Lucas Rodriguez MS’14, PhD’16
Hear from industry leaders, build your virtual network and learn about the latest biomedical engineering research advancements at UT Dallas. Reserve your free spot today.
Featured speakers include:
Bioengineering Alumnus Helps Seal $52.5M Deal for Pain-Relief Startup
Lucas Rodriguez MS’14, PhD’16
Hear from industry leaders, build your virtual network and learn about the latest biomedical engineering research advancements at UT Dallas. Reserve your free spot today.
Featured speakers include:
CerSci Therapeutics, founded by Lucas Rodriguez MS’14, PhD’16, was recently sold to Acadia Pharmaceuticals for $52.5 million. The company is focused on developing non-opioid pain therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of acute and chronic pain.
Rodriguez, an alumnus of The University of Texas at Dallas’ Department of Bioengineering at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, proved to be the catalyst that two faculty members needed to successfully launch a biotech startup. CerSci was founded in 2015 to develop therapies for pain relief without the addictive properties of opioids, which are responsible for the deaths of more than 125 Americans every day, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Rodriguez developed the business plan for CerSci while working on his doctorate at UT Dallas and after hearing about the research of Dr. Theodore Price BS’97, program head and Eugene McDermott Professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), and Dr. Gregory Dussor, associate professor of neuroscience fellow, co-founder and co-director of the Pain Neurobiology Research Group and Eugene McDermott Professor in the BBS.
The two longtime faculty collaborators had been mulling over which of their research products could eventually be commercialized when Rodriguez urged them to focus on plans for a nonopioid analgesic, which would be the first such product in a decade or more. Given the nation’s devastating opioid epidemic, it seemed especially critical to develop a product for acute pain relief that would not expose millions of people to possible addiction.
Early on, CerSci Therapeutics acquired a molecular compound called CT-044 that was invented by Scott Dax, who later became CerSci’s chief scientific officer. CT-044 works at the pain source without interacting with opioid receptors in the brain. This acquisition transformed CerSci, which then focused its attention on their new lead program.
In August 2020, San Diego-based Acadia Pharmaceuticals acquired the UT Dallas startup company and began moving the CT-044-based drug through its remaining clinical development. Because the drug will help treat acute postoperative conditions as well as chronic pain, the business deal could later reward shareholders with hundreds of millions of dollars. Such an outcome is one that many researchers only dream about.
From Lab to Business World
Rodriguez’s passion for entrepreneurship began shortly after he arrived at UT Dallas to complete a master’s degree in biomedical engineering. While working in the lab of Dr. Danieli Rodrigues, associate professor of bioengineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, he helped develop a synthetic bone substitute for orthopedic and craniofacial surgeries.
“I began looking into what it would take to commercialize that technology,” Rodriguez said. When he entered his PhD program, Rodriguez designed and developed a titanium implant for craniofacial and dental surgeries and took his entrepreneurial interest to the next level by following a Food and Drug Administration guidance document to commercialize the technology.
“By the time we were finished, we were in an interesting place to patent it and potentially try to commercialize that technology. That got me interested in the business aspects of technology development, and I decided I would start taking management classes,” Rodriguez said.
He enrolled in an entrepreneurship class in the Naveen Jindal School of Management while still working on his PhD in biomedical engineering. When Rodriguez was brainstorming with an advisor about a pitch for the school’s 2014 Big Idea Competition, he learned that two UT Dallas faculty members were working on nonopioid pain relief. Rodriguez set up a meeting with Price and Dussor to discuss a startup plan based on their new approach to treating pain.
Rodriguez said, “It was really cool to see some younger academicians who were interested in developing technology for broader utilization. They had a larger vision for technologies that would ultimately have an impact on patients. I was just really captivated by that.”
By February 2015, they had incorporated CerSci Therapeutics, with Rodriguez serving as the CEO. Eventually, they raised nearly $20 million from private investors and received over $2 million from the National Institutes of Health.
University Support
Besides the academic excellence UT Dallas offered Rodriguez, the University also provided him with the physical space, networking and commercialization expertise necessary to support his entrepreneurial initiative in the first few years.
The startup was originally based in the Venture Development Center — an incubator space for companies that have their roots in the University — before CerSci Therapeutics received its initial equity investment, enabling it to relocate in downtown Dallas.
Rodriguez touted the forward-thinking programs and resources at UT Dallas that help students and faculty develop startups. He also praised the University’s faculty for nurturing his interests in biotech development projects.
“I want to give a huge plug to the entire bioengineering department for being so entrepreneurial minded, which gave me the flexibility to augment some of my terminal science classes with management classes and allowed me to take the first step toward this,” Rodriguez concluded.
