Carleton Innovation Scholars for 2024–25 present project recommendations to Mayo Clinic

On Friday, February 28, the Carleton Innovation Scholars team presented their project recommendations to Mayo Clinic licensing managers and innovators at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as culmination of the Innovation Scholars Program.

Working at the intersection of science, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, the multidisciplinary team of four Carleton students spent four months tackling a challenging biomedical tech transfer project focused on a novel technology for simple and rapid generation of recombinant adenoviruses for in vivo gene delivery.

Carleton’s 2024–25 Innovation Scholars team is comprised of Theodore Bester ’26, economics major; Selina Chen ’26, biology major with a minor in neuroscience; Benjamin Szeto ’26, economics major with minors in statistics and data science and public policy; and Allison Tran ’26, economics major with a minor in statistics and data science. Campus mentors include Matt Rand, professor of biology; Ethan Struby, assistant professor of economics; Debby Walser-Kuntz, Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Biology and the Natural Sciences; and Bruce Dalgaard, visiting scholar in economics. The team is led by Augsburg University MBA student Amanda Xiong.

Innovation Scholars is a nationally recognized experiential learning program that engages teams of liberal arts students in the complex processes of translational medicine, taking an idea “from the bench to the bedside.” Project partners include Mayo Clinic, early-stage companies affiliated with Medical Alley, and NASA.