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A Track Record of Success

Ten to fifteen years is too long for a person with a life-threatening illness to wait for a new treatment or cure, yet that is the average timeframe for potential new drugs to make it to the marketplace. Identifying the underlying cause of a disease is the first step in the drug discovery process.

In the past decade alone, Institute faculty have:

  • Made revolutionary discoveries, based on the convergence of chemistry, physics, engineering and life sciences, for detection and treatment of cancer, infertility, common and rare neurodegenerative diseases, and imaging and manipulation of cell behavior
  • Advanced 75 new drug candidates, medical devices, and diagnostics, collectively, toward clinical trials, including a new class of drugs to treat epilepsy, new compounds for psychiatric treatment, therapeutics for Wilson’s disease, and improved treatment for macular degeneration
  • Spun out 33 new companies that have received external investments exceeding $2.5 billion

And the Institute has:

  • Acquired more than 50 new instruments and created new services to accelerate transdisciplinary research
  • Developed new 21st century curricula and activities to support development of next gen scientists working across disciplinary boundaries to address the big questions in biomedical research
  • Raised more than $72 million in new external funding to support these efforts

Attracting Early Stage Investment

CLP member Susan Quaggin, Charles H. Mayo, MD, Professor of Medicine; Director, Feinberg Cardiovascular and Renal Research Institute; Chief of Nephrology and Hypertension in the Department of Medicine

Chemistry of Life Processes Institute partners with investment firms to introduce the translational research of some our most innovative faculty members to early stage biotech/pharma investors and industry leaders. These programs ensure continued financial support from the investment community that in turn drives future scientific exploration and innovation.

News

Former CLP trainee hunts for new therapies

Former CLP trainee hunts for new therapies

In his current role as an early discovery scientist at Vividion Therapeutics (recently acquired by Bayer Pharmaceuticals) Northwestern alumnus Stefan Kathman, PhD (Chemistry ’16), draws from his interdisciplinary training as a participant in the Chemistry of Life...

Life after Lyrica®

Life after Lyrica®

For most scientists, a major drug discovery happens rarely, if ever, in a lifetime. However, for Northwestern’s Richard (Rick) B. Silverman, the Patrick G. Ryan/Aon Professor, lightning struck in a big way with pregabalin, a compound he discovered in his lab....

Companies Founded by CLP Faculty

Founder: Andrew Mazar
Co-Founders: Francis Giles, Andrey Ugolkov

Founder: William Klein
Co-Founder: Grant Krafft

Founder: Richard Silverman

Founder: Lonnie Shea
Co-Founder: Stephen Miller

Founders: Steven E. Johnson, Ming Zhao

Founder: Colby Thaxton
Co-Founder: Chad Mirkin

Founder: Neil Kelleher
Co-Founder: Phil Compton

Founders: Steven Idell, Andrew Mazar

Founder: Richard Silverman
Co-Founder: Pfizer

Co-Founders: Neil Kelleher, William Metcalf, Regan Thomson

Founder: Andrew Mazar
Co-Founders: Thomas O’Halloran, Andrey Ugolkov

Founder: Vadim Backman
Co-Founders: Hemant K. Roy, Hariharan Subramanian

Founder: Thomas Meade

Founder: Vadim Backman

Co-Founders – Matthew DeLisa, Michael Jewett, Weston Kightlinger, David Mace

Founder: Thomas O’Halloran
Co-Founder: Chandler Robinson

Founder: Phillip Messersmith

Founder: Thomas Meade

Founder: Danielle Tullman-Ercek

Founders: Cheng Sun, Hao Zheng

Founder: Olga Volpert
Co-Founder: Jack Henkin

Founder: Karl Scheidt
Co-Founder: Raymond Bergan

Founder: Richard Silverman
Co-Founders: Dmitri Krainc

Founder: Jack Henkin
Co-Founders: Andrew Mazar, Olga Volpert

Founder: Guillermo Ameer
Co-Founders: Melina R. Kibbe, Antonio Webb

Founder: Thomas O’Halloran
Co-Founder: Robert Schotzinger

Northwestern Partners in Entrepreneurship

Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO)

INVO catalyzes the translation of Northwestern innovations to benefit the public and promote economic growth. In order to maximize that outcome, Northwestern follows important principles when licensing university technology.

NewCures Fund

NewCures is a Northwestern initiative that focuses on accelerating biomedical research from early discovery stages to more advanced clinical stages for the benefit of the patients. The NewCures Fund aligns with existing resources to propel promising therapies towards commercialization.

Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) advise and assist faculty and students who are launching startups and commercializing IP. They are a resource for developing business concepts, making contacts with the market, connecting to investors, and forming organizational frameworks.

Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC)

The CBC stimulates collaboration among researchers at Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and others to accelerate discovery that transforms biomedical research and improves the health of humankind.