{"id":39277,"date":"2021-08-09T09:59:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T13:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/?p=39277"},"modified":"2021-08-09T09:52:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T13:52:21","slug":"cassera-named-summer-2021-innovation-fellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/cassera-named-summer-2021-innovation-fellow\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassera named summer 2021 Innovation Fellow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associate professor Belen Cassera<\/a> is one step closer to introducing her research to the marketplace. Having spent the summer as UGA\u2019s newest Innovation Fellow<\/a>, Cassera has learned a lot about how to bring parasitic disease therapeutics arising from her research to market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fall 2019, I was among the 18 chosen women from UGA who participated in the inaugural Innovation Bootcamp, where we learned about the Innovation Fellow program, among several other opportunities designed to guide faculty seeking to commercialize their discoveries,\u201d said Cassera, an associate professor in biochemistry and molecular biology and member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases<\/a>. \u201cThe bootcamp was the \u2018switch on\u2019 I needed to refocus my research, and being chosen as an Innovation Fellow is the \u2018takeoff\u2019 of this new journey for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassera\u2019s research focuses primarily on the discovery and development of novel anti-parasitic drugs, aiming to understand how therapeutics work at the biochemical and cellular levels. A month into her fellowship, Cassera is already gaining new insight into the commercialization process and how it can inform her approach to research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have experienced a great transformation in my research goals,\u201d she said. \u201cIn every aspect that we have addressed, I see a translation back to my lab\u2014everything is connected. For instance, I now understand how to utilize knowledge and resources that we already have to expand and grow into other areas that will bring in more funding, new knowledge and potentially new products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Launched in 2019 as part of UGA\u2019s Innovation District initiative, the Innovation Fellows program encourages faculty and staff to pursue commercialization and development of their research through Innovation Gateway<\/a>. Fellows are trained in how to successfully translate their research projects into a marketable products, receive mentorship from a fellow faculty and\/or industry partner, and receive up $10,000 to support their activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelen is a very technical person with a very precise end goal in mind,\u201d said Ian Biggs, director of programming for the Innovation District and director of Innovation Gateway\u2019s startup program. \u201cThe goal of the Gateway team is to provide her with the tools, expertise and guidance she needs to turn her vision into a commercialized reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Innovation Fellows program, the future is not only bright for Cassera\u2019s research, but also for the rest of her academic career as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe insights and knowledge I\u2019ve gained from this fellowship will help me substantially improve my teaching, training and mentoring of students pursuing their careers in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Applications for the 2021 fall cohort<\/a> are now open. The deadline to apply is Aug. 15.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associate professor Belen Cassera is one step closer to introducing her research to the marketplace. Having spent the summer as UGA\u2019s newest Innovation Fellow, Cassera has learned a lot about how to bring parasitic disease therapeutics arising from her research to market. \u201cIn fall 2019, I was among the 18 chosen women from UGA who … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Cassera named summer 2021 Innovation Fellow”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":39279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"post_medium":[314],"publications":[],"authors":[376],"photographers":[],"video_credit":[],"takeaways":[],"class_list":["post-39277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","post_medium-read","authors-ashley-crain","entry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"post_medium","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_medium?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"photographers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photographers?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"video_credit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/video_credit?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"takeaways","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/takeaways?post=39277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}