For Silpe, the search for a solution quickly became personal and professional. He brought his experiences and ideas to the Bassler Lab at Princeton, where he was already studying bacterial cell communication under Professor and Chair of Molecular Biology Bonnie Bassler. There, the vision for PumpKin took shape: a natural, infant-safe formulation to preserve breastmilk and help all breastfeeding parents.
On campus, the entrepreneurial space for researchers looks a bit different from that of undergraduate students. While undergraduates grapple with whether to focus on their entrepreneurial ventures or their education, researchers may be balancing independent research, legal obligations as employees of the University, and care for their children. They also contend with conflicts of interest, such as contracts involving intellectual property, files for patents, or commitments between different research groups.
On Oct. 4, 2024, the University officially announced the new Office of Innovation, a central hub for faculty, researchers, and entrepreneurs. The Office will be led by Craig Arnold, who serves as the vice dean of innovation, and intends to serve as a point of coordination to the many innovation-related activities happening across campus every day.
“We focus mostly on things that are related to technology and patents, but if we can be a sympathetic ear, if we can relate to a problem, if we can help in some way, support anybody on our campus — that’s what we want to do,” Arnold said. “I don’t want people to feel like they’re not a part of the ecosystem.”
According to Arnold, while the University’s entrepreneurship community spans across many age groups and disciplines, they share many commonalities, from the desire to translate ideas into applications to stress and the fear of failure.
“Innovation is alive and well at Princeton,” Arnold said. “We want to support [our organizations]. We want to support our faculty. We want to support our postdocs, our staff, and our students.”
The ‘Prince’ sat down with three teams of researchers and a pair of educators who transformed their ideas into ventures.
