The University of Arizona Center for Innovation Expands Team with Highly Accomplished Mentor-in-Residence Doubling its Capacity to Serve Startups
The University of Arizona Center for Innovation (UACI) is pleased to announce the expansion of the team with Peter Nestler in the position of Mentor-in-Residence. In this role, he will work with UACI staff, Subject Matter Experts and Mentor-In-Residence to support startups with an added focus on life sciences.
Dr. H. Peter Nestler has more than 25 years of experience in academic life sciences, big pharma and biotech environments. In 1992, he obtained his Doctorate of Philosophy with a focus on Chemistry from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. His career led him through a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University and a faculty position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory into industry and eventually to Tucson. Dr. Nestler has earned many prestigious awards, including the Alta Bioscience Award at the Fifth International "Symposium Solid Phase Synthesis and Combinatorial Chemical Libraries" from London in 1997. He was awarded the “Studienabschlußstipendium” of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie Deutschlands, a Ph.D. Fellowship of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie Deutschlands, and was named a member of the “Graduiertenkolleg Biological and Chemical Synthesis of Low Molecular Weight Bioactive Compounds” at Goethe University.
He has been a member of several prestigious societies, including the American Peptide Society from 1997 to 2003, the Japanese Combinatorial Chemistry Focus Group since 1996, and the American Chemical Society since 1995. He served as a Proofing Editor for the Chemical Highlights in 1993 and 1994, and he has been a member of the German Chemical Society since 1987.
Dr. Nestler has nearly 40 patents and publications to his credit. These include "A General Method for Molecular Tagging of Encoded Combinatorial Chemistry Libraries," co-authored with P.A. Bartlett and W.C. Still. He is also the lead author of "Molecular Forceps from Combinatorial Libraries Prevent the Farnesylation of Ras by Binding to Its Carboxy-Terminus." in 1999. These are just a small sample of his many influential publications, which are frequently referenced throughout the industry. In addition, he has four promising patent applications not yet published.
Dr. Nestler is also an active member of the Desert Angels - Southern Arizona’s seed-stage investment group. His extensive experience will be shared with over 50 science and technology-related startups that call UACI home. Dr. Nestler complements the robust team at UACI which ensures startups have the expertise and support necessary to successfully launch their business. UACI provides a structured venture development plan which navigates entrepreneurs through a 27-point program roadmap that includes everything from business planning, team development and obtaining funding. UACI provides dedicated space for startups where they can work alongside other entrepreneurs in a fast-paced environment.
About the UA Center for Innovation
The University of Arizona Center for Innovation (UACI) is a startup incubator network with outposts across the Southern Arizona region and a mission to grow scalable science and technology startup ventures that fuel the Arizona economy. For nearly two decades, the program has directly served over 160 companies and impacted thousands of entrepreneurs. This is done by providing access to people, programming and places that help entrepreneurs take their companies from idea to market. Startups go through a structured program that takes them through a continuum of education provided by mentors, advisors and community collaborators. UACI also provides access to service providers, industry cluster groups, interns and connections to potential customers and strategic partners. Entrepreneurs utilize various physical spaces that include offices, wet and dry labs, meeting rooms, a prototyping center, collaboration areas and the infrastructure to support these spaces. The UACI is part of Tech Parks Arizona, which brings together university, industry and community, creating “interactive ground” to advance technology innovation.
PETER NESTLER, PhD
Mentor-in-Residence
University of Arizona Center for Innovation
