Purdue Innovates celebrates National Entrepreneurship Month in November to recognize the men and women who start businesses to address needs around the world. The backbone of the American economy is formed by the drive and ingenuity of these entrepreneurs.
Purdue Innovates is a streamlined system that provides support and resources for entrepreneurs including technology commercialization, intellectual property protection and licensing, enterprise creation, and venture capital. Purdue Innovates has three dedicated groups: Incubator, Office of Technology Commercialization and Ventures.
About Meng Deng and Adipo Therapeutics
Meng Deng is the founder and president of Adipo Therapeutics, a preclinical biotechnology startup company whose technology platform is being developed to treat obesity, type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases. Deng also is an associate professor in Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and School of Materials Engineering.
Adipo Therapeutics’ nanoparticles transform energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat. Research has established a correlation of higher levels of brown fat with lower odds of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and other conditions.
“The research in my laboratory at Purdue is focused on developing advanced biomaterials for regenerative engineering and drug delivery. I believe entrepreneurship provides enormous opportunities to translate these research innovations to help patients. It is invigorating to take an idea from the laboratory and develop it into a viable company,” Deng said.
“At Adipo Therapeutics, we are dedicated to developing a bioengineered drug delivery system to harness the power of energy-burning brown fat to tackle the challenges of obesity and type 2 diabetes faced by over 100 million people in the U.S. I firmly believe if you dream big you can have a tremendous impact on the lives and futures of others.”
Adipo Therapeutics has raised over $3 million in seed funding. It is now raising a Series A financing round to complete development through the first human dose.
“The support from the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Purdue has been integral to help us get this far by providing training, intellectual property protection and patent filing, resources, mentors and funding. I have learned so much about starting and growing a business and am grateful to Purdue Innovates personnel for their ongoing support,” Deng said.
“The programs such as Introduction to Customer Discovery and NSF I-Corps provided customer feedback on the need for additional obesity treatment while the Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy enabled me to gain needed knowledge and training in entrepreneurship. On the IP side, we have a dedicated team at the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization to help us with patent filing and license of the IP with a streamlined process. On the business side, our former entrepreneur-in-residence Wade Lange helped connect me to our CEO Karen Wurster who brings decades of experience working at Eli Lilly and Co. on treatments for type 2 diabetes and currently leads a cross-functional team at Adipo. We have also been fortunate to benefit from funding investments from Purdue Research Foundation and continue working closely with the Purdue Innovates as we navigate the journey from bench to bedside.”
Visit Adipo Therapeutics’ website to learn more about the company and its work.
Visit Purdue Innovates’ website to learn more about its entrepreneurial support and resources.