Chancellor Praises BioVentures for Giving UAMS Researchers ‘More Shots on Goal’
| Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, opened BioVentures Innovation Week at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) with an enthusiastic call for “more shots on goal” for UAMS inventors.
“You determine the quality of the innovation,” Patterson said at the Inventors Lunch & Award Ceremony on May 13. “What we can influence is the number of shots on goal, because your batting average isn’t 1,000, right? More shots on goal mean more opportunities for success. That’s what BioVentures is all about.”
BioVentures, UAMS’ technology-transfer arm, hosted the four-day Innovation Week May 12–15 to spotlight university research and to connect innovators with industry partners and investors. Events included a Monday morning meet-and-greet over coffee and doughnuts as well as Thursday’s keynote, “Purpose with Power – How Sponsored Research Can Change Lives,” by growth strategist and intellectual property attorney Justin Rerko.
Keynote speaker Justin Rerko with Stefanie Kennon-McGill, Ph.D., senior program manager for BioVentures, and Eric Peterson, Ph.D., president of BioVentures.
Tuesday’s Inventors Lunch included faculty, students and staff to honor UAMS’ leading inventors.
John Sherrill, Ph.D., senior licensing associate for BioVentures, outlined the office’s mission: “to foster commercial investment in the development of inventions, discoveries and other work products flowing from the research at UAMS, to enhance human health care and stimulate economic development in the state of Arkansas.”
Between 2020 and 2025, UAMS researchers secured 29 patents, and fiscal year 2024 saw 32 invention disclosures. At the luncheon, BioVentures recognized its top inventors for the period: Adria Abella Villafranca, senior administrator, Data Warehouse; Joseph Sanford, M.D., director, Institute for Digital Health and Innovation; Fenghuang “Frank” Zhan, M.D., Ph.D., professor and research director, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Myeloma Center; Tristan Saunders, owner and lead architect of Care–Link HIE Systems, Kinetic Solutions; Mayumi Nakagawa, M.D., Ph.D., professor, College of Medicine Department of Pathology; and Taufiek Rajab, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Surgery.
On Wednesday, attendees heard from Michael Geranen, BioVentures technology manager, on “Raising Capital for Your Startup Endeavors.”
Eric Peterson, president of BioVentures, outlined how university inventions move from lab to market, with BioVentures experts available to help at every step along the way.
Thursday’s Industry-Research Forum offered one-on-one sessions with experts at BioVentures, and presentations by Bryan Barnhouse, president and CEO of the Arkansas Research Alliance, and Luna Acosta, director of technology transfer at Arkansas State University.
Thursday also included two panel discussions, including one with leaders from top pharmaceutical companies. They were: Doug Paul, Pharm.D., Ph.D., CEO of Paul RX LLC; Jim Iverson, CEO and founder of Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical; K. Gary Barnette, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Veru Inc.; and Rodrigo Rodrigues, associate director of early innovation partnering at Johnson & Johnson.
The UAMS panel on industry-academic partnerships included Joe Underwood, J.D., Ph.D. (speaking, left), associate general counsel for UAMS; Mitchell McGill, Ph.D., associate professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health Department of Environmental Health Sciences; and Andrea Ham, B.S., CRA, senior director, UAMS Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Stefanie Kennon-McGill, Ph.D., moderated the discussion.
A UAMS panel on industry-academic partnerships included Mitchell McGill, Ph.D., associate professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Joe Underwood, J.D., Ph.D., associate general counsel for UAMS; and Andrea Ham, B.S., CRA, senior director, UAMS Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
Patterson praised the attendees’ “effort, because that effort, if you stay with it, pays off,” he said, adding that their continued collaboration across disciplines is advancing health care solutions for Arkansas and beyond.