By Lisa Ogawa McLean: Congratulations to Dr. John Deacon from the Engelman Lab for winning 1 of 4 prizes at this year’s Yale Lifesciences Pitchfest! Pitchfest is an annual competition among Yale scientists hosted by the Office for Cooperative Research and sponsored by the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale. To participate in Pitchfest a pre-proposal application that includes a pitchdeck for a groundbreaking and commercially compelling investment is required. Semifinalists are then selected to compete in front of a panel of judges and biotech industry leaders. On December 12th, 31 applicants competed and Deacon took home the prize for Best Presentation. Finalists for the $300,000 grand prize will be selected in January.
Deacon is an Associate Research Scientist in Don Engelman’s lab and Founder and President of the company Cytosolix . Cytosolix aims to develop novel, targeted cancer therapies through their Tumor Activated Permeability (TAP) platform by exploiting the inherent acidity of solid tumors.