startup acceleration

Immersive startup experience for emerging life sciences entrepreneurs

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Founders Fellowship

This 12-month program offers hands-on startup experience for life sciences entrepreneurs interested in transforming ideas into business reality.

Our 2025-2026 cohort will put an emphasis on applicants with a research focus on fields relevant to aging and/or Alzheimer's disease.

Science Center Founders Fellows will receive:

  • $50K stipend for the 12-month program
  • Six months of hands-on learning punctuated with an “elder solutions” capstone project
  • Six months to focus on technology translation supported by medical faculty and aging-focused advisors.
  • Access to facilities at CIC Labs + Innovation Campus in Philadelphia.

The Fellowship will:

  • Expose founders to the aging market for their solutions in a practical and material way
  • Position founders for success in their commercialization efforts
  • Leverage government investment by increasing the likelihood of raising private capital

Meet Our Fellows

Tiara Durham

Director of Commercialization Programming

Our 2025-2026 Fellows

Grace Akinyele

Developing a bioengineered platform to preserve mitochondrial viability and function for extended periods outside living organisms.

Top Charoensombut

Engineers MENiscus Decellularized (MEND) scaffold to restore damaged meniscus tissue — a symptom that often leads to osteoarthritis and ultimately necessitates knee replacement.

Tuhin Das

Leveraging big data analysis utilizing an AI/ML platform, TYSPAR Tx has identified a unique set of biomarkers in the brains of AD patients.

Josh Freedman

Developing a digital version of the therapeutic (incentive) spirometers commonly used after surgery to help prevent postoperative pneumonia.

Thomas Tam

Developing AI-powered medication guardrails to improve care quality, productivity, and reimbursement.

Program Structure

The Fellowship includes in-person lectures, online workshops, and facilitated meetings with startups that is delivered over 12 months in two phases: Immersive Learning and Active Building.

MONTHS 1 - 6

Immersive Learning

Aging Focus

We've created an aging and longevity curriculum that gives our entrepreneur fellows insight into issues that are of concern for our aging population.

  • Dementia 1 & 2
  • Regulatory/Policy/Workforce
  • Social Determinant of Health
  • End of Life/Ethics
  • US Healthcare System
  • Chronic Dz Management
  • Functional Impairment
  • AI/Digital
  • Payment/Insurance

Entrepreneurial Focus

The fellowship integrates CEO-level skills and near-peer learning into the curriculum, alongside the essential fundamentals of business building including:

  • Technology and Market Assessment
  • IP Protection and Management
  • Raising Capital and Negotiation
  • Valuations and Deal Screening
  • Commercialization
  • Marketing and Corporate Management
months 7 - 12

Active Building

Fellows apply lessons learned from the Immersive Learning phase to transform their business concepts into a business reality. Fellows explore capital and private investment and develop a path to market.

Deliverables
  • SBIR/STTR application
  • Company legal structure definition
  • IP option or license agreement execution
  • Due diligence package development
  • Customer discovery for prototype development
  • Fundraising and partner development cultivation

Eligibility

In order to be considered, applicants must meet the following requirements:

  • An entrepreneurial concept related to life sciences and healthcare with a focus on fields relevant to aging and/or Alzheimer's disease
  • Masters degree or higher in a STEM field
  • Able to commit 20 hours per week to the Fellowship
  • Be within a reasonably commutable distance to the Science Center
  • Startup proposal demonstrating a clear market need including explanation on how the startup will be feasible, impactful, and scalable

Supporters

The Founders Fellowship is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Research and Entrepreneurial Development Immersion (REDI) program.

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Program FAQs

Questions?

Reach out to us to learn more.

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