Join us for an inspiring evening as we welcome WashU's newly appointed vice chancellor for innovation and commercialization, Doug Frantz, to the heart of the biotech industry right here in Boston. This event is designed to foster connections among the vibrant WashU Boston Biotech community, spotlighting the university's remarkable achievements and charting the path forward for innovation.
The event kicks off with a networking reception, providing an excellent opportunity to mingle with peers and establish new connections. Frantz will then take the stage to share insights into WashU's current innovation landscape (the good, the bad, and the ugly), strategies for accelerating the translation of lab discoveries into tangible clinical outcomes that benefit society, and efforts to grow the St. Louis innovation ecosystem through talent training, recruitment, and retention inside and beyond the walls of WashU.
Don't miss this unique opportunity to connect with industry leaders, share your perspectives, and explore new frontiers in biotech innovation with Doug Frantz and the WashU community.
Event Timeline
6 p.m. | Event begins; networking reception opens
6:30 p.m. | Featured speaker: Doug Frantz, vice chancellor for innovation and commercialization
6:50 p.m. | Open dialogue between Franz and guests
7:30 p.m. | Networking, tableside conversations
8:30 p.m. | Event concludes
Explore our attendee list to discover who will be joining the event!
Cost: $20 per person, registration required
Heavy hors d'oeuvres and drinks are included.
Please note, registration for this event will close at 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
About Doug E. Frantz 
Frantz's industry experience includes significant roles at Merck & Co., where he worked on early development teams to accelerate drug candidates into clinical trials for various therapeutic areas, including diabetes, chronic pain, oncology, and antivirals. In 2005, he transitioned to academia at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he directed the Synthetic Chemistry Core Facility and contributed to the discovery of WELIREG™, an FDA-approved drug for von Hippel-Lindau disease and associated cancers.
In 2009, Frantz joined UTSA, where he helped build the Department of Chemistry into a premier institution for organic chemistry. He co-founded the Center for Innovative Drug Discovery (CIDD), a collaborative initiative with UT Health San Antonio, which has secured over $30 million in funding and is considered a leading academic drug discovery center.
At WashU, Frantz's research focuses on asymmetric catalysis, physical organic chemistry, and drug discovery for chronic pain, cancer, infectious diseases, and neurodegeneration. His research has garnered funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Welch Foundation, among others. He collaborates with pharmaceutical companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly and has founded Bexar Biomedical, a startup focused on developing treatments for chronic pain.
Frantz has received several awards, including election as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (2021), and he has consulted for multiple startups and pharmaceutical firms. He has also served as an expert witness in drug discovery, intellectual property, and process chemistry legal cases.