BASE Accelerator Snapshot: Elizabeth Crist
A woman in a blue turtleneck sitting in front of a window smiling
Biomedical Engineering Ph.D candidate Elizabeth Crist

Last month was the kick-off of the BASE Accelerator event at the University of Minnesota. Seven student entrepreneurs pitched ideas to a group of mentors and advisors. Over the next four weeks they will refine their concepts in advance of a final Go / No Go session at Walter Library in August. 

We're taking a look at each of the entrepreneur teams in turn. This week: Elizabeth Crist of OncoFluidX. Her mentors are Michael Williams, Erik Severin, Himanshu Laiker, Shirley Hu and Sarah Anderson

Q: Hi Elizabeth! What's the elevator speech for your concept?

A: Currently, cancer drug development demands over a decade and billions of dollars to bring a new pharmaceutical agent to the market with only a 5% success rate. The deadliest aspect of cancer is its ability to spread throughout a patient's body, which is termed metastasis.

Our product is the first in vitro culture system that uses microfluidic technology and 3D human tumor samples to recreate each stage of metastasis in sequence. We aim to use our platform to determine the efficacy of combinatorial cancer therapies on inhibiting metastasis, which will help ensure only the most promising drugs enter clinical trials.

Q: How is the BASE accelerator process helping you to refine the concept?

A: Working with my mentors in the BASE program, I will better understand the competitive landscape and specific differentiators of my technology. Additionally, we seek to identify go-to market strategies and the beachhead market for our product. 
 
"Decision Day" for the BASE Accelerator concepts will be held Thursday, August 4 at Walter Library of the University's Twin Cities campus.

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