SPARK Berlin: Enhancing Translation and Entrepreneurship in Academia

Craig Garner, Founder, SPARK-Berlin

The concept of SPARK is simple: turning good ideas into great products. It is, however, very difficult to translate an idea into a product. We need to educate researchers about what starting up a business entails and what the industry seeks. SPARK is an educational system where mentoring is provided by volunteer experts in industry who are willing to make use of their expertise for the sake of society and younger people.
SPARK was founded by Prof. Daria Mochly-Rosen of Stanford University based on her experience. After her efforts to transfer technological results achieved at the university had been refused by many major pharmaceutical companies, she started up business on her own. She then left the university for a while to fully engage in the development and eventually sold her project to Amgen for more than $300 million. She then returned to Stanford, to find that many of the research projects at the university were not progressing very well. To address this fact, she founded SPARK.
The achievements of Stanford SPARK include the completion of 73 projects out of 110 programs during the last decade. 31 projects are now in the clinical trial phase. Inspired by these achievements, SPARK programs have been established throughout the world to share learning. SPARK-Berlin, one of such programs, was established three years ago.
Unlike at Stanford, the consciousness of researchers in the Berlin area is not directed to commercialization. There is no ecosystem, and insufficient educational and mentoring programs. In the last three years, SPARK-Berlin has made various efforts, including education, project management, advice by experts, and establishment of a global network. Our efforts to establish an ecosystem are still ongoing, but multiple projects have already been launched.
To replicate SPARK, you will need elements such as the development of champion projects, experienced program directors, volunteer mentors, collaboration with TLO, core facilities, and funds. The key to achieving effective development programs lies in collaboration with a wide range of people.

[Speaker Profile]
Prof. Craig Garner received his doctoral degree in Biochemistry at Purdue University and did his postdoctoral studies at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, CH and was a junior group leader at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology in Hamburg. His most recent faculty appointment was at Stanford University as Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, where he co-directed the Stanford Down syndrome Center. In 2014, he became a Scientist/co-Speaker of the DZNE-Berlin: German Center for Neurodegenerative diseases and Professor at the Charité -Universitätsmedizin Berlin. In 2015, he co-founded SPARK-Berlin to help educate academic scholars about translation and entrepreneurship. He has also founded three biotech companies, "Balance Therapeutics" and "Stealth Biosciences" and Navan Technologies. He maintains an active basic research program focused on the molecular and physiological mechanisms of synapse assembly and function in health and neurodegenerative diseases.
SPARK BERLIN website: http://www.spark-bih-berlin.org/

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