Bridging Sectors for Pandemic Readiness (COVID Special) – Science in the Mall Y’all S01:E10

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What you’ll hear in this episdoe:

  • What global health security entails
  • How PandemicTech connects healthcare innovators with the communities they serve
  • How TEXGHS was started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Since COVID has impacted the world, this episode will focus on the work and science done locally in Austin.

Before 2020, most people had only heard about pandemics in history class or science fiction movies. But for Lisa McDonald and Andrew Nerlinger, pandemic readiness was at the center of their work long before COVID-19. 

The couple first met in medical school where they both earned MDs and became practicing physicians. In 2011, the husband and wife decided to part from the traditional practice of medicine and founded a consulting company together, helping connect clinical practices with healthcare technologies. As their consulting sent them around the world, Lisa and Andrew saw that they could improve global health security – which includes pandemic preparedness – by bridging the gap between infectious disease communities and healthcare technology innovation in developing countries. 

The duo founded PandemicTech in 2016 with this goal in mind, seeking to increase resourcing and global access to devices, therapeutics, software, and other technologies and improve the quality of healthcare around the world. PandemicTech offers a formal structure for these networks, connecting experts and innovators with the communities that can use their product through a “healthcare technology ecosystem”. Whether the resources they provide are funding, engineering, or prototyping, PandemicTech is also the first place where companies developing health technology can go to be connected with like-minded innovators and entities that can help them.

In early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic became a glaring reality for everyone, Lisa and Andrew saw that Texas could benefit from a local version of the network they had created globally with PandemicTech. They got to work with the Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium, or TEXGHS, which creates a framework around local health security in Texas. TEXGHS operates similarly to Pandemic Tech as an innovation ecosystem, pulling together existing resources and formalizing relationships between academic, public, and private entities that share the same goal: to bolster health security locally in Texas, with the potential to expand that influence globally.

The ACC Bioscience Incubator has been “critical” and “formative” in TEXGHS’ work during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing lab space, community, and resources to start-up biotech companies. Beyond the context of a pandemic, the infrastructures established by PandemicTech and TEXGHS lend to connections and innovations that have a global impact.

Listen to the tenth episode of Science in the Mall Y’all to hear how you can get involved in the work that PandemicTech is doing, which companies at ACC Bioscience Incubator are involved with TEXGHS and how they have pivoted to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and what it’s like for Lisa and Andrew to work together as a couple. If you learned something new, make sure you like, subscribe, and check out other episodes here!

Science In the Mall, Y’all is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with the ACC Bioscience Incubator.

Host: Dan Dillard, founding_media

Guest: Lisa McDonald and Andrew Nerlinger

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast produced at Austin community college district what concerns them all y’all I’m your host Dan Dillard discovered nineteen is a part of the world we want to focus the next few episodes on the work and some of the science being done here locally in Austin and in Texas what seems to be a long time ago in the year twenty sixteen before anyone even heard of code Lisa McDonald and her husband engine earning Jr started a company called pandemic and then the tech is a global network of resources dedicated to bridging the gap between the infectious disease community and the technology innovation ecosystem in developing countries with endemic tax lease and ensure we’re focusing on pandemic preparedness abroad but when a pandemic hit the United States they knew they had to shift from a global to the local focus that’s how they started Texas global health security innovation consortium or Texas GHS similar to pandemic tech text GHS is bridging the gap between academic click sector and private sector partners as a way to coordinate efforts to support companies working towards pandemic preparedness and response in Texas let’s jump into our conversation Lisa engine thank you for being with us on the shelves

so excited to learn more about you what your actual journey and the things that you’re doing right now I am super issue always when I hear about entrepreneurism in the things that that are being done around with our gas I’d like to know what the origin story is so I’d like to start with just tell me how you two met and what started your angst you’ll journey together and do you wanna take it off I’m happy to check it off and error error entrepreneurial story was preceded by our personal story by many years I won’t say exactly how many or other also make in trouble for that but we actually met on the before the very first day of medical school when we we showed up to the new haven Connecticut on Arab free med school orientation camping trip which is actually a thing they send you and small groups out to the Appalachian Trail in northwestern Connecticut with not anywhere near sufficient supplies and hope that you will bond over the course of a couple days in the rain without tents and that actually did end up happening as you can see this Honda still strong we’ve been married for no I’m gonna get in trouble but I think it’s time you how long that’s where we’ve been married for now ten years and I think it’s so that was really the beginning of our of our journey together but we you know we actually took the leap from from the medical profession from clinical practice together and in twenty eleven we found at our own consulting company called under Avengers we work with family offices and investors and help them connect with healthcare technologies around the world and then that that that grew over time

the really the the seminal moment in this conversation was from twenty sixteen when we came up with the idea for pandemic tact and Lisa jump in anytime you’d like but I’ve been having to keep our little bit more about endemic tacked before doing the pandemic tech so you you said you’re both PH teas and and and so I’m really curious what does it mean to be a non practicing medical doctor yeah we both have enemies and so what it means is that we decided to do something a little bit different which is which is something that was pretty common actually and our medical school class several people have gone on to careers outside of practicing in the hospital whether it be an investment or consulting or public policy I’m just things that touch on medicine and health but not really directly seeing patients and so we made a decision together that we want to try that path as a career path in it you’re really it has taken a long and winding road to to where we are right now the cell look let you jump in here what is meant for to have a background in medicine how does that affect your day to day work is that running medicine affects my daily they were quite a bit and my day job I run a health care and business incubator at the university of Texas at Austin and so I have the opportunity to work with you know medical devices diagnostics therapeutics digital health and telemedicine technologies to really all the technology that underpins that the healthcare system in daily life today and so it’s very useful it too do you have a background in medicine is probably a very expensive perspective to be able to give people but it’s also it’s sort of interesting thing is a lot of times all be working more and more with entrepreneurs that they themselves come from a medical background and so there’s certainly a level of understanding about the path that people taking to get to a certain place maybe what their motivations are for starting a business or developing a piece of technology so that’s sort of an unintended until a consequence or an observation of of being in this position where you’re working with start up companies but you have you know you’ve got a background as a as a medical doctor you need to you talk about the about to start talking about pandemic tech I’d like to jump more into into understanding what that’s about

yeah it’s a you know we we always I think they’re the main reason we we made the jump from clinical practice towards technology development is because we kind of saw the potential that was there and really it’s something just kind of captured captured our interests quite frankly we got started working in the venture space in Houston working on telemedicine and digital health early stage technologies had the an incredible opportunity to really be mentored and that and and get connected within the venture capital community by a former astronaut named Bernard Harris who is a who’s who does pretty much everything he is a is also a doctor yeah endocrinologist he as an astronaut the first African American to conduct a space walk did the first telemedicine I’m gonna conference room space and then when he retired from NASA turned into a venture capitalist which is of course the logical thing to do so he’s he’s done a little bit of everything and it was really working with him that we got on both our exposure into the DC space but then also really started working with telemedicine and digital health technologies focused very heavily on global health and how you can use telemedicine and digital health to improve access to care in your places around the world we took trips to Africa to India and projects there and so got a first hand look at what some of the needs were and pandemic tech was kind of born out of a trip to Ethiopia in twenty sixteen that I lease and I have the opportunity to to go with Dr Harrison a team from MD Anderson to participate and there it was called the first wait what was it called the sack it was like the first ladies it was all the first ladies in Africa put together this cancer conference

yeah I’m at the African Union so we got to go into the big hall the African union and then we got to be a lot of the the really all the pizza the health ministers from different countries we met Dr Tadros there for the first time is the current director general W. H. out at the time he was there there are foreign minister for Ethiopia and and but what we saw through that with there was actually a fortuitous meeting that took place there is he went to meet an Ethiopian scientist who is working on working on a project related to developing a novel diagnostic for parasitic disease called Richmond ISIS and he was looking for help with kind of design and prototyping and how to actually bring this to scale so it occurred to us that there was an opportunity here to connect people who are kind of on the front lines are doing with these issues to to resources from the international community whether it be engineering funding prototyping and so that kind of launch this pandemic tech project which is really meant to kind of create a formal structure it’d really a health tech ecosystem yeah that was what I was gonna ask next is this a company is that the structure is that a what what is pandemic so I’m can I take a structured as a for profit entity there is that there are several different reasons for that but one and that one of the most relevant reasons is it gives us the ability to make both grant equity investments in companies and that’s something that’s sort of taking shape over time eight we did it we did not start a company immediately in twenty sixteen there’s a lot of groundwork that was laid we are initially working this is that really is a project within an inter Avengers and we could kind of got a critical mass of interest and from different projects and and from different stakeholders and spun it out as a standalone as a standalone LLC and twenty nineteen maybe a question they may or may not get me in trouble but what’s it like to work together with your spouse it was taught in a lease with a question what what’s the what’s the saying we says that and yeah if you’re if you’re married to your business partner your marriages in the years of your marriage are measured in dog years so we’ve been we’ve been married for seventy so it’s a no no it’s actually been wonderful

you know we’ve we’ve been working together in a different way shape and form even you know we remember time back together an anatomy lab in med school which jobs so that was a different kind of partnership but no it’s been really nice because it’s especially during the pandemic you know you’re kinda you know stuck at home stuck in the office not seeing other people’s there’s been a really great a great chance for us to kind of work together on something and build it together and and actually see it grow during you know during the pandemic and to work together on spitting it out into you know different things which is really kind of what that Texas the texGHS program was that was kind of the origin of that yeah that was what was where I was going into next text GHS what what does it stand for and and how to come together sure so and texGHS stands for the Texas global health security innovation consortium so global health security is a catch all term that really describes pandemic preparedness and response so everything that we’re going through right now I was a small community prior to I guess now Jeez it’s you know six or seven months ago and then co that comes across and you know infectious disease in pandemic infectious diseases immediately thrust onto the world stage you know we had been in this space right with pandemic Texas twenty sixteen creating networks and tapping into subject matter expertise and and really familiarize yourself with the space and so certainly you can imagine with a name like pandemic tech alone we got a lot and don’t interest as soon as the hot so became New York City and the hotter became Houston Texas and we start so some of that and some of that interest aligned with our focus at pandemic tech which is really outside of the United States in low and middle income countries and some of it was really coming from you know coming from within our own networks our own ecosystems our backyard here in Texas here in the United States

and so internal conversation and thought you know we’ve been spending all of this time and you know and racking up some experience and expertise and networks in creating innovation ecosystems from scratch outside of the United States so how do we do a similar thing you know in in the state of Texas where you have a rich and some in some sense in over resource innovation ecosystem what what goes into creating the same sort of framework thematically around health security here in Texas in really what it what it has involved and that date task in that instance is is about doing the legwork to pull together existing resources to formalize you know previously informal relationships and you know across the state of Texas and make sure that if there is an innovator that’s working on the technology in the you know in the health security stays working on a piece of technology to address covert nineteen they know that they’re is one place that they can go they will get connected with all of the relevant people in our ecosystem and we can speed and ease their product to market there’s a saying knowledge is power right but if you don’t know who is working on what then it’s it’s one of those things where you miss out on a whole bunch of sounds like what you guys put together is let’s put the resources together so at least we know where to go to get connected yes exactly yep that’s in this is this was coming in this was actually it’s been a very very challenging to organize some because there’s been so popular it’s been incredible to see the number of organizations and people that have gotten involved with this about eighty people regularly donating their time volunteering spending hours a week on this unpaid because they really believe in it

really the cool thing that that happened you know a lot of these partners already working together and if they weren’t working together formally they were still talking together all the time there’s the life science affinity group here in town which a lot of people doing biotech and life science innovation started talking together but when we we thought about it we said well someone should be organizing should be organizing that’s then it occurred to us wait a second we should be organizing this that we have experienced and are able to do this so this is the time for us to do this so it’s been it’s been incredible to see how you know starting with kind of a a handful of sixty partners essentially OB you know beat whether from the university this Austin from ACC in the bioscience incubator I’m mature the really key initial initial partners but then it’s been incredible to see the organizations from all over the world want to be a part of this yeah can you talk about some of the work that you’ve been able to accomplish abi obviously since March some of things that you’ve been able to yes Sir what I guess the first the first step that we took because we you know I had I had my own you know my own bulletin believes the mail hypothesis about how many people were working on covert related technologies but we want to take a step back and really identify who would be interested on the innovator side in taking part in in an ecosystem like this and so we just sent out a survey asked people to indicated a very high level what they were working on and then two or three areas of interest are two or three years of support that they were requesting in areas that they need it and we got an overwhelming response from that and we continue to get a response that survey we use those entries to populate a database of companies that are working on health security related technologies and and we also observe some trends you know people are indicating that they need assistance and and three major buckets and then you know various other other areas those are funding the subject matter expertise and partnerships and almost everyone has those same you know those same apartments the same needs and not just small companies is the unique thing you know we’ve spoken with larger in a larger established companies I’m both here in Austin and across the state of Texas and we find that while they are in a position to give into support on the resource site they also might you know in some instances have two or three areas you know specific things maybe they need clinical samples are maybe they need access to a specific piece of equipment or access to another resource in the ecosystem so there’s a nice there’s a nice mix of kind of give and take across the ecosystem and across everyone that’s you know that’s working on health security related topics is I feel like we’re we’re really filling a need as as as you guys know we were on this podcast science in the mall you also I’m really curious how a C. C. NH yeah I have to have have been able to impact the work that you’re doing it Texas texGHS how’s it been this partners in these exhibitors helped yeah

Nancy has been absolutely critical and the ACC and the bioscience incubator have have been I was a formative for texGHS a lot of the conversations that Nancy and I were having yes ATI supports in a business incubation capacity the bioscience incubator and we stop you if they’re just going to ask with a TI is for the audiences that don’t are familiar with it here yes definitely so N. ATI’s Austin technology incubator it’s a start up business incubator for the university of Texas at Austin it’s been around for thirty years was initially charged with economic development before Austin was what it is now and so it’s kind of a rich rich history of success really supporting early stage companies creating partnerships making that you know making sure that their business at their business case around the company is solid and pairing them with outside funders so it’s just nuts and bolts kind of creating businesses from the ground up and sending them out to the Austin ecosystem to generate yet generate funds that to to turn the economy and to put a plug in for a TI it’s considered the first time university based incubator I think anywhere so it’s this is a this is the grand Dame of them ATI has worked with the bioscience incubator I’ve since the bioscience incubator was formed and so Nancy and I have to have that working relationship but I would say they were also very close friends and we have speed you know we spoke back and forth back and forth especially once you know that the campus closed for spring break and then you know that it that magnitude of the pandemic became apparent and we were having to have conversations about okay so what is access to you know what is access to the facilities look like what are people working on how do we support existing tenants in you know in the bioscience incubator and and those those conversations quickly sort of morphed into more strategic conversations about what does this look like for the Austin area and it really played into a very nice natural conversation about texghs

as in you know and ACC has been has been supportive of texghs and really there if they’re exactly the type of partner that you know that we sort of pulled together and we’re hoping to you know to be able to to support the formation innovation because this may have a wet lab you have start up companies many of those start up companies are relevant relevant to cope at nineteen so how best we support them in in the cases where it’s you know where it is of interest how best we publicize and market their efforts to the outside world the name so they know eighty important work is being done ACC in general I’m certainly at the bioscience incubator and then for those individual startup companies we want to provide them with the support and that you know the lens to magnify and amplify their efforts into that you know into that I don’t know that this is a virus very well said I think those are great what’s next what’s next for T. two T. H. S. sorry sure well actually add something to the to the comment about the about a CC and and the bioscience incubator and how that how that has developed and and what it’s kind of think mentor people as I’m there’s been a real personal aspect to texGHS too that we really didn’t quite expect we got it started yeah because again it started with form like kind of creating a structure on conversations among you know friends people are working together all the time anyway but the really neat thing is in the setting of you know Kobe we’re not able to see each other at all the events that were normally able to get together for your provider really cool framework for everyone to stay in touch really regularly and all kind of contribute to the coded response and meaningful way you know we we look at this is a long term this is a long term thing and people get that you know this was the the invite there were a lot of short term initiatives that really need to be done things around like personal protective equipment collection I’m at the medical school for example these are critical short term efforts that need to be addressed

but I think that people seem to be in the texghs program for the long haul and I think that the personal relationships in being able to kind of communicate with everyone on a pretty regular basis you know these groups are meeting several times a week at this is probably the second or third car that time I’ve been see Nancy or the last two days and that’s a that’s a really great thing it’s also let us get new people involved though in in these conversations or to reconnect with other people I’m one of the first conversations we had around text GHS was actually with one of Nancy’s the company’s ATA ACC by science incubator I’m called nuclear and and the the funny connection wasn’t the ACC bioscience connection to have us talking again but the CEO and founder of the company is actually a med school classmate of ours alone so it’s just you know it’s it’s bringing in new contacts yeah we’ve had as part of the the lead the lead group as part of the founding team of tax cheats ask other people from within the unity maybe that we knew peripherally I think a great example someone like Dan Abramov it’s who was one of the people leading that south by southwest help track and she got in touch with us we had a a you know we had talked a couple times but she was really interested in working on code and see what she can she can do and she’s currently running the partnership’s program at texghs and so that’s just a new relationship that’s that’s been very very meaningful for us both personally and for texghs and that’s just one of dozens of examples so definitely want to throw that out there

yeah no I think I think you you touched on something there’s there’s the work that you’re doing obviously everybody’s all excited about having better health and and and dealing with this kind of issue of invoice had a vested interest in this how can someone help or purchase because I know that Lisa mentioned there’s three main things that are needed with many companies how can someone be a part of one of the things that the texGHS need that that that will help even beyond what’s currently don’t yes so I think there there’s a variety of different ways and that you know that we that people have been engaging I think that probably on it so it obviously if someone has you know has an innovation or they’re working in a company where you know you guys are working on pieces of technology that have some connection to health security or some connection to Kobe nineteen not necessary for Kobe nineteen because we’re seeing a lot of successful technologies that are maybe present you know preventing infectious disease or controlling vaccination you know things like that that can remain in place to give some resiliency to our communities to prevent this from ever happening again so if you if you have an innovation in certainly visit our website record it you know take that take the survey you will be asked questions similar when I talked about before indicated a high level what you’re working on what type of support you need so it’s a very straightforward way to get engaged if you would like to participate as a volunteer and sort of join our efforts we have you know we have regular meetings you can also just you know you can you indicate your interest in that sense also on the website and we will quickly involve your bring you into the fold and give you tons and tons of work to do but okay rewarding work that we’re you know we are always there’s a huge appetite for a volunteer hours for people that are passionate

you can be passionate about a variety of things because you do not just have to be you know how to be a physician or have to be a scientist ticket to contribute to an effort like this in fact is very important and critical for us to engage the community more heavily so that date we can hear the voices from the community talk about what their perceptions are false security what challenges they’re facing and then we can work to address those challenges so that’s it you know on the community side regardless of whether or not you have experience in this space if you’re passionate about we welcome you we’d love to have you involved and then probably the final way in her view the final ways and we’re always reaching out to you know to established companies and you know and partners in the ecosystem for sponsorship for the organization and so if you do not have time in hours that that you have other resources that you feel like would be useful to us it’s absolutely get in touch with us on the website right now technology H. S. dot org I like that partners when you see what partners you’re talking not only about the people the medical field but I would imagine venture capital investors as well because there’s this the need there that some the startups may need some funding and it’s always good to have a rolodex of those numbers correct yeah absolutely and can speak to that he’s been working on that this week actually yeah I know this is been a big push really the first the first thing to do is to get kind of the the academic community organized and and people on board and I think would really successful and in doing that and then kind of the second push was to really bring a lot of that ecosystem players whether be the accelerated errors the

yeah the incubator some of the different organizations like the Austin chamber that support some economic development and we generally good job but that’s a really kind of run that next step is the private sector engagement and just this week I’m in the venture space we have new ecosystem partnerships with the clip to capital with the southwest angel network and with true wealth ventures and so it’s it’s been a really a positive response from the venture community so far but again you know the the more the merrier the goal there is of course to be able to connect them with opportunities for investment we’re getting a lot of companies that are inbound from Texas and then also really from around the world this is caught this is caught the attention of people in the global health security community it’s really the first it’s really the first group like this that’s focused on innovation you know there are a lot of network someone of our partners is called global health security network and they’re based in Australia but there were not created by some very prominent academic academicians in the health care and health security policy space so very much a policy in education focused organization what texGHS as it’s an innovation focused consortium and that’s something that to our knowledge is not existed focus specifically on this issue and this is really one of the first examples after many months and lots of hours of effort well congratulations is such a great idea in such a need and I just I just you know anytime you can share knowledge and and we can all benefit as a society I think it’s such an important work to be done so you can read a select one question go back to your family you guys have kids what we do we have a little ten month old little ten month old girl named Regina okay that’s gonna make worked really easy I’m sure you can respond about Andrew have you been working hard yeah I know it’s a

it is always excitement at our house never a dull moment moment usually our day starts around and I know six six thirty and it doesn’t start with a Cup of coffee and reading the newspaper it’s starts with babies crying baby needs to be fed dog needs to be a pause so it’s that is action packed room from start to finish every day that’s awesome yes Sir two screaming about in a bottle and then the baby wakes up and I’m just I’m just checking but now you know it’s been that’s one of the nice things that you know before before Kobe and both of us travel quite frequently and and this is been an egg you know one of the silver linings for us and I think it’s important look at some of the positives that come out of what was altogether a horrible situation is being home you know we haven’t had to try we have been able to travel and so it’s it’s been it’s just a really rare opportunity to be able to spend all this time you know with that with a little baby so that’s really wonderful you mentioned that you met the director last year is to be her director we we did actually ourselves so we have the opportunity to go visit W. H. O. headquarters last may two Mays ago now time is blurring together so may twenty nineteen we’ve had a great relationship with the world health organization’s Africa office and have helped them with their with their innovation challenge in their innovation platform little known fact D. Austin tech community actually provided many many of the judges for their first innovation challenge really thought that we had and then twenty eighteen they opened up this program they were expecting to get about two hundred three hundred applications to kind of be recognize one of the top thirty health innovators in Africa instead they got twenty six hundred applications and needed people to help judge them and so we had a ton of people in Austin community step up and and be able to do that whether it be from Bob we had judges from techstars from tech ranch Austin capital city innovation and so it’s kind of neat to see that Austin flair but anyway we went to to be at your headquarters and had the opportunity to meet several the kind of the leads from W. H. O. including are a really great experience meeting and and spend some time with Dr Tadros who who does actually love Texas very much and and had been to Houston before and and talk very very highly about it

well he’s gonna be a good guy then he was extremely nice and he’s super pleasant and more importantly he really seem to have a a pretty huge interest in innovation I think he understood and he even said that one of the things that W. H. O. need to do is think about how it engages the private sector and so we’re thrilled that we have confirmation from the W. H. O. for the texGHS launch of that and at our virtual launch event in October and I think that that’s going to be a really great thing it’s exciting to have international focus on something like this that that’s a Texas based thing while some just curious text GHS how is the work that you guys do in being impacted or is there an impact or relationship with some of the initiatives the state of Texas is so the goal of the Texas global security innovation consortium is to support innovations that launched locally and grow globally we spent some time as an organisation brainstorming areas of focus vaccination therapeutics diagnostics access and so we have those broad areas of focus but the next step for us that we’ve undertaken is opening up lines of communication with the governor’s office with the city of Austin Ted to help understand what their needs are and where the priorities of the state are because ultimately this is this is focused on supporting the work of you know supporting the work that’s going on in Texas affecting citizens of Texas and so we opened up those you know those dialogue but it’s really important for us to to keep that kind of bilateral conversation going and so that that that certainly is an aspect of the work of the organization but we really want to make sure that you know that we are serving the priorities of definitely the state of Texas certainly the city of Austin I’m presenting and and serving as a clearinghouse for technologies is that that could you know that could help address problems are having at the city level help address problems they’re having at the state level and to be able to do that we need to know where those priorities are and you know and and make sure that we have this sort of a mouth piece in the eyes aligned to it to areas that we can support the work of the state of Texas

so the whole point of this is not it you know it’s to support work going on at the state level support work going on at the city level and help citizens with technologies that are market ready or near market ready it’s a it’s a two way street at a really practical level you know one of the first roles of the consortium plate is when people who are in a political role sol ideas for things that they want to do whether contact tracing is a perfect example it’s it’s much more difficult to put into practice in it that ends up being for social reasons often rather technical reasons but when you see a a technology that you’re wondering well should we be looking at this is a state of the city they can come to this consortium and both figure out if it’s a good option or share the fact that the city or the state wants to pursue technologies in this area and the consortium can share that need with with all the members who we’re able to bring those technologies into reality and then vice versa different companies in the ecosystem may have a technology that they want to see is there a way to incorporate this in the city’s efforts in the state’s efforts and so the consortium can empower these companies the start ups these innovators these academics to basically see if there’s a need for the technology and SO where’s the best place that to grow so establishing that that two way streets really important so as far as working with the bio sciences lab over a C. C. what are the relationships or or being formed their so with regard to cove in nineteen there is indeed a lot of important science in the mall

we’ve seen a number of different companies that are working on our activity towards code nineteen of those families like macro multipack it’s done a lot of important work on them modeling and you know of interactions to speed drug development companies like a risky and that’s you know that’s working on researching aspects that viral infectivity at companies like lung therapeutics that had a previously developed therapeutic for Iraq for its very specific type of lung injury on that we also see incumbent nineteen so each of these companies that wonderful in a wonderful examples of I. tech companies that have you know that were immediately able to to sort of have it or in our focus their efforts on creating treatments and you know and strategies to address covered nineteen we are excited to talk to them as well Lisa hi Andrew I loved the conversation we had so happy to know the work that you guys are doing and excited for you and I’m going to get the website see how I can contribute as well will will definitely put the the website links on the show notes and make sure audience can connect with you as well keep up the good work thank you thank you very much take care thank you again Lisa and Andrew for sure in a little bit more of a y’all have been up to I love it when efficiencies are built for the good of the rest of society keep up the good work it’s truly inspiring if you’d like to learn more about Texas DHS please visit the link in our show notes sign small y’all is created in partnership between founding media and the Austin community college bioscience incubator to learn more about ACC bioscience incubator please visit the link in our show notes if you like what you learned please be sure to subscribe and share it with a friend or family member