Elham Hatami (P2, Memphis) was part of a joint team that won the Memphis Scipreneur Challenge (MSC) in March.
Hatami’s team project was about a nanotechnology for delivering a drug to eye tissue for treating glaucoma, a potent eye drop which was named Oculmulsion. The intellectual property is under patent process by Dr. Monica M. Jablonski from UTHSC. The team competed with five other groups and won a cash prize.
The MSC is an entrepreneurship-based competition organized by LifeSciTN’s Mid-South Academic Alliance in collaboration with Memphis Bioworks, University of Memphis (UofM), University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (SJCRH). It is an eight-week training and outreach program that showcases STEM-related intellectual properties being generated at Memphis’ premier research institutions and provide entrepreneurship training to students and postdoctoral fellows. The participating teams, comprised of research scientists, business students, clinicians and mentors present a business plan and compete to win prizes in a final pitch competition, judged by the Memphis business community.