Alum Zoom: Six Career Questions with Kelli Luginbuhl, Ph.D.'17, Co-Founder of Isolere Bio, Director of the Duke Ph.D. Innovators Program, and Lecturing Fellow in Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship

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As part of a series of short, focused career conversations with former Duke Ph.D. students and postdocs, we’ll feature Kelli Luginbuhl, Ph.D.'17 (biomedical engineering). She was co-founder of Isolere Bio, a Duke spin-out she helped launch in 2017. She led Isolere as CSO and then CEO through launch, growth, and finally successful acquisition by Donaldson Company in 2023. She then stayed on at Donaldson as General Manager until returning to Duke in late 2025. She is now a Lecturing Fellow in Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Director of the Duke Ph.D. Innovators Program.

Kelli will tell us how she transitioned from academic lab research to entrepreneurship, and then back to academia to direct the Duke Ph.D. Innovators Program, a training and development program designed to equip Ph.D. students and postdocs with the skills and confidence needed to translate research into real-world impact. Fellows use their own technologies as the primary learning vehicle, working directly with their research to build commercialization capability through hands-on experience and to develop as potential founders. In addition to addressing her career path, Kelli will discuss the benefits of the Ph.D. Innovators Program and how to apply in an optional half-hour session following her talk.

We will ask Kelli six career questions:

1. Can you tell us about your background?
2. How did you get your job?
3. What's a typical day like at your organization?
4. What can grad students and postdocs who would like to work in this field or explore it further do to prepare?
5. What is the employment outlook for this field?
6. Can you describe the Ph.D. Innovators Program and how it can help Ph.D. students advance their careers?

The Careers Beyond Academia Series is sponsored by The Graduate School and the Office of Postdoctoral Services.