Translational Academy nurtures talent and technology

In 2020, as a biochemistry doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill, Brianna Vickerman made the kind of lab breakthrough scientists dream about — a new way to control the precise location, timing and dosing of a drug using light-activated materials. Her innovation could potentially revolutionize treatment for all sorts of conditions, from life-threatening blood clots to cancer.

Though she dreamed of launching a company and creating a therapeutic platform to benefit patients, Vickerman was trained as a scientist, not an entrepreneur. She needed to learn how to commercialize her research, a process known as translational science. Enter the Eshelman Innovation Translational Academy.

The Translational Academy provides entrepreneurial education and support for innovators and early-career faculty. It’s based in the reality that turning a lab discovery into a beneficial healthcare product or service can be a long and arduous journey riddled with risk. Most startups fail — up to 90%, according to some estimates. The Translational Academy improves entrepreneurial outcomes through a mix of talent development and structured translational support in an incubator setting.

Rising to 30 Under 30

Vickerman, who made her discovery while training with UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Professor David Lawrence, continued her light-activated therapy research as a postdoc, but as that appointment came to an end, she faced a career crossroads. Should she form a spinout company? Drop her research altogether for an industry job offering career security? The Translational Academy gave Vickerman another option: It promoted her to a faculty position and surrounded her with translational expertise and dedicated support.

The Academy paired Vickerman with a senior leadership mentor and allowed her to recruit her own advisory board of drug development and industry experts, who counsel her on technology, commercial considerations and regulatory pathways.

For example, as Vickerman struggled to envision preclinical and clinical pathways for her pioneering technology platform, she turned to one of her advisors, the co-founder of a Research Triangle biotechnology company that develops regenerative human tissue. That company overcame a similar regulatory challenge, becoming the first to receive FDA approval for a bioengineered blood vessel. Her advisor’s advice? Sometimes there is no clearcut path. That’s what makes innovation exciting. But if you think outside the box and work with FDA expertise, you can find your solution. 

“Having mentors like that has made all the difference,” Vickerman says. “Eshelman Innovation provided the crucial funding and support to allow me to grow professionally while advancing an early-stage technology. The unique combination of financial support, mentorship and connections has been instrumental in moving our technology forward and preparing it for market success.”

The project has raised more than $4 million in grant funding to date. For her promising research into light-activated therapeutics, Forbes named Vickerman one of North America’s 30 most accomplished scientists under the age of 30 in 2025. None of that would have been possible without the Translational Academy.

“What differentiates the Translational Academy is its dual focus on talent and technology,” says Eshelman Innovation Acting Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer Roy Zwahlen. “It enables talented scientists to grow into entrepreneurial leaders while advancing specific healthcare technologies toward commercial success.”

Building a Carolina Core

One goal of the Translational Academy is to prevent innovations from failing by spinning out of the University too early. That was the case with Academy alumnus Andrew Satterlee, a cancer survivor turned Carolina cancer researcher who developed an innovative way to use tumor samples as a platform for personalized treatment planning and drug discovery.

As Satterlee battled brain cancer, his doctors disagreed on what treatments he should receive. Now, his program collects brain tumor tissues from patients getting surgery at UNC hospitals and treats the still-living tumors with a broad range of therapies in his lab. The goal of his program is to help match the right drug to the right patient — either by determining what drug is most effective against a patient’s own tumor or by using these collected tumors as preclinical testing models to refine the next generation of therapies. 

Like Vickerman, Satterlee was eager to launch a company but lacking in entrepreneurial expertise. Through a grant and a gift from the Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2) philanthropy, the Translational Academy provided Satterlee funding, a faculty position and a team of advisors.

“Eshelman innovation helps you find your way to the resources you need,” says Max Wallace, former CEO of ABC2. “Some of that’s money, but some of that is advising.”

The advisory team helped Satterlee create the Screening Live Cancer Explants Program and Core, one of UNC-Chapel Hill’s shared research facilities. The core has had immediate success supporting Carolina researchers, including helping Nobel Laureate Aziz Sancar develop a new brain cancer drug, and has attracted commercial clients who use it for drug discovery.

“Eshelman Innovation provided me a unique home to build an audacious and unconventional program at the interface of academia and industry,” says Satterlee, Eshelman Innovation assistant professor and the core’s director. “They provided the infrastructure and expertise to help me incubate and shape that vision into the program that exists today.”

In March, the Translational Academy promoted medicinal chemist Anwar Hossain from postdoc to assistant professor. The latest Academy fellow, Hossain is working to develop a promising chikungunya drug at a time when cases of the mosquito-borne viral disease are spiking around the world. And Eshelman Innovation is there with him, supporting both talent and technology.