As part of a signature goal of the University System of Maryland (USM) Strategic Plan 2020 to increase technology commercialization efforts, the USM Board of Regents honored three faculty members today with the inaugural USM Board of Regents Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
The ceremony, held in the new John and Frances Angelos Law Center at the University of Baltimore (UB), honored Neil Goldsman and Martin Peckerar, professors in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), and Scott Strome, a professor and chair of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
“We are delighted to recognize these three outstanding entrepreneurs. Their innovative work, and the establishment of this annual event, reflects so well on the opportunities before us as the USM makes technology commercialization a priority throughout our institutions,” Gary L. Attman, chair of the Board of Regents Committee on Economic Development and Technology Commercialization. “We want the world to know that the USM is open for business.”
Strome, a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Harvard University Medical School, came to the University of Maryland School of Medicine from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Strome is a founding scientist and co-founder of Gliknik, Inc., located in the UMB BioPark. Founded in 2007, Gliknik is a biopharmaceutical company creating new therapies for patients with cancer and immune disorders. Gliknik’s expertise is based on adaptations to the immune system to fight disease.
Strome is developing several technologies, invented at UMB, including therapeutic vaccines that potentially represent a simple, safe, and inexpensive approach to prolong the lives of cancer patients by training the immune system against the malignancies. Gliknik has raised $15 million in equity and $3 million in non-dilutive capital. Gliknik collaborates closely with the UMB Office of Research and Development and the new UM Ventures.