Start-ups launched out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) are part of Birmingham’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, with the University’s start-up portfolio boasting a mix of established companies and upstart businesses.

However, the path to launching a start-up can be complicated, as the team at UAB’s Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HIIE) well understands. The HIIE, which functions as UAB’s technology transfer office, also helps guide UAB inventors who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs and start-up founders.

The HIIE will host a “How to Launch a Start-up” Panel Discussion on April 21 at the Alumni Theater in UAB’s Hill Student Center to help inventors currently in the start-up pipeline and to share information for anyone potentially interested in one day starting a business. The "How to Launch a Start-up" Panel Discussion will be April 21.

The panel discussion will feature Brooke Gillis, CEO of Innovation Depot; Abi Kulshreshthra, Ph.D., of Southern Research; Vivek Lal, M.D., of ResBiotic and Alveolus Bio; Jason Nichols, Ph.D., with the UAB Entrepreneurial Development Committee (EDC), and Kathy Nugent, Ph.D. of the HIIE.

Panelists will discuss the process of launching a start-up at UAB, with Nichols discussing the role of the EDC at UAB and Nugent discussing how inventors work with the Harbert Institute, which functions as UAB’s technology transfer office.

Kulshreshthra will talk about Southern Research’s newly created venture studio, and Lal, a UAB Associate Professor in pediatrics, will speak on his experience as a founder of two start-ups. Time will be provided for questions from the audience.

The event will also celebrate Moon Nahm, M.D., professor emeritus in the UAB Department of Medicine, and Michael Niederweis, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Microbiology, who were both recently named Senior Members by the National Academy of Inventors.

All in the UAB and Birmingham communities are welcome at the event. Registration is required. Breakfast and networking will begin at 8:30 a.m., and the panel discussion will begin at 9 a.m.

For more information or to register, visit the UAB Events Calendar. To learn more about the HIIE, visit uab.edu/innovation.