Innovators’ Coffee Hour
The Office for Innovation and the Associate Dean for Research are pleased to host the “Innovators’ Coffee Hour”. The Innovator’s Coffee Hour is a gathering for our community to ask questions, get answers, and meet other Eberly innovators. The monthly coffee hour will occur on every 3rd Wednesday of the month and alternate, morning or afternoon, to accommodate schedules.
2025/2026 Schedule:
Abstract: Dr. Ben Lear, Professor of Chemistry, will share the story of how a research idea evolved into a patented technology and ultimately a startup. Dr. Lear received LB2C support for his project on ultra-fast, on-demand curing of thermosets using photothermal nanoparticles—tiny particles that absorb light and convert it to heat in nanoseconds. This approach enables rapid curing of commercially available polymers, offering major advantages for coatings, adhesives, and additive manufacturing. His LB2C experience, combined with feedback from our Tech Advisory Board, played a key role in shaping the early translational direction. The project later catalyzed the formation of Actinic in 2018 and was in operation until 2023. The startup was co-founded by Dr. Lear and his PhD student Joe Fortenbaugh, who went on to join the prestigious Innovation Crossroads entrepreneurial fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. There, Joe continued to develop an MVP for the 3D printing market while receiving world-class scientific support, business training, and investor mentorship. Dr. Lear will share insights from the PI perspective—what helped, what surprised him, and how translational programs can support faculty and students as they move ideas toward real-world application.
Abstract: Dr. Scott Lindner, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, received Lab Bench to Commercialization (LB2C) support in 2018 to support his work developing a versatile protein-scaffold platform designed to expand the capabilities of cryo-EM for small, challenging biological targets. The LB2C award enabled the early technical development and proof-of-concept data that positioned him to secure a $2.2M NIGMS Focused Technology Research and Development grant—an externally validated milestone demonstrating how translational seed funding can catalyze major federal investment.
This project also became a launching point for Dr. Lindner’s broader translational trajectory, including his decision to pursue an MBA with a concentration in Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the Smeal College of Business. His experience underscores how early translational framing can reshape a research program—from identifying market-aligned applications to recognizing how the existing prior-art landscape can influence the development pathways available to new technologies.
Dr. Lindner will share reflections on navigating this process: how the LB2C award supported his transition into translational work, how the project evolved toward a competitive federal technology-development proposal, and how this journey has shaped the way he approaches research, mentorship, and scientific opportunity.
Abstract: In this coffee hour, Mauricio Terrones, Professor of Physics, and Nestor Perea-Lopez will reflect on their experience using the Lab Bench to Commercialization (LB2C) program to move a research concept toward real-world application.
In 2015, Terrones, Perea-Lopez and collaborators received an LB2C award for their project “A Size Tunable Enrichment Platform for Capturing Nanoparticles in a Fluid.” That work became the foundation for Virolock Technologies, a startup co-founded by Terrones, Perea-Lopez, and Yin-Ting Yeh, Ph.D. Virolock has developed a portable sample preparation platform that selectively captures and enriches viral particles based on size, without the use of antibodies, enabling improved detection from highly dilute field samples. The technology has been validated for agricultural diagnostics, including Plum Pox Virus, and has demonstrated compatibility with plant, animal, and human samples, with additional applications such as avian influenza under study. The company has also secured SBIR funding to further advance the technology.
Terrones & Perea-Lopez will discuss the benefits and challenges of launching a startup as Penn State employees, lessons learned from the commercialization process, and how early translational funding and institutional programs helped shape the path from lab to market. This session is intended for faculty, researchers, and trainees interested in entrepreneurship, technology translation, and the practical realities of building a company alongside an academic career.