Larta Institute Launches the Heal.LA Bioscience Accelerator and Introduces the Pilot Cohort of Startups

Larta Institute introduces the pilot cohort of startups for the Heal.LA Bioscience Accelerator;

Key local organizations come together to offer support to Heal.LA program and initiative 

On March 31, 2021, Larta Institute is pleased and honored to present its Heal.LA initiative, which will serve as a development platform for promising biosciences startups and aspiring entrepreneurs in underserved communities. The program will also advocate and support innovative workforce initiatives across the L.A. region.  Gilead Sciences is the founding sponsor of Heal.LA. In the first phase of the Heal.LA initiative – the Heal.LA Bioscience Accelerator, Larta will leverage its nationally acclaimed and award-winning virtual acceleration program.  Heal.LA is currently managing a pilot cohort of 4 companies incubated at the state-of-the-artBioLabs at the Lundquist Institute.

Several key organizations and individuals have joined the Steering Committee and Advisory Committee in support of Heal.LA., including the Lundquist Institute, BioLabs at the Lundquist Institute, Bioscience LA, Biocom, and CTIP. These Heal.LA partners will help guide and develop programming and growth for the Heal.LA Accelerator and the initiative.

Larta designed and managed a pre-pilot phase of the Heal.LA program at the Lundquist Institute two years ago. Keith Hoffman, PhD, former SVP of Business Development at the Lundquist Institute declared that pre-pilot offering a “resounding success” and that “our companies improved their pitches, understanding of markets and customers and regulatory strategies. These companies, Hoffman says, “made significant advances toward… being designated a ‘fundable company’.  Hoffman will serve on the Advisory Committee for Heal.LA.   

Steering Committee member Gary Olsem, VP of Operations & Client Experience, says that “combining the accelerator program with the BioLabs LA co-working lab allows entrepreneurs to stretch funding further and advance to market faster.”  Also joining the Steering Committee is Bioscience LA CEO Dave Whelan who notes that the organizations that are part of Heal.LA’s Steering Committee have “led the development of Los Angeles” as it “has “rapidly increased its capacity for and expertise in life sciences commercialization” and is looking forward to “bringing programs like Heal.LA to a wider array of stakeholders.”  BioscienceLA also has pioneered the BioFutures Program in LA County. BiocomLA Executive Director Stephanie Hsieh agreed, saying that Biocom is “pleased to be an inaugural partner of Heal.LA to ensure that emerging bioscience companies thrive and expand our lifesaving work in Los Angeles.”  Stephanie is a biotech entrepreneur herself, so she knows “how important Heal.LA will be to early success.”    

The focus on patients and lifesaving innovations in Los Angeles is a major focus of Heal.LA, which seeks also to greatly increase its regional partnerships to expand, support and amplify regional capacity in commercializing innovations that apply “to the entrepreneurs, communities and ultimately the patients we serve,” as Dr. Juan Espinoza, Executive Director of CTIP, who also serves on the Heal.LA Steering Committee puts it.  Espinoza adds that “it is our responsibility to start breaking down the historical and systemic barriers in our industry, and Heal.LA is one important step in the right direction”.  

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