{"id":99,"date":"2008-11-11T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T12:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=99"},"modified":"2021-11-19T14:54:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T14:54:26","slug":"organic-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/organic-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic Chemistry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bulb\"<\/a>They are among the nation\u2019s most compelling potential customers\u2014 the nearly 100,000 men, women and children who are in line for the fewer than 30,000 organ transplants that will be performed this year. That staggering gap is caused both by a scarcity of donors and by the fact that only 70 to 80 percent of the organs actually harvested can be utilized because of problems with quality or preservation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The work of four members of the Vanderbilt Executive MBA Class of 2008 may help change the latter half of that equation. Their start-up proposal, developed for an Owen classroom and aimed at bringing to market a system that would better preserve donated organs, has earned the top prize in a prestigious business competition and has begun moving them toward the marketplace.<\/p>\n

Classroom Origins<\/h2>\n

The company, Organ Transplant Technology (OTT), began attracting real-world interest while it was still a project in Bruce Lynskey\u2019s entrepreneurial course, Creating and Launching the Venture, during Owen\u2019s fall 2007 semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn seven years of teaching at Owen,\u201d says Professor Lynskey, himself a successful entrepreneur, \u201cI can count on one hand the number of classroom projects I\u2019ve seen with this much potential upside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three panels of judges agreed with him. The OTT proposal wowed a group of venture capitalists brought in by Lynskey to rate student projects, reached the semifinals of the Wharton Business Plan Competition, then took top prize in the MBA Jungle Business Plan Competition in New York. For the team that developed and pitched the idea\u2014Dr. Ravi Chari, Ted Klee, Drew Bordas and Fernando Sanchez\u2014those milestones served as validation of both the quality of their teamwork and the importance of the concept itself.<\/p>\n

\n

We realized this was more than just a classroom project or a competition. This is something that can really save people\u2019s lives.
\n~ Fernando Sanchez<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe realized this was more than just a classroom project or a competition,\u201d says Sanchez, who is Vice President of Finance and Treasurer of Gibson Guitar Corp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that can really save\u00a0people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is the culmination of two years of teamwork for Sanchez; Klee, who is Vice President of Square D\/Schneider Electric Co.; Bordas, Director of Warehouse Management Systems for Ingram Book; and Chari, Professor of Surgery and Cancer Biology and Division Chief of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The four were assigned to the team by Associate Dean of Executive Programs Tami Fassinger, who cites their disparate backgrounds as a source of strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of the study groups is to approximate all the skills you\u2019d have in the executive suite,\u201d she says, \u201cand with this group you\u2019ve got people representing four areas of functional experience as well as four different industries. Fernando Sanchez comes from the world of musical instruments and played the role of finance guy. You\u2019ve got Ted Klee, who is the quintessential engineer and who understands manufacturing and operations. You have Drew Bordas, who understands distribution from a service industry point of view and has got the consumer piece. And then Ravi is the doctor at a leading medical center, bringing the scientific piece and contacts in the health industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The quartet clicked at the week-in-residence at New Harmony, Ind., a getaway that kicks off the Vanderbilt Executive MBA experience, developing a style that was part think tank, part frat house.<\/p>\n

\"Professors\"<\/a>
From left, Dr. Ravi Chari, Ted Klee, Drew Bordas and Fernando Sanchez are the team behind Organ Transplant Technology.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re big practical jokers and very sarcastic,\u201d says Fassinger, \u201cbut they genuinely enjoy each other\u2019s company and have become very good friends. It was just that typical guy thing\u2014making fun of each other, but out of respect. It was about all four of them getting the idea right.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Better Solution<\/h2>\n

They used first-year projects to hone their group approach, then weighed ideas for Lynskey\u2019s class during the summer between academic years. The one they chose grew out of Dr. Chari\u2019s work as head of Vanderbilt Medical Center\u2019s liver transplant surgery team.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently,\u201d says Dr. Chari, \u201cof the 40,000 to 50,000 potential donors, more than half are excluded because of concerns with organ preservation and quality. Of those that are harvested, 20 to 30 percent are not actually used, again because of concerns about preservation and quality. It is critical that organs are optimally recovered and stored.\u201d That led him to the work of a European friend who was \u201chaving trouble commercializing a project that from a scientific standpoint had a lot of merit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project took aim at improving the decidedly low-tech means now in use for transporting donated organs, which are placed in a solution in a zipped plastic bag and carried on ice in a portable cooler. That technique risks damage to the organ through freezing or temperature variation, and greatly limits the sustained viability of a donated organ. At present the limits are six hours for a heart, 12 for a lung or liver, and 24 to 30 for a kidney. Work done in part by Dr. Thomas Van Gulik of the University of Amsterdam brings two improvements to the process. The first is a system driven by compressed air that circulates the solution through the organ, constantly supplying it with oxygen and nutrients designed to prolong its useful life. The second is an improvement in the perfusion solution itself. Both can be used in an easily portable container that keeps the organ at a stable low temperature.<\/p>\n

In addition, one of Dr. Chari\u2019s colleagues at Vanderbilt, medical student Clayton Knox, had developed and patented with\u00a0Dr. Chari a compound designed to improve the performance of the perfusion solution even further.<\/p>\n

The others embraced Dr. Chari\u2019s proposal enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

\u201cRavi\u2019s idea surfaced pretty quickly because it was real,\u201d says Bordas. \u201cIt was no contest, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bordas, Klee and Sanchez all acknowledge the centrality of Dr. Chari\u2019s role and the importance of his technical knowledge and contacts, but Dr. Chari himself is quick\u00a0to return credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a logistics standpoint,\u201d he says, \u201cDrew is outstanding. Ted is all over the strategy and the operations side, and Fernando is great with the financial side, so each brought different areas and perspectives. A good thing about them is that they aren\u2019t in the medical field, and they brought a real business perspective and asked demanding questions: \u2018The science is good, but how can we monetize the idea so that it\u2019s something people would actually buy?\u2019 They pressed those issues further than a roomful of my colleagues would, and so we were able to turn a great idea into a marketable business plan people would be interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strength of the team and its presentation was clear by late November, when Lynskey had his students present a working draft of the proposal, weeks before their\u00a0final presentation.<\/p>\n

\n

They submitted their draft, and I brought it home and read it again and again, looking for something I could say was wrong with it. My only comment back to them was, \u201cYou need a nice presentation cover for this.\u201d I\u2019d never seen anything like it.
\n~ Professor Bruce Lynskey<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cRavi\u2019s team submitted its draft, and I brought it home and read it again and again, looking for something I could say was wrong with it,\u201d says Lynskey, \u201cand my only comment back to them was, \u2018You need a nice presentation cover for this.\u2019 I\u2019d never seen anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time of the in-class, end-of-semester presentation to a six-member panel of venture capitalists, the team\u2019s message had been finely honed. Each panelist had $5 million dollars in imaginary money to distribute among 10 team proposals, and OTT garnered about two-thirds of the $30 million available.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they started talking about our proposal,\u201d says Sanchez, \u201cI turned to Ravi and said, \u2018You\u2019d better give them your business card. This thing has legs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

From Competition to Market<\/h2>\n

The team had already entered the Wharton Business Plan Competition, which requires that one member of the team be pursuing a Wharton MBA. That was exactly what Knox, who was still working toward his M.D. at Vanderbilt, was doing, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Dr. Chari.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized,\u201d Knox says, \u201cthat in academia, there are all these great minds and great ideas, but not a lot of people know how to get them out of the lab. Scientists are much better at thinking up new ideas than commercializing them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Lynskey\u2019s course had guided them toward doing just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never would have gotten this far had we not been in a program that forced us to think the project through and commit it to paper,\u201d says Klee. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think any of the guys in the group ever would think about doing something like this on his own, but put us together as a group, each with our own sets of talent and experience, with the university training us around these aspects important to developing a business plan, and it\u2019s not that long of a putt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their success continued as they were named semifinalists in the Wharton competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that announcement came out,\u201d says Bordas, \u201cThe Wall Street Journal<\/em> piece cited five ideas and ours was one of the five. Some of the judges said it was the best paper they\u2019d seen in five years, and we said, \u2018We should think about this more seriously.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They had entered the Jungle competition at the urging of Professor Lynskey. Their win capped an incredible run for what had begun as a classroom project and convinced them to pursue the company\u2019s future, beginning with a return visit to Lynskey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about Bruce,\u201d says Bordas, \u201cis that he\u2019s been there and done that. When you have a guy teaching you about starting companies who has started them and been very successful at it, that just gives the whole course a ton of credibility. And when we went back to him and said, \u2018This looks real. What should we really do next?,\u2019 he was able to have that dialogue with us. That\u2019s one of the things you get by going to a university like Vanderbilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team has never lost sight of the underlying importance of the endeavor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more often, less-than-ideal organs are used, which is an unfortunate but necessary practice to manage the long waiting list,\u201d they write in their business plan. \u201cUltimately, OTT\u2019s goal is to improve the size and quality of the organ pool available for transplantation in order to increase the number of transplants performed each year and reduce the organ waitlist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear,\u201d adds Dr. Chari, \u201cthat we\u2019re excited about moving ahead with this work and with ironing out the agreements we need to get under way.\u201d To that end, they are working to effect an agreement with the Amsterdam-based developer of the solution and the air-drive system, while awaiting approval of both in the United States and the chance to deliver the concept to a waiting marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the significant liver transport units around the country are eager to get it and put it into trials,\u201d says Klee.<\/p>\n

A Rewarding Experience<\/h2>\n

The value of the team\u2019s Owen experience has become more apparent, with Dr. Chari seeing his MBA as a key to better positioning in a changing\u00a0medical climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the landscape of health care right now,\u201d he says, \u201ca premium is being placed on improved processes and improved function in the medical field. Traditional medical education gears you toward science and clinical applications for patients, but cost efficiency, process efficiency and other business principles constitute an important language to be able to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Owen experience, he says, \u201cchanged not only how I think but how I analyze a situation\u2014not just what information to use, but what questions to ask and where to look for that information.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Knox, who is part of OTT\u2019s management team, the project\u2019s success is \u201cextremely rewarding and extremely validating in terms of the need for people who can understand both worlds, who can understand medicine and the business side of it\u2014something Vanderbilt is especially good at fostering.\u201d<\/p>\n

As noble as the medical aims of OTT are, its principals are equally thrilled with the personal rewards of their Owen experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great class,\u201d says Bordas. \u201cMeeting those 40 or 50 people, I think, is going to pay dividends down the road. And within our group, I\u2019m very grateful to have that core set of people you can bounce things off of. I consider them very good friends as well as mentors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those friendships are likewise a prime reward for Sanchez.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost,\u201d he says, \u201cI now have three or four people who I consider great friends for life. They are just good people from varying backgrounds, and I wouldn\u2019t have met them any other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience,\u201d he says, \u201cis a great one from a personal standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They are among the nation\u2019s most compelling potential customers\u2014 the nearly 100,000 men, women and children who are in line for the fewer than 30,000 organ transplants that will be performed this year. That staggering gap is caused both by a scarcity of donors and by the fact that only 70 to 80 percent of the organs actually harvested can be utilized because of problems with quality or preservation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369,"featured_media":9089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3,21],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-fall2008","tag-submain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10834,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/10834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}