Leadership & Advocacy

Joel Harris is an active member in Iowa’s biotechnology industry through both of his roles; CEO of Genvax Technologies and Executive Director of the Ag Startup Engine. As co-founder and CEO of Genvax Technologies, Joel is leading his team to develop mRNA + nanoparticle vaccines for livestock. The Genvax team is targeting multiple diseases, most notably swine influenza and the foreign animal disease African Swine Fever. This work requires unique and extensive collaborations that Joel has initiated with state and national leaders in the human and animal biotechnology space, government groups such as the USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics and IEDA and supporting stakeholders like United Animal Health, Iowa Corn Growers Association and Johnsonville Ventures. During 2023 Joel will be networking with government leaders to advocate for support for emerging technologies and bringing those technologies to Iowa.

As Executive Director of the Ag Startup Engine, Joel is instrumental in supporting Iowa-based biotechnology companies. Biotechnology companies that Joel has led investments in are Leah Laboratories, Mazen Animal Health, GW Nutrition, Gross-Wen Technologies, Skroot Laboratories and Pyrone Systems. Joel has served on the boards of IowaBio and Mazen Animal Health. He and his father founded Harrisvaccines (a livestock vaccine company later acquired by Merck Animal Health) that still operates in the ISU Research Park today. During his tenure, Ag Startup Engine was presented with the LWBJ Impact Award for the 2021 Prometheus Awards. Joel is deeply involved in the biotechnology industry in Iowa and continues to bring talent, jobs, and new technologies to the state.

Innovation

At Harrisvaccines, Joel applied unique sales and marketing strategies to bring the first mRNA vaccines to market in the animal health industry. At that time, mRNA was referred to as repliconRNA and was delivered via a viral particle (nanoparticles are the delivery vehicle for Covid mRNA vaccines). Harrisvaccines was initially denied a pathway to regulatory approval by USDA and Joel (as the case with many startups hampered by regulations) created badly needed cash flow for the company by providing swine producers with farm specific vaccines without the requirement for regulatory approval. Eventually, Harrisvaccines assisted the USDA in developing the regulatory requirements for prescription-based farm specific vaccines that is currently followed by Merck Animal Health. At Genvax, Joel is again applying innovation to the development of mRNA/nanoparticle vaccines for animals.

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• How Harrisvaccines became a successful ag-tech startup and led to a major acquisition by Merck.
  
• Why building a supportive community is essential for entrepreneurs in agriculture.
  
• The unique challenges that slow down technology adoption in farming compared to other industries.
  
• How venture capital models need to be adapted to fit the slower innovation cycles in agriculture.
  
• Why deep domain expertise and understanding of producers’ needs are critical for ag-tech success.