Gazelles, unicorns, and dragons battle cancer through the Nanotechnology Startup Challenge

On March 4th, 2016, Springer’s Cancer Nanotechnology office promoted the launch of the Nanotechnology Startup Challenge in Cancer (NSC(2)). This innovation-development model is a partnership among our company, the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), MedImmune, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, and multiple institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NSC(2) “crowdsources” talent from around the world to launch startups with near-term, commercially viable cancer nanotechnology inventions, which were developed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). Crowdsourcing is a process in which one uses the internet to engage a large group of people in an activity, such as NSC(2). For this initiative, CAI engaged universities, industry professionals, foundations, investors, relevant media outlets, seasoned entrepreneurs, and life sciences membership organizations to request that they participate in the challenge. From this outreach, fifty-six key thought leaders have enrolled in NSC(2) as judges, mentors, and/or advisors to challenge teams (http://www.nscsquared.org/judges.html). Along with crowdsourcing talent to bolt startups around NIH inventions, NSC(2) will also catalyze the launch of companies around “third-party” cancer nanotechnology inventions, which were conceived and developed outside of the NIH. Twenty-eight robust teams were accepted to the challenge on March 14th, 2016.