It was likely as a biomedical engineering undergraduate at Arizona State University that Alec McCall’s appetite was whetted for technology commercialization, specifically in the medical device industry and the translation of scientific innovations. In his bid to gain laboratory experience, he went to a recently hired faculty member who had yet to populate her lab. Then-Assistant Professor Jessica Weaver tested McCall’s skillset by describing a recent problem with encapsulated cells inside hydrogels not getting enough oxygen or nutrients, and losing their effectiveness over time. She had thoughts on the complex geometries needed to increase the surface area to volume ratio, and asked if he could make something in terms of injection molding to reproducibly generate these complex hydrogel construct geometries. McCall worked with speed and focus to make a 3D-printed prototype in less than a week and earned his spot as an undergraduate researcher in the lab. After many iterations, the resulting product ultimately became a patented, ongoing injection molding project that continues in ASU’s Weaver Lab.
Alec McCall, Ph.D. ’26: Biomedical engineer, entrepreneur, and ambassador for innovative, people-first tech
Brown doctoral student paves his path to an entrepreneurial career by expanding science from the Shukla Lab through Brown Technology Innovations and the newly-launched NSF I-Corps chapter on campus.
As McCall began looking for biomedical engineering graduate programs, he was impressed and encouraged by Brown and the Shukla Laboratory for Designer Biomaterials. Anita Shukla, Elaine I. Savage Professor of Engineering at Brown, was also working in drug delivery and hydrogels. McCall was interested in this innovative side of translational medicine, and talked directly with Shukla about the idea of finding viable research that could be turned into a venture.
“I asked if I could get involved in something like that with her lab,” he said. “And without hesitation, she said, ‘If the research is viable, let’s do it.’”
He went straight to work upon arrival on College Hill, tasked with restoring the original chemical composition of a bacteria-responsive hydrogel for use in a grant-funded project the lab was working toward. It took just under a year for that, during which time McCall applied for and received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, where funding can allow slightly more freedom in choosing projects.
He extended the work beyond this specific hydrogel to encompass other aspects of bacteria-responsive smart hydrogel wound care originating in the Shukla Lab. Quality science and data is crucial for an entrepreneur, especially in this area.
“I started playing around with light-initiated polymers, essentially just a different type of reaction to make these responsive hydrogels. And microneedles. It worked, but it wasn’t amazing,” he said. This was the basis of McCall’s Ph.D. qualification exam, but during that time, he found a gap in the literature that did not tie together skin and bacterial biofilm mechanics, which piqued his interest in collaborating with mechanical engineering postdoc Akshay Pakhare on a separate project.
“During that collaboration, I continued research on the separate light-initiated polymer project, leading me to develop new responsive hydrogel compositions for applications beyond infection.” Based on this continued research and prior intellectual property from the Shukla Lab, McCall locked in on what his venture would be.
He calls it Enzylock, a smart antimicrobial wound dressing technology that has the potential to enable more effective healing. The dressing activates only in the presence of bacterial enzymes, releasing targeted antimicrobial therapy to accelerate recovery.
“Professor Shukla was aware when I started how interested I was in entrepreneurship,” he said. “And she has allowed and supported me to do these side quests for my ultimate goal of building a spin-out company, where she is co-founder and inventor of the original intellectual property.”
That would be the end of the story, if translational scientific ventures spun out from academic laboratories weren’t in such conflict with the commercial world. It’s often not just one factor, but a cascade of interconnected challenges that doom these spin-offs, including financial, cultural, scientific, and operational challenges.
Brown Technology Innovations and the Innovation Corps
Throughout this work in the lab, McCall had also been in contact with Melissa Simon, Director of Business Development at Brown Technology Innovations (BTI). He accepted an Innovation Fellowship, working with BTI and receiving training in technology evaluation, market research, and patenting. Fellows help assess the commercial potential of early-stage technologies developed at Brown, evaluating industry interest and developing marketing strategies, and composing technical reports and pitch documents, all of which helps provide an understanding of the basic business elements involved in licensing strategies for IP and creating an early-stage startup.
“That opened up my world to looking at a market in a holistic manner, and how products should fit in there,” he said. “Melissa was incredibly supportive throughout the process, encouraging me to think about how our bacteria-responsive hydrogels could move beyond the lab. Professor Shukla had long been interested in translating this work, and therefore I started exploring what commercialization could look like.”
“More and more, I was also hearing about I-Corps. I was interested in it because I knew it would be beneficial if I wanted to be an entrepreneur – its big thing is the customer discovery process.”
I-Corps, the NSF Innovation Corps, funded a New England region hub led by MIT in January 2025 that included regional partnership sections at Brown, Harvard, Northeastern, Tufts, Maine, UMass and New Hampshire. McCall was Brown’s first Ph.D. student representative.
The National I-Corps program is a training initiative designed to accelerate the transition of scientific and engineering research from university labs to the commercial marketplace by leaning into the customer discovery process. By conducting more than 100 interviews with prospective customers, partners and stakeholders, participants are trained to ask the correct questions to help validate their business hypotheses, define their value proposition, and quickly assess the commercial viability and market need for their technology innovation. Ultimately, this prevents them from developing a product that no one wants.
In fall 2024’s ENGN 2911R Analytical Modeling for Biomechanical and Biomedical Systems class, McCall met up with master's student William Ash (BME Sc.M. ’26), and the two found common ground in a desire to push out a commercial venture. McCall recognized the assets Ash could bring to a partnership, including four years of industry experience at Integra Life Sciences in medical device product development. Once McCall committed Enzylock to I-Corps, Ash was his first ask to join him. McCall has been so pleased with the dynamic, he wants to use his platform as I-Corps Ph.D. representative to advocate for a pathway to connect master’s and doctoral students in future ventures.
Ash said, “This collaboration has been incredibly impactful, validating my capabilities in venture creation, product development and go-to-market strategy, deal sourcing, and all the other skills associated with building a new venture.”
He and McCall both referred to ongoing research projects within Brown led by entrepreneurial doctoral students who would benefit from the additional support of master’s students and where those students could play a meaningful role. “I believe directly engaging master’s students in conversations around translation would lead to more graduate student collaborations where individuals of unique backgrounds are brought together to create new ventures,” Ash said.
The duo has already completed two rounds of interview programs under the New England Region Hub I-Corps umbrella, conducting the second round at the Symposium for the Advancement of Wound Care in Las Vegas.
“That round for us,” McCall said, “was about asking questions of clinicians in the wound care space. We did not talk about technology. We mentioned that we’re students, and want to ask questions on impediments to workflow, and what is that problem? Or what do you wish you had? We extract that data, make hypotheses, test them, and then we iterate based off of the results. If they align with our product, then great. If it doesn’t, then that means two things: our product is either not needed in a marketplace, or we take the data, put it into our research, and iterate again. And it’s not just based on one person, obviously, it’s based on a collective of responders.
“For the product that we have, this responsive material, we’ve had some people mentioning how they wish the bandage could respond in the moment. You know, they like the standard of care that’s already out there, but William and I were able to shadow a local wound care clinic and actually see what people are experiencing. And talk to them.
“One of the biggest complaints for the clinician and the patient side is the amount of times that they have to rewrap their legs. So if we can make something that responds dynamically to the situation and the wound, then it could be something that can be put on for a longer period of time, limiting the number of changes. So we go back to the drawing board to make sure that we can do that.
“That’s what I-Corps does for a venture; it’s another way of testing. Instead of just testing it for a protocol in a lab, it’s testing for the knowledge of creation to then bring back to the lab.”
He is quick to credit Professor Shukla and the School of Engineering, Brown’s Technology Innovations sector and the I-Corps experience equally in bringing his plans to its current apex. “Brown has all this great technology, not only just in biomedical engineering, but all throughout engineering and the other sciences. If this venture fails, which obviously we hope it doesn’t, but if it does, that’s what I envision down the line – continuing to work with Brown in regard to other technologies. That’s something William and I have both discussed. There’s so much great research going on here.”
Enzylock itself is the impetus McCall needed to stave off experiencing Ph.D. burnout. “When I started getting the itch for the venture, it really motivated me and put things into perspective. The Ph.D. is very short-term,” he said with a smile. “I mean it’s relative, but it’s short-term and it’ll be done soon, and then I can move on to what I want to actually do, to get medical devices out that actually help people. I don’t want to do this just for myself, but I’ve always wanted to help people.”