You have promising science. But is there actually a commercial opportunity behind it?

And if you’re considering moving from scientist to entrepreneur, how do you know whether your research has the ingredients for a biotech company?

Dr Laura Issa has spent years evaluating science through an industry and business development lens.

She is the founder of Bespoke Genetic Medicines and co-founder of Facio Biotech, with experience across pharma, biotech, research commercialisation and rare disease.

In this conversation, Laura gives us a practical framework for assessing the commercial potential of scientific research.

We start with what she looks for when academics pitch their research to industry. Good science alone isn’t enough.

Researchers need to understand what makes their approach meaningfully different, the competitive landscape, their intellectual property strategy and the evidence required to support their claims.

We also discuss when to seek industry feedback, why talking to patients, clinicians and payers early can change your research strategy, and when market research should begin. Spoiler: probably earlier than many scientists think.

Then we tackle the biotech spin-out question.

Laura shares five factors she considers when assessing whether academic research could become a viable biotech company, including unmet need, intellectual property, capital requirements, stage of development and the people needed to take it forward.

And importantly, starting a company isn’t automatically the answer. Sometimes licensing, partnering with industry or remaining in academia longer is the better development strategy.

We also explore why Laura remains optimistic about drug development in neurology despite its history of clinical failures, including the growing role of human-derived models, biomarkers, genomic and clinical datasets, and new approaches to generating evidence.

Finally, we move to a very different commercialisation problem: ultra-rare genetic disease.

Laura explains why conventional drug development economics can break down when a potential treatment may serve fewer than 100 people, and why these therapies may require completely different funding and development models.

In this episode:

• How to assess the commercial potential of academic research
• What industry looks for when scientists pitch a biotech opportunity
• Differentiation, competitive landscape and IP strategy
• When scientists should seek feedback from industry
• Why patient, clinician and payer insights matter early
• Five factors to consider before creating a biotech spin-out
• When licensing or partnering may make more sense than starting a company
• Balancing patents, publication and academic incentives
• Why drug development in neurology may be entering a different era
• The challenge of developing treatments for ultra-rare genetic diseases
• Why patient need and commercial viability are not always the same thing

This episode is Part 3 of a six-part series exploring the path from academic research to biotech and drug development, based on conversations from the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum in Sydney.

Across the series, scientists, biotech entrepreneurs, industry experts and technology transfer professionals unpack what it takes to move promising research beyond the lab and towards patients.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

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What happens when scientists stop presenting their research to other scientists and put it in front of biotech and drug development experts instead?

The questions change.

Suddenly it isn’t only, “Does the science work?”

It’s also: Who is the patient? What is the indication? What evidence do you need next? What could stop this programme? Who needs to partner with you? And what would a credible path to the clinic actually look like?

In this episode, Professor Greg Neely and Dr Jean Bertoldo share what happened when they pitched their research to industry experts at the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum ( ARCS conference 2026)

Their projects are at very different stages.

Prof Greg Neely is combining established biology and delivery technologies to explore new neurological applications.

Dr. Jean Bertoldo is working much earlier, building evidence around new biology in childhood brain cancer.

Both walked away with questions that changed how they thought about their drug development roadmap.

We also speak with Dr Gorjana Mitic about technology transfer and the role tech transfer professionals can play in helping scientists move promising academic research towards licensing, partnering or a biotech spin-out.

Gorjana takes us behind the scenes of a tech transfer office, including why promising projects can get stuck, what technology transfer teams actually assess, and what scientists can do to make their research easier to champion.

You’ll hear about:

• How industry feedback can expose blind spots in a drug development plan
• Moving from an interesting scientific project to a credible path towards the clinic
• How scientists can think about indication selection and development strategy
• Why biotech development requires partners and capabilities beyond the academic lab
• What technology transfer offices actually do
• Why academics and tech transfer teams sometimes clash
• What makes academic research easier for a tech transfer team to champion
• How scientists can prepare for commercialisation, licensing or a biotech spin-out

This episode is Part 2 of a six-part series exploring the path from academic research to biotech and drug development, based on conversations from the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum in Sydney.

Across the series, we hear from scientists, biotech entrepreneurs, technology transfer professionals and industry experts about the decisions, evidence and people needed to give promising research its best chance of reaching patients.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Should your research become a medicine? And if it has commercial potential, should you be the scientist who takes it forward?

For academics considering the move from scientist to entrepreneur, that decision starts well before forming a biotech company.

In this episode, we explore how to assess academic research through a commercialisation and drug development lens. Professor Michael Kassiou, Dr Laura Issa and Dr Gorjana Mitic share what industry, investors and tech transfer teams look for when evaluating research with translational potential.

We discuss how an industry pitch differs from an academic presentation, when to seek industry feedback without compromising intellectual property, and the questions researchers need to answer around unmet need, differentiation, competitive landscape and IP.

We also look at a decision that is sometimes skipped entirely: does this research actually need a biotech spin-out?

Dr Laura Issa breaks down five factors to consider, including clinical need, intellectual property, capital requirements, stage of development and the people behind the project. We explore when staying within academia, licensing or partnering with industry may be a better route than starting a company.

You’ll hear about:

• How to assess whether academic research has commercial potential
• What biotech investors and industry experts want to understand beyond the science
• How to pitch research to industry rather than an academic audience
• When to seek industry feedback and how to protect your IP
• Why competitive landscape and differentiation matter early
• When a biotech spin-out makes sense, and when it doesn’t
• Licensing, partnering and other routes to research translation
• Why some important medicines may need philanthropic or alternative funding models

This episode is Part 1 of a six-part series exploring the path from academic research to biotech and drug development, based on conversations from the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum in Sydney, happening at the ARCS conference.

The series brings together scientists, biotech entrepreneurs, industry experts and technology transfer professionals to examine what it actually takes to move promising science towards patients.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.