SarahHein.TomLuby-TMC_e.018

Go Big or Go Home: John Flavin talks Texas-style life sciences with innovation leaders Tom Luby and Sarah Hein from Texas Medical Center Innovation in e.018. New developments in Houston are setting the stage for accelerated growth in the start-up ecosystem. Investments being made by member institutions such as MD Anderson, Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas, Rice and others into innovation platforms and top-tier applied researchers means: more commercialization of new drugs and devices is on the horizon. TMC is building the infrastructure and community to create the conditions to allow for rapid scaling of the ecosystem.Tom Luby Ph.D. is the Director of Texas Medical Center (TMC) Innovation.  In this role, he oversees all of the innovation efforts of TMC focused on research, education, and commercialization of novel healthcare solutions.  Prior to this, he was the head of JLABS @ TMC in Houston, Texas. Tom started at Johnson & Johnson Innovation as a New Ventures Lead at the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston. In that role, he was instrumental in fostering many deals for the Boston office, which included the expansion of JLABS to JLABS @ Toronto.  Prior to J&J, Tom spent 14 years in various R&D and business development positions, most recently as Sr. Director, Research Ventures at Shire. Nine of those years were spent working in R&D and operational roles across three start-up biotech companies in the Boston area. Tom received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from State University of New York, and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University.Sarah Hein, PhD, is an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Texas Medical Center’s Cancer Therapeutics Accelerator. Previously, Sarah was cofounder and VP of Operations at Courier Therapeutics, where she helped develop a novel immune-targeted cancer immunotherapy. She was also Director of Research at Resonant Therapeutics, an antibody therapeutics platform technology company. She began at Mercury Fund as a Venture Fellow directly after graduating with her PhD from Baylor College of Medicine.Sarah earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science from the University of Wyoming.