Global Entrepreneur

LSU Health New Orleans Faculty Innovation Goes Global

The US State Department and Small Business Administration selected Sunyoung Kim, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, to represent the United States at the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Dr. Kim was one of 300 US delegates at the Summit held in Hyderabad, India at the end of the year.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), “GES is the preeminent annual entrepreneurship gathering that convenes emerging entrepreneurs, investors and supporters from around the world. Through two and a half days of networking, mentoring, and workshops, GES empowers entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas, build partnerships, secure funding, innovate, and find their target customers -- creating new goods and services that will transform societies.”

GES serves as a link between governments and the private sector and champions new opportunities for investment. Participants are picked for their ability to catalyze innovation, investment, and mentoring. The theme of the 2017 Summit, the eighth, was Women First, Prosperity for All.

Kim founded Chosen Diagnostics, an LSU Health New Orleans spin-out company based on the technology her lab developed for the early detection of a life-threatening gastrointestinal disease affecting pre-term, low birthweight babies. The noninvasive test picks up necrotizing enterocolitis, one of the leading cause of sickness and death among premature infants, significantly sooner than the current standard diagnostic test—an x-ray. The earlier treatment starts, the better the outcome for these fragile newborns.

GES says, “Ripple effects from the gathering of budding entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and policymakers will play out well into the future. Some tech proposals may be wildly successful, and even the failures may inspire young innovators to come back with better ideas. White House adviser and U.S. delegation head Ivanka Trump told participants, ‘You are saving lives, creating jobs and bringing hope to our communities.’”