Winning the 2018 University of Florida Warrington School of Business Big Idea Competition helped Nasser Nassiri Koopaei, Ph.D., ’21, plant a seed, which the UF College of Pharmacy alumnus has been carefully nurturing ever since.
Nassiri Koopaei, who holds a doctorate in pharmaceutics from the UF College of Pharmacy and master’s degrees in public health and chemical and pharmaceutical engineering from the University of Tehran, presented his research about the production of extracellular vesicles from stem cells to a panel of Warrington judges back in 2018, his spirited presentation motivated by an affinity for innovation and a desire to address unmet medical needs in targeted drug delivery.
His enthusiasm was clear to the judges, and he took home a $25,000 prize — money he invested in making his research dreams a reality. Today, Nassiri Koopaei sits at the helm of EriVan Bio, a biotechnology start-up housed in the UF Innovate Sid Martin Biotech Incubator in Alachua, Florida.
At EriVan Bio, Nassiri Koopaei’s team uses bone marrow, plasma, body fat, umbilical cords, plants and bovine milk to create high-quality exosomes for biopharmaceutical manufacturing and research purposes. Likening exosomes to envelopes that safely transport precious messages, Nassiri Koopaei said that the exosomes his company produces demonstrate high efficacy in delivering therapeutics and drugs into their target tissues in the human body.
Currently, his company is partnering with the National Institutes of Health to address one critical medical need: targeted drug delivery to the brain.
“The drug delivery industry has long faced a challenge in the form of the blood-brain barrier, the wall around our brain that limits the influx of compounds, chemicals and toxins. It’s a very tough barrier, and we are surpassing it with our exosomes to deliver drugs to the brain,” Nassiri Koopaei explained. “Our focus right now is on brain tumors and Alzheimer’s disease, but this delivery platform could be used for therapeutic applications for Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease or any other type of neurological condition in which a drug delivery system can help deliver a therapeutic modality to the brain.”
Leading a start-up biotechnology company is no walk in the park, and Nassiri Koopaei said he often found himself feeling like Alice in Wonderland in the first couple of years, trying out different methods and routes to secure necessary resources. Despite the wrong turns and setbacks implicit in this fast-paced field, the promise of making real improvements in the lives of patients keeps Nassiri Koopaei rising to the occasion each day.
“To create something, you sacrifice a lot. During the weekends, you must be willing to put all of your resources into this. You have to be a good learner and welcome any advice, criticism and failure. For me, it comes down to a personal passion to pursue something new. Of course, the end goal of any business is to generate wealth, but it should not be the only goal. If you create something valuable for the community, then everything good will come along with that,” he said. “Every day that you are getting one step closer to the end goal — a therapeutic for Alzheimer’s, for example — represents a small step in the right direction. It’s about progress.”
Nassiri Koopaei’s commitment to innovation isn’t confined simply to industry — the UF alumnus aimed to inspire the next generation of inventive researchers in his role as an adjunct assistant professor in the UF College of Pharmacy, where he’s contributed to the development of a model-informed drug development program.
Balancing a demanding schedule with a full-time career in biotechnology may tire some, but Nassiri Koopaei feels grateful to remain an integral part of the academic institution that helped him plant the seed from which his career blossomed. He credits his training at UF for providing the skills in technology, financial management and accounting he needed to create his business plan, as well as the professional and financial networks necessary to maintain a brick-and-mortar location.
“With its advocacy for entrepreneurial pathways and innovation, our College of Pharmacy is opening a new horizon for students, faculty members and stakeholders to be more activated in starting companies and generating new ideas and technologies that translate the foundational research of our college into marketable products that will help patients,” Nassiri Koopaei said. “I’m so happy to see and be a part of this ongoing, exciting trend.”