The University of Delaware and the Delaware BioScience Association (Delaware Bio) have appointed Nicole Merli to a new role designed to spark biotech ecosystem growth through expansion and strengthening of university-business collaboration. The post is jointly funded by UD and Delaware Bio and is enabled through the National Science Foundation’s Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program to invest in capacity-building resources that enhance research impact.

Merli will lead efforts to support the translation of cutting-edge UD research into new technologies, products, companies and commercial opportunities through rich connections between faculty, students, entrepreneurs, investors and businesses.

Most recently the director of strategic alliances and communications at LumaCyte, a Virginia-based biotechnology company, Merli has extensive experience cultivating industry relationships, translating complex research and facilitating public-private partnerships that spur life science innovation. This includes serving as associate director of business development, strategic alliances, at the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), a public-private partnership headquartered at UD.

Previously, Merli was managing director of the Advanced Mammalian Biomanufacturing Innovation Center (AMBIC) at Johns Hopkins University. She was chosen as a Susan Riley Keys Memorial Fellow through the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), a year-long immersion in academic technology transfer topics such as protecting and transferring IP from the lab to the marketplace, corporate engagement and economic development.

She has a B.A. in economics from Franklin & Marshall College and an MBA from UD. She started in the new role on Oct. 1.