University at Buffalo School of Management

Now, as president and founder of the Hempling Foundation for Homocystinuria Research, established in honor of two of her sisters who died from the rare meta- bolic genetic disease, she has funded a proof-of-concept study for a treatment that was then licensed by a biotech firm and has shown up to a 67% reduction in homocyste- ine in the first phase of human testing. Today, that therapy is in phase three clinical trials, moving closer to market as manufacturing processes are scaled up. But, even as she sees technologies and therapies showing promise, the challenge isn't just scientific, it's financial. "The strategy of most rare disease foundations like mine is to fund proof-of-concept studies, oen at research-based universities, which may then lead to funding and in-licensing from biotech or pharma to make the investments to bring these products to market. Technologies like gene editing hold promise across many disease areas," she says. "But what I'm worried about is that funding isn't available to bring those products to market because the ROI isn't there. Some rare diseases have 40 patients globally. You don't want to raise families' hopes when it is unclear who will pay to bring the treat- ments to life." Funding bold ideas Executives across the industry are oen faced with financing challenges. This includes Kodiak's Borgeson in each of his roles with pre-commercial biotech companies. "If it is a value-added activity, we really lean into that, and we try to not let short-term financing constraints get in the way of long-term advancements," Borgeson says. And, a new generation of venture capital firms are stepping up, with funding as well as a deep understanding of the science and a willingness to bet on bold ideas. When David Fallace, MBA '99, co-founded Cure Ventures, he had more than 20 years of experience investing in private equity, hedge and venture portfolios for multi- billion-dollar institutions, through leadership roles at Polaris Partners, TIFF Investment Management, the Alaska Permanent Fund and more. Fallace launched the $350 million biotech fund to focus on ground-breaking cura- tive technologies and offer seed funding to promising startups. Fallace Leveraging management skills for biomedical research W hen Dominic Sellitto asks his management students, "What if we could use artificial intelligence to better understand how radiation affects human health and help cure disease?" he is encouraging them to think boldly and apply management principles in new and meaningful ways. Sellitto's new mindset is thanks to a $1.5 million, three-year grant awarded by the Department of Energy for AI-assisted biomedical research. The project, a collaboration between the UB Hauptman-Woodward Research Institute and the School of Management, is changing how students see the role of management. "Our research allows students to envision alternate career paths by taking what management is really good at — operationalizing, applying and solving problems for business — and bringing it to scientific research," says Sellitto, clinical associate professor of management science and systems. "It is the same as what we would do for any other business we consult for: build a product or solution." The idea for the collaboration began during a conversation between Sellitto and Edward Snell, chief scientific officer at UB-HWI, in 2023. Their project combines UB-HWI's expertise in structural biology with the School of Management's strength in applied problem-solving to use AI to study how cells and molecules respond to low doses of radiation. The project is part of the Low Dose Radiation Research program, which supports research to develop disease risk prediction and understand its role in cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, immune dysfunction and cataract formation, and in the longer term, inform radiation protection measures for the public and the workplace. 12 Buffalo Business | AI AND BUSINESS ANALYTICS SOCIAL IMPACT OF MANAGEMENT BUSINESS OF CLIMATE CHANGE INNOVATION, ENTREPREURSHP AND LEADERSHIP

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