Stanford Medicine and Northpond Ventures Announce the Launch of The Northpond Laboratories - Program for Research and Innovation at Stanford Medicine

The Program Will Translate Scientific Discoveries Out of the Lab and Into Clinical and Commercial Applications

STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stanford Medicine and Northpond Ventures announced the launch of The Northpond Laboratories - Program for Research and Innovation at Stanford Medicine. The program seeks to identify and build upon the scientific discoveries and innovations developed by Stanford Medicine's leading faculty and researchers and accelerate the pace of translation between scientific research to clinical and commercial applications that improve patient outcomes through the vehicle of entrepreneurship. Northpond Labs, the research and development-focused affiliate of Northpond Ventures, will fund this five-year engagement.

In addition to its central role in computer and information technology for over 50 years, the Stanford Medicine community has had a rich history of creating foundational scientific discoveries and innovation in the life sciences including DNA cloning, fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), functional antibodies, and non-invasive prenatal testing. Through successful commercialization, each innovation has become a cornerstone technology in creating better medicines, understanding diseases, and treating patients.

The program aims to build upon this storied legacy by collaborating with Stanford Medicine to create the future generation of transformative life science technologies across computational biology, diagnostics, R&D solutions, biomanufacturing, and therapeutics. By leveraging Stanford Medicine’s strengths as an academic medical center, it will allow scientists to maximize the impact of their research, including translation to industry and clinical care in collaboration with Northpond Labs.

“We are honored to join forces with Northpond Ventures,” said Dr. Robert Harrington, Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford Medicine. “In the Department of Medicine, we are committed to translational science and taking innovations from bench to bedside. This program will provide our physicians and patients with access to cutting-edge clinical research and diagnostic tools. Moreover, the collaboration with Northpond will allow scientific discoveries that come out of the program to be rapidly commercialized and made available to the broader healthcare community.

“It is a privilege to join Stanford Medicine in launching this new program to identify early-stage research that is translatable, impactful, and scientifically significant,” said Mike Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., CFA, Founder and CEO of Northpond Ventures. “As an important entrepreneurial collaborator in Stanford’s ecosystem, we look forward to enabling scientific research and helping to prepare new discoveries to move into industry and positively impact patients' and families' lives.”

Markus Covert, Professor of Bioengineering, will serve as Stanford’s Department of Bioengineering faculty lead. This collaboration will also include a joint steering committee composed of members from both Northpond and Stanford, where Northpond Ventures Founder Michael Rubin will serve as a co-chair.

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu.

About Northpond Ventures

Northpond Ventures is a multi-billion-dollar science-driven venture capital firm based in Cambridge, MA; San Francisco, CA; and Bethesda, MD. Northpond has consistently been named one of the most active lead life science investors in venture industry rankings. It is deeply engaged in the academic ecosystem, having founded The Laboratory for Bioengineering Research and Innovation at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, launched the MIT-Northpond Program - Advancing Life Science & Engineering Innovation, and sponsored a prize for women entrepreneurs at MIT. It has led or co-led over 60 financings over the past several years and sits on the board of the vast majority of these businesses. Learn more at npv.vc.