Cancer Therapeutics and Digital Healthcare
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (OEC) manages innovation, business development, and entrepreneurship opportunities at MSK through a multifaceted network of programs and initiatives designed to empower drug discovery and development, digital breakthroughs, and other technological advances.
World-renowned as a leader in cancer care and oncology research, MSK was recently ranked fourth among 60 biomedical institutes in the 2026 Cure Innovation Index—recognition of the institution’s “strength across both discovery science and the processes that move findings toward clinical application.” In 2025, MSK was named to the Top Ten of Fast Company’s “100 Best Workplaces for Innovators.”
Get to know us. MSK’s Office of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization works with industry partners to translate research innovations into real-world solutions for cancer patients around the world.
- 67 Invention Disclosures
- 100 Patent Applications
- 29 Patents Issued
Highlights from MSK Digital Health Pipeline
Highlights from MSK Life Sciences Pipeline
Overview
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (OEC) manages a world-class portfolio of entrepreneurship opportunities, intellectual property, and other technology advances across an extensive range of life sciences, digital health, and related healthcare portfolios. OEC is led by Yashodhara Dash, MBBS, PhD, MBA, who serves as MSK’s Vice President of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization.
OEC’s mission is to ensure that MSK innovation is developed and applied for the common good. We pursue this mission in partnership with MSK’s institution-wide community of innovators—while building productive relationships with companies, investors, and academic-research institutions throughout the global healthcare sector.
OEC is staffed an expert team of technology development professionals. They bring rigorous scientific, healthcare, and business backgrounds to the challenges of developing, managing, protecting, and commercializing MSK innovation; facilitating startup creation; partnering with industry; interacting with regulators; and much more.
Key Programs and Initiatives
Drug discovery and development represent a pivotal pathway through which MSK translates groundbreaking research into transformative patient therapies. But the path is complex and challenging, and it is an important priority for investigators to develop and de-risk projects as fully as possible before partnering, licensing, or entrepreneurial opportunities can best be explored.
For MSK investigators involved in drug discovery and development, OEC offers valuable services through two dynamic in-house initiatives: Product Development (PD) and Therapeutics Bridge Labs (TxBL). These programs are designed to provide the strategic infrastructure; scientific, regulatory, and advisory expertise; and multifaceted resources necessary to advance promising therapeutic innovations from early-stage discovery through clinical development.
Industry-quality, cutting-edge programs like these seldom exist within academic research institutions—forcing most academic researchers to make costly choices about which projects need to be triaged or abandoned for lack of resources or support. Instead, here at MSK, PD and TxBL are integral parts of a comprehensive network of programs managed by OEC, all of which are designed to inspire, empower, and advance innovation, industry partnerships and collaborations, and entrepreneurship.
Additionally, MSK investigators may benefit from working with other OEC programs, such as the Technology Development Investment Fund (TDIF), which offers several gap-funding investment vehicles for projects with strong commercialization potential; the Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI), our startup incubator; and the Life Sciences Therapeutics Accelerator and MSK Innovation Hub (iHub), business accelerator programs providing collaboration opportunities with life sciences and digital health companies, respectively.
Through its Life Sciences and Digital Health Business Development & Partnership teams, OEC works with industry partners to translate research breakthroughs into real-world products and services with transformative potential for cancer patients around the world. In a continuously evolving environment defined by global healthcare needs, regulatory shifts, economic challenges, and other variables, OEC is open for business.
OEC works with industry partners to translate research breakthroughs into real-world products and services with transformative potential for cancer patients around the world. In a continuously evolving environment defined by global healthcare needs, regulatory shifts, economic challenges, and other variables, OEC is open for business.
Learn more about our key programs and initiatives, including:
- Life Sciences Business Development and Licensing
- Digital Heath Business Development and Licensing
- MSK Therapeutics Accelerator
- MSK Innovation Hub (iHub)
- MSK Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI)
- MSK Therapeutics Bridge Labs (TxBL)
- Technology Development Investment Fund (TDIF)
- Innovation Events and News
- OEC Operations & Finance
Thought Leadership
MSK is a global leader among academic-research institutions in developing and commercializing innovation with lasting impact. For insights into the strategies and Initiatives that deliver exceptional results for our institution—and its partners—learn more.
- Featured in Harvard Business Review: U.S. Medical Centers Need a New Model for Drug Discovery and Development
- Featured in Nature Medicine: Reinventing biotech systems for patient impact
Partnering opportunities across a broad array of new technologies and ready-to-use products in MSK’s life sciences, digital health, and related healthcare portfolios
Nurturing and encouraging a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation across MSK to spur startup creation and investment opportunities for our valued industry partners.
Commercialization programs and accelerators which connect industry partners to MSK expertise and resources in order to empower cutting-edge projects with oncology-focused goals.
Our Staff
OEC is staffed an expert team of technology development professionals. They bring rigorous scientific, healthcare, and business backgrounds to the challenges of developing, managing, protecting, and commercializing MSK innovation; facilitating startup creation; partnering with industry; interacting with regulators; and much more.
Yashodhara Dash, MBBS, PhD, MBA
Yashodhara Dash is MSK’s Vice President in the Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (OEC). In October 2024, she was appointed to lead the Office (then known as the Office of Technology Development), where her team includes business development and product development professionals, as well as an Operations and Finance unit.
Under Yashodhara’s leadership, OEC actively supports the entire lifecycle of drug development at MSK, starting from discoveries made in the lab to the point at which startups are formed or technologies are licensed to pharma/biotech. The Office’s impact can be measured in many ways, including with Fast Company’s 2025 recognition of MSK as one of the “Best Workplaces for Innovators,” and MSK’s longstanding record as one of the top academic-research institutions in terms of licensing revenue.
Yashodhara’s responsibilities include leading an interrelated network of innovation-focused programs and initiatives, which are designed to drive entrepreneurship, industry partnerships, and commercialization—while empowering MSK’s community of innovators. These include the MSK Innovation Hub and iHub Challenge program; the MSK Therapeutics Accelerator and Cohort program; the Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI); the Technology Development Investment Fund (TDIF and related funds); and MSK Therapeutics Bridge Labs (Tx Bridge Labs); along with Life Sciences & Digital Health business development and licensing teams.
Yashodhara joined MSK in 2007 and has previously held a series of management roles in this Office. She received her PhD degree in immunology from the University of Connecticut Health Center in 2007. She also holds an MBA degree from the University of Connecticut and an MBBS degree from India’s SCB Medical College. She has taught an undergraduate seminar about drug development and the biotechnology industry, “The Economics and Science of Medicine,” at Yale University for the past eight years.
Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Avenue
New York, NY 10065
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