Alum Zoom: Six Career Questions with Kelli Luginbuhl PhD (Duke BME), Lecturing Fellow in Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Co-Founder of Isolere Bio, and Director of the Duke PhD Innovators Program

As part of a series of short, focused career conversations with former Duke postdocs and PhD students, we'll feature Kelli Luginbuhl PhD. Kelli earned her PhD from Duke Biomedical Engineering, and 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 PhD Innovators Program. Kelli will tell us how she transitioned from academic lab research to entrepreneurship, and then back to academia to direct the Duke PhD Innovators Program, a training and development program designed to equip postdocs and PhD students 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 her career path, Kelli will discuss the benefits of the PhD Innovators Program and how to apply. 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 PhD Innovators Program and how it can help postdocs and PhD students advance their careers?