centric and want to improve the lives and the treatment and diagnostics for our patients. So it's been really, honestly fun and exciting and I feel like, 20-year-old Priya would've loved to see this, right? So just making things happen for our patients. This was really the dream that I had going into medicine. How do I treat patients with the best that we have now, but how do we keep making things better? And working with startups and working with labs on campus, both of them offer that same thing of how do we get better things to our patients?

[00:04:46] Erin Spain, MS: I'm curious, what role has NUCATS played in your journey so far?

[00:04:51] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Yeah, so NUCATS has been a wonderful pillar of support. and center for resources for all of this. You know, they really are innovative in their approach and they can help really with nuts and bolts, right? Kind of that, where do you start, place of, where do I go to talk about these IND enabling studies, what guidance can I get to have the right trials in the lab so that I can bring it to my patients? Also, they might provide guidance of what regulatory support do I need? So what do I need to do for an IRB submission, an institutional review board, what do I need to do for an FDA submission? Lots of things that go kind of beyond just the science, but also the nuts and bolts of what's needed to actually take the science and then bring it to the clinic and bring it to clinical trials. you come to NUCATS with your idea and you get the help of implementation.

[00:05:51] Erin Spain, MS: Today we're talking about an opportunity for NUCATS members and scientists around Chicago with a Chicago biomedical consortium. First, explain the consortium to me and how you're connected to it.

[00:06:03] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Absolutely. So the Chicago Biomedical Consortium is one that has been in the Chicago land area for a while, we live in this greater metropolitan of 10 million people. We have these wonderfully renowned academic institutions, Northwestern, University of Chicago, UIC, Rush, we're bigger than the Bay Area Boston Biotech of the world in size, and we have these great academic institutions. The idea of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium and also CBC Heights is let's make Chicago one of these cities also, where biotech thrives and grows because we have all the right people and all the right resources right here in our backyard. So that's kind of my soapbox comment and also foundation for understanding what CBC and CBC Heights are trying to do. CBC Heights, so that's Chicago Biomedical Consortium Hub for innovative, technology and entrepreneurship and sciences. So what are we trying to achieve here? We're trying to take these great ideas, these this great science that we see coming out of places like Northwestern , and we wanna see them come to light. We wanna see them commercialize. We wanna see them not only get to clinical trials, but get to the clinic in a commercial fashion so we can make them available to our patients. And we want Chicago to be right smack in the center of that. And so that's the goal. With regards to my role, so I serve as basically the translational and clinical trial guide for this. The main role for me is to help people design the right studies so that we can take those concepts and then get them on that path to the clinic and ultimately path to commercialization.

[00:07:51] Erin Spain, MS: Tell me about the whole team and what you can offer to folks.

[00:07:54] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: And I think you had one of our team members, actually the PI of our study, Dr. Nadig, on

[00:07:59] Erin Spain, MS: Yes, absolutely. talking about his transplantation program.

[00:08:03] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Yeah. So he's the PI of this grant, and what we're attempting to do is just make sure that we bring these ideas from the lab to light. He and I are the main leaders at Northwestern, but this is a cross city initiative that Northwestern is the leader on. And then we have two other co-PIs who are at different institutions within Chicago. So one at University of Chicago and one at UIC. And together, you know, our sum is really greater than our parts. There's a lot of synergy on what we bring, and how we can help ideas really blossom in Chicagoland area.

[00:08:41] Erin Spain, MS: Well, let's get down to the nitty gritty of the CBC Heights program. So what is it and why would Feinberg investigators or NUCATS members be interested in applying for opportunities through it?

[00:08:52] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: CB c Heights is a dedicated service hub designed to accelerate academic innovation in Illinois by providing researchers with critical resources, funding, and connections to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial impact. So because of that, there are a lot of different spokes to this wheel. While It is a funding program, it's much more than that. It's also a comprehensive service that helps Northwestern researchers and Chicago land area researchers transform their scientific discoveries into real world biotech solutions. It strengthens our region's life sciences. biotech ecosystem and really helps drive innovation forward here in Chicago so that we become a biotech hub. If you are a researcher with an idea that you think can be commercialized and you apply to CBC Heights, you can get some seed funding to help make your idea kind of go to that next step. And that's wonderful, right? We all need funding in today's climate especially. We all need it. But in addition to funding, you get a lot of other really critical resources. So you get things like translational research support. So with people like me and others, and really importantly, you get industry and investment connections. So we have a network of industry experts. We have venture capital, firms, pharmaceutical companies. It's really like the center spoke of the wheel. To give you an idea, when we applied for this multimillion dollar grant a couple years ago, we had letters of support and backing from some of the larger, capital firms. So VC firms, other investment firms. Saying this is exactly what we want. You can almost think of us as glorified matchmakers here, right? Because a lot of these firms wanna understand where's the good science, And the scientists wanna know, where's the money? How do I get this? And so we help facilitate that connection as well. We also have things like entrepreneurship and commercialization training. This is not training that the typical scientist gets. It's really important that we facilitate that, and that we make sure that we are setting up our scientists for success to maybe spin off their own company or to commercialize their product. So all of those things are really important and, there's a lot of resources and multi-institutional collaboration, shared resources that we help connect the scientists too, and, and really just in alignment with regional and national initiatives. So we connect researchers to broader economic and scientific initiatives we help them access that additional funding, whether it's federal support or private support or commercialization pathways, so that it's that kind of one stop shop Yeah, we're gonna help fund your idea to take it to the next step, but we're not gonna leave you hanging like that. We're gonna give you the other education, the resources that you need to make this happen in a holistic fashion.

[00:12:02] Erin Spain, MS: Well, tell me about the application process? What does that look like?

[00:12:05] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Anyone at Northwestern is eligible to apply. Those who should be thinking about applying are those with an idea that we think have a path to commercialization. There's two different levels of funding, early funding and later funding to where those ideas can be springboarded then again into that commercialization pathway beyond Northwestern. All the institutions in Chicagoland Academia, sphere, if you will, that they're also eligible. Those from smaller universities and smaller colleges have to be paired with one of the larger institutions. So that would be, you know, Northwestern, university of Chicago, UIC. and rush. And so basically your application can come from one of those smaller institutions as well, because we really want to be inclusive. We're really open to hearing about everyone's ideas. This is, it's been a really exciting year or so, so far that we've gone live, and it's been wonderful to see the science happening in this city. Many of us scientists haven't gone to business school. Many of us haven't been entrepreneurs or know the nitty gritty and ins and outs of that. having this support and this partner where you can focus on science, but also learn how to make your product successful and commercialized. It's priceless to me.

[00:13:22] Erin Spain, MS: Well, and you've gone through this yourself, not with the support of a big consortium like this. You kind of had to figure it out on your own with resources here at Northwestern and in the industry. Can you walk me through your own personal experience with what it's like to take something from an idea to clinical trials?

[00:13:38] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: I have to say I love that question because it also is what inspired me to wanna be a part of this CBC Heights project. So, my own story is that, the first project that I translated from bench to bedside was in collaboration with some wonderfully smart PhDs who created a compound in their lab that was a nano therapeutic. And it was a bit of a shrug emoji on how do we get this to the clinic, right? How do we make this happen? the steps that we had to take there, I feel like. I was in college all over again. I was learning a new vocabulary. I was learning about regulatory processes. I was learning about drug manufacturing. I was learning about late preclinical work that then bridges to then early phase zero, first in human sort of work. And so it was really much, sink or swim and learn through osmosis. I'm so appreciative for that process. I learned a lot, but I realize that we've got to support our scientists better and we have to have a structured process by which we can guide scientists and clinical trialists through this process because we are not classically trained on this. And so because of my experience in going through it that way, which I wouldn't trade, but I think that I want to help boost others up. Now I'm kind of entering this phase in my career where there's still so much science that I have left to do, but I really wanna support others. I really want to include others in these processes. I really wanna help implement for others and help them with their innovations, make things happen. And that's what the CBC Heights does. So NUCATS is positioned around three aims, include, innovate and implement. What do these aims mean to you?

[00:15:31] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: I love these aims. I think that they are. Exactly what we need in science and beyond today It really takes a village. There's no one person who can help change healthcare. It really is gonna take a team. And so NUCATS can be the glue that brings all those peoples together and includes all of them. And that means looking in all corners of Northwestern, but also beyond. In that sense we can, that's when we're really gonna have those bright ideas because I really genuinely believe that there's synergy when we include everyone, right? That our sum is greater than our parts. And that's where real innovation comes. The implementation part is, I think, the fun part, right? Once you know that you have a bright idea and you have the right team, you've included the right team, you've had the right innovation. Then we get to work, right? We implement and we have all the right resources to do so. So it's kind of knowing who's on first, right? What, who's where, and who's gonna do what. And I think understanding where your strength lies and, and really importantly, where your, where your teammates strength lies, then you can really implement. And I think that NUCATS are bringing these three things together so beautifully.

[00:16:41] Erin Spain, MS: thank you so much for this glimpse into what we can expect and also your vision for Chicago. It's very inspiring and it's very exciting for NUCATS to be a part of this.

[00:16:51] Dr. Priya Kumtahekar: Awesome. Thank you so much, Erin, for having me.

[00:16:54] Erin Spain, MS: Subscribe to Science in Translation wherever you listen to your podcasts. To find out more about NUCATS, check out our website, NUCATS.northwestern.edu.