Dr.
Sumit Borah spent 20 years working in laboratories alongside prominent
scientists and conducting various medical research. Advancing his career meant
studying far away from his Yardley home at Yale University, the University of
Colorado, University of Chicago, and University of Memphis.
While
he enjoyed his work, Borah wanted to return home to be closer to his family.
Once the pandemic began in 2020, Borah launched Oxford Square,
a grant and manuscript development company. Housed in his father’s former
pediatrician office, the Oxford Valley Mall site blended his two goals: To
return to Bucks County and to write and edit grants and manuscripts for
academic scientists.
“I’m happy to be back,”
he said. “It’s nice being part of the community again.”
Since starting his
business, Borah has undertaken projects to aid scientists in obtaining funding
from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society, among
other organizations. He also helps researchers have their articles published in
medical journals.
While he has contributed
to “dozens and dozens” of grant and manuscript projects, his recent work on a
major study of long COVID stood out.
“In this study, they
were using AI to find markers in blood from patients with long COVID,” Borah
said. “This was a way to help diagnose patients with long COVID and to think
how we might treat long COVID.”
Borah also recently
helped a large research institution win $10 million from the National
Institutes of Health as part of the Clinical and Translational Science
Awards Program.
Oxford Square empowers Borah to continue with the aspect of his profession that
he enjoyed most: Talking to people about their ideas and seeing them continue
to fruition through successful research and funding.
“This is a privilege,”
he said of his clients, some of whom are fellow researchers he met in graduate
school, or former colleagues. “It’s a real honor and happy occurrence for me to
work with them.”
Honing his efficiencies
and developing a more consistent process was his objective when he began
mentoring with SCORE Bucks County mentor Kathleen Donohue in November 2020.
“I don’t really have a
good business sense,” he admitted. “Before this I took a test on whether you
should start a business, and I got the lowest score.”
Donohue guided him in
finding and marketing to potential clients, pricing his services, and
developing tools to manage client expectations.
“Over the past three
years Sumit built a successful business in a relatively new field,” Donohue
said. “He has developed a strong rapport with his clients, obtains new
business through referrals and helped obtain the grants they need to fund their
research.”
His “instinct,” and
guidance from Donohue has helped propel the positive momentum.
“When you feel
passionate about something and you really feel that that’s what you’re meant to
do, it makes it easier to commit yourself to that effort. I put my head down
and kept working,” he said. “When you help somebody feel like they’re being
understood, they really appreciate that.”
Borah continues taking
editing classes to help him be better at editing and writing papers.
“That’s what Kathleen
has taught me: Always be improving your process to give a better service,” he
said. “She’s been so valuable to me. She always has good advice.”
About SCORE
Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 11 million aspiring entrepreneurs. Each
year, SCORE provides small business mentoring and workshops to more
than 375,000 new and growing small businesses.?With more than 70 members
across Bucks and Eastern Montgomery counties, SCORE Bucks?County?provides
over 4,300 free mentoring services annually to local small
business owners through one-on-one counseling and small business
seminars. To stay up to date on news and happenings, join SCORE Bucks
County’s email list. Text SCOREBUCKS to 22828.
