Edmund “Ned” Waller
Cambium Oncology develops therapeutics targeting a small peptide called VIP that keeps the body’s T-cells from attacking cancer tumor cells. The company has a library of VIP checkpoint inhibitor peptides that antagonize VIP’s function and restore T cell tumor-killing activity.
“Early on, Emory was helpful in organizing ‘pitch camps’ to train us on making pitches. And later, Biolocity further helped us develop and pitch an idea. In particular, how to make value-enhancing inflection points, how to talk to people who aren’t domain experts in the field about the commercial potential of a drug. Over the past 15 years or so, that’s been quite helpful.
“Another value Emory provided is Lab2Launch space for Cambium Oncology’s research activities. That allows us to be competitive for SBIR grants, which are awarded with the expectation that lab space has been procured. In fact, a School of Medicine consultant who helps academic entrepreneurs, Vince La Terza, helped Cambium oncology procure a $2.4 million “fast-track” SBIR grant.
“Separately from Cambium Oncology, my lab benefited from a program called Winship Catalyst grants. A VC philanthropist gave $1 million to Winship Cancer Institute with the charge that he wanted to see drugs invented at Emory for cancer treatment. Two teams were selected, and we were fortunate to be one of them. We’ve been successful in meeting the stated milestones. Initially, we got $250,000, and later received a second round of another $250,000.”