Commercialization Fellowship Welcome Five New PhD Students to Further Develop Research
The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation welcomes five new University of Chicago PhD students to its Commercialization Fellowship program, which offers students the opportunity to create new ventures around promising research and develop leadership skills during a competitive fellowship.
Announced last year, the Fellowship was created to give PhD students the opportunity to dedicate focused time to exploring entrepreneurship. “With the support of their faculty advisors, these students are working toward bringing some of the University’s most promising research from the lab to the world,” said Samir Mayekar, associate vice president and managing director of the Polsky Center.
The structured, milestone-driven program supports students in translating their research into real-world impact through a comprehensive 8-month experience. It is designed to teach PhD students how to apply and commercialize their research, while giving them and their faculty advisors access to targeted venture creation resources and networking opportunities through the Polsky Center.
“This cohort of Fellows is developing exciting technologies that have the potential to make a tremendous impact on people’s lives. This fellowship is truly a team effort across the Polsky Center to support the students in exploring opportunities to translate their science to the market,” said Ellen Zatkowski, director of science programs and student engagement at the Polsky Center.
Cohort 2 Fellows:
Isabel Alcazar // Isabel Alcazar is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in the Cancer Biology Program. Under the advisement of Ernst Lengyel, she has developed a novel method in spatial metabolomics that combines AI-guided laser microdissection and mass spectrometry. Cancer metabolism is largely shaped by spatial context, where nutrient gradients and stromal interactions drive tumor progression. The new approach enables the discovery of these spatial metabolic vulnerabilities, which would otherwise go undetected using conventional bulk analyses. Through the Polsky Commercialization Fellowship, Alcazar hopes to position the spatial metabolomics platform for patient stratification and therapeutic intervention where treatment options are limited.
Ha Ram Kim // Ha Ram Kim received his B.S. in biology from the University of Central Arkansas in 2018. After working as a research technician in Baylor College of Medicine, he joined the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago in 2021 where he is co-advised by Matthew Tirrell and Yun Fang. His research involves engineering nanoparticle systems for the effective and targeted delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics. Currently, his project is on delivering therapeutic aptamers to the lung for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis.
Drew Sheets // Drew Sheets is a fifth-year PhD student at the University of Chicago in the Computational Neuroscience program. He began his graduate work in the lab of Sliman Bensmaia working to understand the neural basis of haptic object recognition and apply these findings to design naturalistic neuoprosthetic devices capable of restoring the sense of touch to patients with spinal cord injury. He is currently completing his thesis work in Marlene Cohen’s lab, developing novel methods for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease by harnessing changes in the neural processing of visual information and visually guided behaviors that occur during disease progression. Through the Commercialization Fellowship at the Polsky Center, Drew hopes to develop the necessary skills to bridge the gap between technological innovation and real-world impact.
Yiding Wang // Yiding Wang is a fifth-year PhD student in the Committee on Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology. Advised by Chuan He, Wang’s research focuses on developing novel sequencing technologies to detect DNA and RNA modifications, aiming to advance disease diagnostics and therapeutic target discovery. She is excited to join the Commercialization Fellowship Program to translate technologies on DNA methylation detection into real-world applications and explore their commercial potential.
Jingwen Xu // Jingwen Xu is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition at the University of Chicago, co-mentored by Eugene Chang and Cambrian Liu. Her research focuses on gut microbiota, intestinal development, and host-microbe interactions. She is passionate about advancing microbiome-based therapeutics and translating academic discoveries into real-world health solutions, with a particular focus on gut dysbiosis and related diseases. She is eager to deepen her commercialization skills and explore the intersection of scientific innovation and business strategy through the Polsky Commercialization Fellowship.
// Questions? Contact Ellen Zatkowski, Director, Science Programs and Student Engagement.