Why do so many promising scientific discoveries never become real medicines?

In this episode of Biomedical Frontiers Dr. Mark Esser, Chief Scientific Officer of the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Virginia, describes one of the biggest challenges in healthcare innovation: the translational valley of death.

Dr. Esser explains how the Manning Institute is being built to bridge the gap between academic discovery and patient-ready therapies. Drawing on decades of experience in industry, he shares how infrastructure, cross-disciplinary teams, regulatory expertise, and new funding models are essential to turning science into medicine.

The conversation explores:
Why promising biomedical research often stalls before reaching patients
How the Manning Institute’s Accelerate, Create, Educate (ACE) model is designed to overcome these barriers
A real-world case study of a novel sepsis therapy entering clinical trials
What this effort means for the future of drug discovery and Virginia’s growing biotech ecosystem

Follow Dr. Mark Esser on Social Media
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-esser-0b152b2/
Email: mark.esser@virginia.edu
Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology (University of Virginia)
https://manninginstitute.virginia.edu
UVA Licensing & Ventures
https://lvg.virginia.edu/
Resources:
Recommended Book: “A Practical Guide to Drug Development in Academia” https://catalog.nlm.nih.gov/permalink/01NLM_INST/vdtut1/alma9916234173406676
SPARK Drug Discovery Model (Stanford)
https://sparkmed.stanford.edu
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Director & Host: Dasha Tyshlek, StratCraft, Inc. www.strat-craft.com
Executive Producer: David Chen, Managing Director & Instructor of Engineering Design, UVA
Senior Producer: Hannah Moore, Associate Director, UVA Coulter
Design Director: Carolyn Wagner, Inc. & Link: carolynwagnerinc.com

Produced on behalf of Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research at University of Virginia https://engineering.virginia.edu/centers-institutes/coulter-center-translational-research