On this episode of Innovatively Speaking, we speak with Todd Headley, the CEO of the Zucker Institute for Innovation Commercialization (ZI). We discuss how Charleston has grown to an innovation hotspot as well as how ZI, the technology transfer office of MUSC, is working to provide answers and support for all the ideas coming in.

00:00 The start of the show

01:26 Todd Headley joins the show

08:41 Accelerator Programs with Innosphere Ventures

20:28 Overcoming Startup Challenges

31:06 - The Future of Innovation Spaces

This show is a production of the MUSC Office of Innovation and the Office of Communications and Marketing. Learn more about innovation at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) by visiting: https://web.musc.edu/innovation

00;00;00;18 - 00;00;15;23

Todd Headley

I think it's a real game changer to get this started. And then, you know, as the vision continues to build out over the years, I think that's you know, it's only going to be more significant. But you know, having a place, I think where you can actually co-locate a lot of these companies together, I think there's real value in that.

00;00;17;10 - 00;00;37;12

Kevin Smith

From the Medical University of South Carolina, you are listening to, innovatively speaking, if you don't know the show, it is the place where we dive into the origins of the next big things, the who, the why and the how we explore ideas that are changing what's possible here at MUSC and in some cases all across the world. I'm your host, Kevin Smith, and with me, as always is MUSC Chief Innovation Officer Dr Jesse Goodwin.

00;00;37;12 - 00;00;38;03

Kevin Smith

Good morning. Jesse.

00;00;38;03 - 00;00;38;23

Kevin Smith

Good morning, Kevin.

00;00;39;01 - 00;00;44;01

Kevin Smith

Alright. Today on our show, we're going be talking about the Zucker Institute again. Word on the street is they've got a new CEO.

00;00;44;10 - 00;00;59;18

Jesse Goodwin

They do. So we've had the great fortune of having Todd Headley for just over a year now, and he's going to be our guest today. And so I'm really excited to have him share all of the great things that he's been up to and his vision for how he's going to move the group forward.

00;00;59;21 - 00;01;05;21

Kevin Smith

It sounded like from some of the prep I was doing that you are very familiar with Todd's work and and how he works.

00;01;05;22 - 00;01;22;01

Jesse Goodwin

Yeah. So I actually I chair his board and got to lead the search committee for him. So when we did the search for the new CEO, you know, Todd stood out among a large field of candidates. And I've gotten the opportunity to work really closely with him over the last year. And so I'm excited for the conversation.

00;01;22;09 - 00;01;36;10

Kevin Smith

Great. Well, let's dove right in. Todd Headley welcome to the show. We're excited to hear from you on the exciting work you're doing there at Zucker. But before we dig in, tell us a little bit about you. You've done work all over the country. How did you land in Charleston?

00;01;37;03 - 00;02;01;21

Todd Headley

Yeah, great. Question. So I've been in sort of this technology commercialization space for about 20 years and about two thirds of my career in this academic commercialization space and about ten years on the corporate side. So a little bit of a mix of both things, which I think works really well off of each other. I think when you're in the corporate side, understand doing the academic commercialization piece is important.

00;02;01;21 - 00;02;12;09

Todd Headley

That's where we see a lot of innovation occurring and of course being, you know, in the place that we are now. I think having a good feel for how companies work and think about innovation I think is important.

00;02;12;13 - 00;02;14;02

Kevin Smith

And so you got the call from MUSC.

00;02;14;02 - 00;02;34;21

Todd Headley

Yeah, I did. And it was it was a good time for us to think about this. We weren't actively looking to leave Colorado in this case, but there was a lot of pull around, not just Charleston in terms of the area, but Jesse did a great job and the search committee talking about really what the opportunities were here at MUSC.

00;02;34;21 - 00;02;43;29

Todd Headley

And I completely agreed. I think this is a place that is really growing in the opportunity is really significant, I think, to make an impact. And that's what I wanted to be a part of.

00;02;44;08 - 00;02;47;28

Kevin Smith

Excellent. How are you adjusting to the elevation change?

00;02;48;09 - 00;03;05;00

Todd Headley

Yes, it's been quite a difference. A couple of weeks ago, we were back in Colorado. I may have been breathing a little bit harder than I normally would have, but yes, from the mountains to the sea, like many people, we moved in the summer. So it was quite a change in temperature moving from Colorado. But we love it.

00;03;05;00 - 00;03;10;11

Todd Headley

My family loves that. We enjoy really being on the coast, in the ocean. It's been a great transition so far.

00;03;10;17 - 00;03;20;03

Kevin Smith

Well, let's let's start by maybe defining innovation. You guys willing to throw out a definition that we can kind of hang on this and then start a conversation around that?

00;03;20;05 - 00;03;34;02

Jesse Goodwin

Yeah. And I'm going to ask Todd to give his because I think the audience has heard mine before, but I'll challenge Todd to define it from his lens. And then I think it probably be helpful if you define technology transfer and commercialization, too.

00;03;34;09 - 00;03;56;05

Todd Headley

Yeah, it's great. Well, the wonderful thing about innovation is everybody has a definition and they're all correct. So I can't I don't think I can get this wrong, but we'll see. My boss is sitting here, so we'll see what you think. You know, in this context, when I think about innovation, I really think about just people who are thinking about new and interesting ways to tackle problems.

00;03;56;11 - 00;04;21;03

Todd Headley

And so I think about at a medical center, you think about all of the different people that are here and the types of things that they do. And so we think a little bit about the innovation coming to us is in areas like medical devices, you know, pharmaceuticals, bio digital health, AI, those sort of things. So who who is really thinking about the new and better way to do these things?

00;04;21;03 - 00;04;39;07

Todd Headley

And that's, you know, at the top of the sort of at the top of the funnel. That's the way I think about innovation. I think everybody is can be an innovator. And I don't think it's really narrowed down to people thinking about getting patents, for example. And I think that's where Jesse and her team have done a great job of innovation isn't just about getting patents.

00;04;39;07 - 00;04;46;14

Todd Headley

Innovation is about how do we do something differently and better. And we want everybody to be able to participate in that.

00;04;46;23 - 00;05;16;15

Jesse Goodwin

So, Todd, you mentioned me doing a good job of selling you on the vision for MUSC. And so let's talk a little bit about that because I think part of what I tried to sell you on was that we had a pretty good base, but lots of opportunities. And so can you describe for our listeners, you know what, once you got here and you got to experience it yourself, what what that base really looks like and then sort of where your vision is and in terms of gaps that you see us needing to fill.

00;05;17;07 - 00;05;37;05

Todd Headley

Yeah, I think as a starting point, I mean, there's there's clearly already a lot of energy on on campus and within the institution. And around innovation as we just defined it. And I think that's really important. So we didn't have to go back and convince people that this is something that is important to the campus and to them and to the state.

00;05;37;16 - 00;06;05;18

Todd Headley

So I think that was wonderful. You know, what I really thought about was how do we how do we build the team? How do we rebuild the team? How do we get, you know, the right kind of professionals in place to really, you know, grow and improve the Zucker Institute itself in terms of the mechanics of what we do, clearly, there's a commitment around, you know, physical space, around having, you know, places for small companies to grow.

00;06;05;18 - 00;06;29;00

Todd Headley

That's really important. That's being something new. We think about the opportunity to bring in accelerator programs, how do we sort of educate and and grow teams that are interested in maybe starting a company, maybe it isn't, but it's a it's a much deeper dove from people here on how they can innovate, how they can actually get products and services maybe into the markets.

00;06;29;00 - 00;06;47;26

Todd Headley

I think that's great. So there are so many things that were on the table already that have been teed up. And I think that, again, that was something really interesting to me is sort of not just what was here, but sort of what was already on the table and what was what was going to be happening over the next, you know, 12-18 months.

00;06;47;26 - 00;07;07;14

Todd Headley

But really, you know, as Jesse's talked about on this podcast, I'm sure it's what's happening in the next two, three, four or five years is really exciting. And that's one of the things that really got me excited about coming here. You know, fundamentally, I think we all want to make a difference where we can be, you know, and I think that's where that's where it was just really a terrific fit.

00;07;07;14 - 00;07;32;21

Jesse Goodwin

00;07;33;21 - 00;07;59;18

Jesse Goodwin

But patents aren't enough. We had a whole bunch of startup companies, but just starting a company isn't enough either. And so one of the things that you've really rapidly done, Todd, is starting to pull together those programmatic pieces both from within your team and then also some of the opportunities that you brought with you. So can you describe some of the programs that you've been able to capitalize on in really rapid fashion?

00;07;59;18 - 00;08;00;22

Jesse Goodwin

It's been pretty extraordinary.

00;08;01;12 - 00;08;20;23

Todd Headley

Yeah, I think that's a great way to think about it. And I agree on the sort of on the Charleston hot spot. I think it's it's terrific. And MUSC, of course, is not the only generator of of patents in the area. So I think from that perspective it's great because I think that means the entire area is really seeing this innovation growth.

00;08;20;23 - 00;08;41;06

Todd Headley

But I agree with you that patents alone are are a good indicator maybe of innovation broadly as we discussed it. But, you know, the key is to actually get those patents into use and that intellectual property and to use. And so we're, you know, creating jobs and products and services that really impact people's lives. And so that's that's really where we're focused.

00;08;41;06 - 00;09;05;10

Todd Headley

And so the lead in on some of the things that we're doing, I mentioned some accelerator programs. You know, one of them, for instance, we're working on with innosphere ventures out of Colorado, it's a multistate program funded by the EDA that we participate in. And what that really is about is trying to think about getting your ideas actually into those products and services.

00;09;05;10 - 00;09;28;12

Todd Headley

So is it something more than ideas? Is something more than a patent you know, can it really be translated into products and services that impact people's lives, whether it's licensing that intellectual property out from our office? Whether it's creating a startup company to do that? Those are the kinds of things that we're really focused on is really how how do we do the translational piece?

00;09;28;12 - 00;09;54;18

Todd Headley

And Jesse mentioned technology transfer, right? So it's really getting it transferred into the hands of of the people that are going to work on that. And so that's we've been thinking a lot about, I would add in and we're focused on you know, mentor and advisor networks, which are really important to us. So we've we've had a wonderful opportunity to engage and many people here locally who have just raised their hand, who have had, you know, extraordinary careers and heard about what we're doing.

00;09;54;18 - 00;10;10;27

Todd Headley

And they just want to help and say, if there's something I can do to help, you know, let me know and we will absolutely take them up on that. So if there's anybody listening to this that has that interest, I'd be happy to chat about that. But that's an important piece of it. It's really it's really isn't just the mechanics.

00;10;10;27 - 00;10;17;02

Todd Headley

It's really the people that are so important and the programs and the education that are critical to really making this work.

00;10;17;18 - 00;10;33;26

Jesse Goodwin

And when you think about you know, your vision for where you want to take your group and your team and the success that you want to have within the next five and ten years, what are the additional building blocks that we need to cobble together in order to create that that roadmap to success?

00;10;34;04 - 00;11;01;07

Todd Headley

That's a great question. So, you know, we've touched on some of it. Obviously, having having the team that's sort of in the right position to really manage and take advantage of the innovation coming from campus. So without a doubt, hopefully over the next five and ten years, our team will likely grow and will add people that we need to help, hopefully with the increased, you know, volume that we expect is going to be coming down the pike.

00;11;02;03 - 00;11;30;02

Todd Headley

But I think about things like do we have the infrastructure for startup companies, right? Do we have space for them to be? Because as as we and, you know, really academic medical centers and universities, you know, everybody realizes that entrepreneurship is so important and new companies are so important. They're such a critical piece to, you know, growing the innovation economy and to having impact and to getting getting technologies out.

00;11;30;12 - 00;11;53;06

Todd Headley

So focusing on those sort of things like do we have the right kind of space? Do we have accelerator programs? I was just mentioning that we have one program called CREW which Jesse's well aware of that she helped bring to campus. They're beginning to recruit their third cohort. I mentioned the Innosphere Ventures program, which we actually had four slots allocated to us.

00;11;53;06 - 00;12;27;03

Todd Headley

We oversubscribed. We had five, which is terrific. Um SCbio is working on another accelerator in conjunction with MassBio to come down. So we've sort of gone from from a very little of that infrastructure to quickly growing it to be able to to deal with hopefully the really increased volume and demand that we're going to have. And then I think about the other piece that's really important is is capital access to capital is so critical because if you're thinking about entrepreneurship, startup companies, you know, they're going to need money to get off the ground.

00;12;27;03 - 00;12;57;12

Todd Headley

And we've done a really great job here historically, I think, of getting federal government grants. For example, SBIR and STTRs and we've done some work on that and have really done quite well over the last few years. And I see that continuing. But what they need access to is that early stage capital so that precede and seed and series A funding to be able to get them to the point where they can really get the attention of companies that are out there, bigger investors, whatever it is so that's that's really a critical piece.

00;12;57;12 - 00;13;12;28

Todd Headley

And I think I see a lot of that happening not just here at MUSC but even in the in the Charleston area. I think this energy around sort of reviving those discussions around capital and health care and really growing, growing that component.

00;13;13;17 - 00;13;36;04

Jesse Goodwin

You know, capital is one of the things on my radar in terms of helping you solve for and you know, five or six years ago, I was I was asked by someone if we were ready for investment and sort of creating a fund and those natures. And truthfully, I hedged on it because I really wasn't sure that at the time I believed in our science and I believed in our potential.

00;13;36;04 - 00;14;00;24

Jesse Goodwin

But we were lacking so many of the other pieces that I felt like were going to be necessary to drive success. Right. And to now see those building blocks start to come together that, you know, I feel like we really are ready to have those critical conversations about you know, why why shouldn't... someone should believe in us and why someone should, you know, take take what is a risk, right?

00;14;00;24 - 00;14;19;17

Jesse Goodwin

And invest in the companies coming out of MUSC because we can point to all of the other pieces of support that we're putting together to sort of at least increase the odds that we're going to take this somewhere and really bring it to fruition. So I think it's a really exciting time and you have a really robust portfolio.

00;14;19;23 - 00;14;34;08

Jesse Goodwin

Todd, you cover the whole gamut of things from drugs to devices. To digital technology. Can you speak to a couple of the technologies that excite you within your portfolio and some of the resources that you and your team are bringing to them?

00;14;35;06 - 00;15;00;04

Todd Headley

Yeah, that that's great. We've got as you said, there are a number of technologies in the portfolio. In fact, probably it's hundreds and we get in, you know, probably around 100 or more innovative ideas from campus every year or so. As you can imagine, we move through those and some of those some of those work, some of them don't, but we continue to build that portfolios, Jesse said, which is really critical.

00;15;00;29 - 00;15;29;17

Todd Headley

And and we've kind of broken down those areas because, you know, if you think sort of logically, you know, a medical device is different from a pharmaceutical is different from digital health. And so those are areas, although, you know, I think it's probably important to note, as many people do now, is that they're they're bleeding together. Right. So you think about digital health and A.I. and devices are obviously becoming intertwined significantly and drug discovery and A.I. and all these sort of things.

00;15;29;17 - 00;15;54;27

Todd Headley

So they're sort of bleeding together. And even on campus, you see that with people who may be in one particular area of expertise, but they're really working across campus with other collaborators right. To actually make to bring these innovative ideas together. So somebody in in software, digital health, may be working with somebody in the device space, for example, because they see an opportunity there on both sides of that.

00;15;54;27 - 00;16;21;23

Todd Headley

So I think that's just as background. That's sort of a wonderful I think those are the kind of collaborations that are happening. But you know, just yesterday we were having a lengthy discussion about a technology that can help, you know, infants feed, for example. It's a device and it's a great example of technology where originally we had a SBIR phase one grant to kind of get it kicked off.

00;16;21;23 - 00;16;48;19

Todd Headley

We had some support from Jesse's office to develop that further. We submitted a phase two grant for that, which is roughly $2 million that that looks really positive. That we receive that to continue that work. So that's a great example of a technology that, you know, again, started as somebody whose idea of something that might work out, but what it needed was, of course, funding to move it along, not just funding but evaluation of the intellectual property.

00;16;48;19 - 00;17;08;23

Todd Headley

Do we really have a market there? I think it's important maybe back the discussion around patents is, you know, just because we can build something or just because we can, you know, raise some money for it doesn't necessarily mean there's a market for it. And that's really the I think to Jesse's point, that's really where we spend a lot of time thinking about is really is there a market pull there in there?

00;17;08;24 - 00;17;29;20

Todd Headley

Is there a need there and that's where we want to really put our efforts and time into that. But wow, Jesse, there's so many cool ideas out there. I think about the thing about a technology sort of in the digital health space where some folks are thinking about can they can they simulate patients to help with training for for medical students right.

00;17;29;20 - 00;18;02;06

Todd Headley

Because right now they use people that they train to answer questions and they talk to them about how do they feel and do they feel? They bring in actors. And that could potentially be revolutionized with a technology that's really AI based and and could be used, obviously, in a number of different fields, not just in the medical field, but it also could be potentially deployed, I think, importantly, into places that maybe wouldn't normally have access to these sort of things into rural areas or into countries that really don't have this kind of access.

00;18;02;06 - 00;18;26;27

Todd Headley

And so it's probably important to highlight that, you know, a lot of the sort of the technologies that we have have such potential now beyond South Carolina, beyond beyond metropolitan areas and beyond the United States. And I think the people here on our campus, they realize that and they're passionate about that. They want to help everybody. They you know, they want to have impact, of course, here locally.

00;18;26;27 - 00;18;35;21

Todd Headley

But they see the opportunity that many of these technologies could be driven across a number of different regions, you know, throughout the world.

00;18;35;21 - 00;18;43;25

Kevin Smith

So it's an exciting time. The world is getting smaller in a lot of ways, you know, and this is like you're driving right into that with this new position. That's very exciting.

00;18;43;27 - 00;18;51;11

Todd Headley

Yeah. And then there really is almost nothing that really can't now you know, be done almost anywhere. And so I think that's kind of the fun part of that.

00;18;52;13 - 00;19;14;29

Jesse Goodwin

You mentioned that the baby technology and I think that that's a an interesting approach because it's actually a company that wasn't started by our faculty. So most of our startup companies, you know, it's a faculty member or staff member who creates an external company and then we create an agreement and, you know, allow them to develop it externally.

00;19;14;29 - 00;19;34;02

Jesse Goodwin

But in this case, the company was actually started by your organization and managed there. And can you speak a little bit about that and and sort of the direction that you see this? To me, this was like a proof of concept. Could we make this work? And I think it is working. So can you can you speak a little bit about the other opportunities that you see for this type of model?

00;19;34;10 - 00;19;51;03

Todd Headley

Yeah, I think that's a great point because you know, while we certainly want, you know, people here on campus innovators, if they want to participate, you know, in a new company, for example, that's wonderful. And we want them to do that. But we don't feel we don't want people to feel like they need to run the company right?

00;19;51;03 - 00;19;54;29

Todd Headley

Or to actually manage the company they had. They have day jobs and they're great at those jobs.

00;19;55;00 - 00;19;58;11

Kevin Smith

Do you feel like people, that holds people back a lot that just the intimidation factor?

00;19;58;11 - 00;19;59;28

Todd Headley

Yeah, I do.

00;19;59;28 - 00;20;27;24

Todd Headley

I think it really can. And because they you know, they're just concerned, rightfully so that can I really step out of my job and run a small company. Right and and the intent really isn't that they would need to do that. And so I think backing up a little bit when we talk about you know these accelerator programs and mentors and advisors, really the whole point of that is to, you know, get to the point where they or we could help them attract management to really run these companies.

00;20;28;07 - 00;20;54;13

Todd Headley

And that's that's really the goal we're trying to get to. And by going through those programs, they will have gotten enough information to be able to make a real pitch to somebody to come in and do that. So I think that's really important. But the company Jesse was speaking to call that far. Do you excel as a for profit company that sits within the Zucker Institute that in this case we brought that technology into that company.

00;20;54;13 - 00;21;15;16

Todd Headley

So the the founders didn't have to create a company. They didn't have to run the company. Our team really could help work with them to begin to spin that technology up. And we have terrific engineering capabilities that we've been able to deploy to do that and then work closely with the inventors and the clinicians to make that work.

00;21;15;16 - 00;21;37;06

Todd Headley

But we were really able to help drive that technology. And so, as Jesse said, it's a great proof of concept, but I think we see that as another, you know, arrow in our quiver to be able to help move technologies forward where we could potentially have numerous technologies running through that, you know, getting getting capital derisking them and then pushing them out at that point.

00;21;37;06 - 00;21;51;23

Todd Headley

So it is a startup company as well, essentially, but you could put a number of different types of technologies through there. And move those as well. So I think it just all it does is really broadens that that lens of being able to commercialize technologies.

00;21;52;00 - 00;22;21;01

Jesse Goodwin

So Todd as you're aware, you know, at MUSC there is many teams that help support innovation and part because we define it so broadly. And each team has a role in terms of supporting different types of innovation at different stages of development. And so can you help the audience understand at which point someone should come in and see your team at what time is it best to engage and sort of how do you steward that relationship along its path?

00;22;21;12 - 00;22;41;28

Todd Headley

Yeah. So I would say that it's really never too early to come talk to us. I mean, we we would love to hear if somebody has an idea, we want to know about it right away. You know, we can certainly just talk to them there's an opportunity, of course, to formally disclose those innovations through a portal through Jesse's office, and that can always be done.

00;22;41;28 - 00;23;06;21

Todd Headley

But if someone just isn't sure if they've got something or not or they just want to talk more about it, that's why we're here. And we'd love to have those discussions up front. So the answer is that maybe there is never a perfect time other than the earlier, the better. We'd love to hear about it and we can work with that that individual or that team to sort of the discussion around I think you're ready to to to formally disclose this or your idea might need.

00;23;07;11 - 00;23;20;29

Todd Headley

You know, there's a little bit of work you were talking about wanting to do on it when you've completed that. Let's talk at that point. So I think it can it's a it's really can be an informal process. It doesn't have to feel like really a formal program. You know, we're here to help. That's what that's what we're here to do.

00;23;20;29 - 00;23;25;02

Todd Headley

So any time anyone has a question, we'd be happy to chat about that.

00;23;25;23 - 00;23;59;18

Jesse Goodwin

Yeah. I like the fact that your team and the office is really there. I mean, you should be viewed as being part of the team, right? It's not you're not just a group sitting behind a desk getting ready to, you know, check the box, yes or no, but really to help steward and brainstorm form. And and I think you've done a really good job of staffing your office to have a variety of skills and talents that they can help layer on to even a really early stage concept to start to think through how would you build it and what types of studies which need to run.

00;23;59;18 - 00;24;08;25

Jesse Goodwin

And yeah, how would you develop a business plan around it? So I think it's exciting the way that you've started to really balance out the team that you have.

00;24;09;09 - 00;24;31;29

Todd Headley

Yeah, I think that's that's an important point is because the team is made up of individuals with different backgrounds, you know, both technical backgrounds, legal backgrounds, business backgrounds, and in many cases some combination thereof. And so I always say that, you know, really do you think about what we do? It's sort of this intersection of sort of law, science and business.

00;24;31;29 - 00;24;49;02

Todd Headley

Right? That's sort of where we sit. And so the people on our team tend to have at least two of those three, if not all of them in some cases as background. But as Jesse said, you know, we can sort of talk to the innovator maybe about the technical aspects of it, whether it's the science or the engineering or whatever it is.

00;24;49;02 - 00;25;09;17

Todd Headley

We have people that can, you know, speak to the legal aspects of that. And it's not it's not something that we can speak to. Well, on the legal side, we certainly have a lot of resources to be able to pull in, you know, attorneys, intellectual property attorneys to talk about that. And then really importantly as well, the business piece of this is sort of the first question is, well, let's think this through.

00;25;09;18 - 00;25;33;16

Todd Headley

This is the sort of the technical innovation. Importantly, the question early on is, you know, what what would this be calm and who would be interested in this? Right. And so that really helps us frame who we talk to about these ideas, because one of the things we want to do is we want to reach out to the community, to the to the corporate community and see what the interest might be in that.

00;25;33;16 - 00;25;49;10

Todd Headley

But part of that is us being able to frame what what is it that we're actually talking about? Is it a is it a is it a widget? Is it a drug? Is it an AI innovation? So we're talking to the right people about that, because what we want to do is we want to get we want to get market feedback.

00;25;49;10 - 00;26;11;03

Todd Headley

We want to hear from you know, from the corporate side or the investor side. You know, what is the particular appetite for these types of innovations? What is the right place for us? Is it something that somebody might be willing to work on work with the university or sponsored research agreement, for example, to further develop the innovation is something that is really a great idea.

00;26;11;03 - 00;26;21;04

Todd Headley

It's probably a good fit for a startup. And in that point we'd say, hey, it would be great if you would run through one of these accelerators. That'll further sort of develop that thesis around what that might look like. So.

00;26;21;14 - 00;26;46;04

Jesse Goodwin

Todd, when I think about offices like our own, an organization that is as broad and expansive as MUSC I think one of the critical roles that we can play is is playing matchmaker. Right? And so my office works with the vice president for research and running an award called the Blue Sky Award, which we only give out funding to new collaborations.

00;26;46;04 - 00;27;07;22

Jesse Goodwin

Right. It's the proposals have to be to people who haven't collaborated before. But I think your team also can play a critical role in terms of connecting the dots for people that otherwise may not know each other. So can you speak a little bit about about that in the philosophy that your team and you have on that type of matchmaking.

00;27;08;23 - 00;27;33;04

Todd Headley

Yeah, I agree completely. I mean, I think that's part of our job is we you know, the the advantage we have is we get to see innovation from all over campus like you do. And so as we get new ideas or maybe we're just having a conversation with somebody about about a potential idea that they have. You know, one of the things we sort of just informally do immediately is think about who else is doing this on campus.

00;27;33;04 - 00;28;03;26

Todd Headley

Right? And are there opportunities for this this person to actually talk with someone else who might be it might be a researcher and a clinician, for example, and have you talk to them about that. And so I think, you know, people are really working hard and they're sort of got their heads down and pushing hard. And sometimes, you know, if we can help them think about other ways, help them think about the innovation in other ways, where they may be able to broaden that out or talk to people who also are pursuing the same problem, maybe from a different angle, maybe from a different discipline.

00;28;04;20 - 00;28;26;10

Todd Headley

And if we can put them together, we do. And so that's something that we frequently do as well. And I think that's frankly one of the big advantages of having offices like ours that are, you know, across campus. Then we get to see a little bit of what's going on beyond that. You know, we have wonderful databases that we can do all kinds of things in word searching and even older innovations.

00;28;26;10 - 00;28;35;21

Todd Headley

You know, somebody may say you know, I think I saw something like this two or three years ago and we can go back and sort of pull that up and have that discussion. So that's always kind of fun as well.

00;28;35;21 - 00;28;47;07

Kevin Smith

All right. Well, when we when we started this episode today, you guys all came in kind of excited. You just come out of a meeting that had to do with some properties here in town that are linked to innovation. Can we talk a little bit about that?

00;28;48;11 - 00;28;59;25

Jesse Goodwin

Yeah, and Todd's mentioned a few times that having space is really critically important, particularly if we're going to have all of these startups and I think he's right. And as we all know, Charleston is sort of water locked.

00;29;00;03 - 00;29;01;18

Kevin Smith

Yeah. Yeah, not space.

00;29;01;18 - 00;29;29;16

Jesse Goodwin

And so space is always... it's a big constraint for us, but we have this fantastic opportunity laid out in front of us to look at a opportunity to create what they would call an innovation district that would be near campus and an innovation district just for the audience. It's supposed to be mixed use, right? It's it's focused around innovation and driving the knowledge economy or the innovation economy.

00;29;29;16 - 00;29;52;12

Jesse Goodwin

But it's not just academic research. It should be, you know, inhabited by academic research and our clinical strengths because we are an academic health center. So that needs to play a role, too. But outside industry wanting to co-locate and be adjacent and then also having things for the community to bring them in such that it becomes, you know, a place to go.

00;29;52;12 - 00;30;13;20

Jesse Goodwin

And, you know, in in Charleston, we can think of like things like the digital corridor and things like that. And I think that there's an opportunity to look at how do we create that for life sciences near MUSC in our campus. And then one of the early ways, you know, as a long term vision in order to be able to to launch something like that.

00;30;14;17 - 00;30;37;16

Jesse Goodwin

So the next question then became well, do we have an opportunity to kickstart that in the near term and get it going? And the answer was yes. And actually, it's funny because we had lots of administrators sort of scratching their heads and brainstorming like where could we do this? And then it was someone within one of the teams was like, "Hey, what about building E and F on campus?"

00;30;37;22 - 00;31;06;09

Jesse Goodwin

And it was our old pharmacy school that has just moved out. They've taken a new location on campus and they're building was empty but it's sort of perfect, right? It's got all of these labs that our companies need. It's got office space. And so we were excited because we just came out of a meeting where we were talking about what could we do to refresh a fairly dated building into something that spoke to the theme of innovation.

00;31;06;09 - 00;31;32;18

Jesse Goodwin

And it is one of those near-term opportunities that I'm particularly excited about as a way to show that we really are leaning in. I think it was part of my sales pitch when I tried to land Todd here was that the institution really is leaning in. You're going to have the support that you need. You're not going to be swimming upstream all by yourself at the institution and in and of itself is willing to make some some big investments of time and space to help support your cause.

00;31;32;18 - 00;31;38;26

Jesse Goodwin

And so I'm I'm pretty excited about the potential for the space. And I think Todd is too.

00;31;38;26 - 00;31;43;11

Kevin Smith

Yeah. Seems like a bit exciting to you. Seems like your toy box, so to speak, is expanding.

00;31;43;14 - 00;31;59;05

Todd Headley

Yeah. I think it's a real game changer to get this started. And then, you know, as the vision continues to build out over the years, I think that's, you know, it's only going to be more significant. But, you know, having a place, I think where you can actually co-locate a lot of these companies together, I think there's real value in that.

00;32;00;12 - 00;32;30;22

Todd Headley

I also think that, you know, circling back to part of the earlier discussion, that startup companies just really are the mechanism by which commercialization happens now out of universities and academic medical centers, that's a really significant path and so everything we can do, you know, to really make that better, I think is really important. And, you know, Jesse hit it on the head is when you think about capital and the space and the programing and the mentors and advisors and really the strength around that, I think we're really going in the right direction.

00;32;30;22 - 00;32;31;24

Todd Headley

That's very exciting.

00;32;31;24 - 00;32;36;21

Kevin Smith

So when you match make, do you have a place for them to land together? That's fantastic.

00;32;36;23 - 00;32;53;28

Todd Headley

Yeah, that's right. You know, Jesse would would say that, you know, we say, hey, you want to do a startup company? That's great. And now you have to be tucked away and half of your lab somewhere. Right. And so, you know, being able to get companies together and I think it helps, you know, those those folks know each other.

00;32;54;23 - 00;33;13;20

Todd Headley

It helps us think about people that may be able to come in and support them in different ways because, again, they're all collated, co-located together. We can have programing. We can talk about, you know, fractional CEOs that may want to come in and be interested in some of these companies, but we can show them off and really talk about that.

00;33;13;20 - 00;33;17;02

Todd Headley

And and I think it's a great test case to get started.

00;33;17;13 - 00;33;25;04

Kevin Smith

Well, Todd Headley thank you so much for spending some time with us here today at innovatively speaking. And we're excited for the future. It sounds like you're the right guy for the job.

00;33;25;11 - 00;33;42;08

Jesse Goodwin

Yeah. And I just want to thank you not only for joining us on the podcast today, but for joining us at MUSC. Overall, it was always my hope when we were recruiting this that we would bring in someone with a high level of talent and a big vision. And certainly you have hit the nail on the head for both of those things.

00;33;42;08 - 00;33;45;11

Jesse Goodwin

So I'm just grateful for your collaboration and your partnership.

00;33;45;20 - 00;33;47;21

Todd Headley

Well, it's wonderful to be here. Thank you very much.

00;33;50;02 - 00;34;10;29

Kevin Smith

You've been listening to the Innovatively Speaking Podcast with the Medical University of South Carolina. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to support the show, leave a rating and review. To hear more innovative ideas and to share your own. Subscribe to the show or visit us on our web page. Web Dot M, USC Dot Edu Slash Innovation.

00;34;11;06 - 00;34;14;01

Kevin Smith

And remember, don't hesitate to innovate.