News Brief: Zhang Shares Research at Biotech Investors’ Meetup

Assistant Professor of Life Sciences Shenglong Zhang, Ph.D., presented his research to an audience of investors, scientists, and entrepreneurs at Immuno-Oncology Today and Tomorrow, a business development event, held at NYIT. Zhang, a chemist by training who came to NYIT from Harvard University, is developing a new technology that allows direct sequencing of ribonucleic acid (RNA). To achieve his aim, Zhang is leading an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers, including Wenjia Li, Ph.D. assistant professor in NYIT College of Engineering and Computing Sciences.

Zhang just founded a company and is looking for investors. Funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, “want scientists to spread our new technology, not lock it away in the laboratory,” said Zhang. He added, “If the technology gets commercialized, more users can get access to it for their own purposes.”

The event was organized by Healthcare Drinks, an after-work networking group for biotechnology executives and investors interested in exploring business opportunities in China. In addition to NYIT, other sponsors included the law firms of Carter DeLuca Farrell & Schmidt LLP, and Hunter Taubman Fischer & Li LLC. Among the attendees were biotech entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, intellectual property and securities attorneys, and research scientists.