Strategic Partnerships

Industry can engage with USC in several different ways, which can be diverse and varied. These engagements include collaborating with researchers and students, accessing resources, getting involved with centers of expertise, and contributing to economic development.

Our expert team works closely with USC, including senior administration, faculty, and various business offices, along with industry representatives. Together, we develop partnering strategies that cater to the needs and aspirations of all parties involved.

If you’re interested in finding out more about our Collaborators and Strategic Partners, keep reading below.

Auransa Inc.

USC Norris is collaborating with Auransa Inc., on a phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate a new kind of treatment for cancers of the liver and solid tumors with liver-dominant disease.

Auransa and USC are also collaborating on a broader approach to bring novel and much-needed therapeutics to cancer patients, leveraging both Auransa’s proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery platform to identify novel disease mechanisms and capabilities from the Rosalie and Harold Rae Brown Center for Cancer Drug Development at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Contact:

Vasiliki Anest, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer; Head of MESH Strategic Partnerships: vasiliki.anest@med.usc.edu

California Life Sciences

California Life Sciences (CLS) and the USC MESH Strategic Partnerships are partnering to bring a new groundbreaking opportunity to faculty entrepreneurs at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. CLS’ acclaimed FAST Advisory Program matches early-stage life sciences startups with a customized team of industry veterans to help them commercialize their discoveries. A new dedicated FAST-USC MESH track will bring these advisory services to entrepreneurs from USC as part of CLS’ expansion of the FAST program to Southern California.

The FAST Program provides select entrepreneurs with intensive team review and coaching to perfect their business model and product development plans and build a compelling commercialization strategy. Emerging innovators benefit from the advice of industry veterans –selected from a network of more than 425 professionals during the 12-week program. The program culminates with a Final FAST Showcase and Reception, where the companies present to a distinguished audience of potential investors and collaboration partners.

This opportunity is open to Keck School faculty entrepreneurs with early stage life science startups.

Contact:

Melissa J. Rodgers, PhD, Director, Corporate Collaborations and Strategic Partnerships: rodgersm@usc.edu

ChemDiv

The Rosalie and Harold Rae Brown Center for Cancer Drug Development (CCDD) at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Keck School of Medicine has partnered with ChemDiv, a recognized global leader in drug discovery solutions in a strategic service partnership to accelerate the development of groundbreaking cancer treatments.

This multi-year service agreement’s primary goal is to design, discover, and develop promising oncology therapeutic candidates through close cooperation between scientists at USC and ChemDiv, leveraging ChemDiv’s 25+ years of expertise accelerating R&D programs to higher value clinical inflection points.  ChemDiv is a fully integrated discovery and development Contract Research Organization (CRO) headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA. ChemDiv’s expertise and services cover a range of disciplines needed to bring a new project in CNS, oncology, inflammation, metabolic, infectious and other diseases from identification of a biological target (protein expression, assay development, etc) to clinical drug candidates (ADE/DMPK, toxicity and safety studies, efficacy models, etc) to Proof of Concept drug candidate (Phase I and II) and finally to the market.

Contact:

Camilo Ansarah-Sobrinho, PhD, Director, Corporate Collaborations and Strategic Partnerships: camilo.ansarah@med.usc.edu

Heal L.A.

Heal.LA is a new initiative powered by the Larta Institute. Heal.LA is a Bioscience Accelerator that identifies, nurtures, and scales top-notch bioscience enterprises to impact the health and wellness of our local and global communities.

MESH is on the steering committee and provides startup consultation to aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage life science startups.

Have an early-stage company? Contact Larta directly to receive an invitation to apply.

Contact:

Camilo Ansarah-Sobrinho, PhD, Director, Corporate Collaborations and Strategic Partnerships: camilo.ansarah@med.usc.edu

USC Iovine and Young Academy

In collaboration with the USC Iovine and Young Academy (IYA), MESH developed a new Health Innovation minor for USC undergraduates which launched in the 2019-2020 academic year.

Contact:

Armine Lulejian, EdD, MPH, CHES, Senior Director of Educational Initiatives: alulejia@usc.edu

Sanford Burnham Prebys

To accelerate the development of new therapeutics at USC, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center has partnered with Sanford Burnham Prebys. SBP’s Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (Prebys Center) is one of the most advanced drug discovery centers in the nonprofit world.

Under this agreement, USC researchers will collaborate with scientists at the Prebys Center to transition clinically relevant targets to early-stage drug discovery, including assay development and high-throughput screening to identify chemical compounds that modulate the activity of the targets

The partnership is open to all USC researchers interested in small molecule drug discovery.

Contact: 

Melissa J. Rodgers, PhD, Director, Corporate Collaborations and Strategic Partnerships: rodgersm@usc.edu

Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health

In collaboration with Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health’s General Partner and USC Alum Jay Goss, we work to expand the portfolio of external investments for USC startups and help Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health widen its investment funnel.

• MESH provides referrals to USC-affiliated healthcare and life science startups for possible investments by Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, which provides advice and feedback on their company business model, technology platform, and go-to-market strategy. Investments secured for SeqOnce Biosciences and GIBLIB

Contact:

Melissa J. Rodgers, PhD, Director, Corporate Collaborations and Strategic Partnerships: rodgersm@usc.edu