In a lab at the Wisconsin Energy Institute, UW–Madison, three scientists are working to rewrite the pharmaceutical supply chain, beginning with poplar wood. At the core of Phenolvation, a startup founded by Steven Karlen, Canan Sener, and Jason Coplien, is the production of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, from plant biomass rather than petrochemicals. This scientific idea morphed into a serious commercial effort when the team realized that waste streams from ammonia-treated biomass could be transformed using a 19th-century chemical reaction into para-aminophenol, the key building block of acetaminophen. Today, Phenolvation is boldly attempting to prove that renewable feedstocks can power the next generation of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The team behind Phenolvation was strengthened by their genuine enjoyment of the time spent working together. Throughout the process, they’ve begun to see themselves not just as scientists, but as entrepreneurs—people who think not only about what is possible in the lab, but also about what is needed in the world. While they’re still deeply rooted in science, they’re now just as focused on how to make that science useful. For Karlen, Sener, and Coplien, the work is rewarding not just because it’s innovative, but because it’s collaborative, grounded, and full of potential.
We asked the team to discuss their journey with Phenolvation:
Where did the idea for Phenolvation come from initially?
Karlen: Phenolvation aims to make acetaminophen from plant biomass. The idea came when we were trying to figure out how to utilize waste streams from an ammonia pretreatment of poplar wood. In my undergraduate research I used a reaction discovered in the 1880’s called the Hoffman rearrangement to convert primary amides to a primary amine. We use this rearrangement to transform para-hydroxybenzamide into para-aminophenol (PAP), which when acylated becomes acetaminophen (paracetamol). Around eight years ago, we got a patent from WARF and began developing the process. However, it wasn’t until Canan joined the team and brought her expertise in reaction engineering, that the process became potentially viable as the base technology for a manufacturing business. At that point, Jason joined the project, and we sought out D2P to help us create a business.
How has D2P helped you, and what have you learned?
Karlen: D2P has really helped me understand the business model canvas; how to identify a value proposition and test our hypothesis. This required us to mentally shift from thinking about the technical feasibility and look at it with the framework of a business decision making process. I learned the different components that investors and funders look for in structuring the value proposition. Now, across all my research projects, I to identify the problem or need that I am working to solve. I use that perspective to determine if it is a problem worth solving, if not, I can refocus onto something that’s needed.
Coplien: I’ve been on campus for seven and a half years and I didn’t realize that UW had systems like D2P. It’s one thing to have an idea for a company, but it is game-changing to be walked through how to create an actual business plan.
Sener: D2P helped me to learn how to use business language. I improved my ability to translate innovations into business terms. More importantly, through D2P, I had great opportunities to do networking. They provided new connections, and ability to expand our network. Meeting with new people from different communities was invaluable.
Have you used any other entrepreneurial resources or programs on campus?
Karlen: I’ve been worked actively with WARF over the years through filing of Invention Disclosure Reports and multiple patent filings. I have worked on projects funded through the WARF accelerator program and attended some of the Entreprenurons events, sponsored by WARF. We participated in the 2025 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest, where we learned a lot about the entrepreneurial community. Over the summer of 2025, we participated in the regional (Madison) NSF I-Corps program.
Can you describe your current focus with Phenolvation?
Coplien: Our initial setup is acetaminophen, which is an active ingredient in Tylenol. As we worked on the process, we noticed that some of the intermediates have their own markets, and markets that are just as big, if not bigger. So right now, we’re trying to decide what exactly we’re going to go after. Whether it’s the intermediates or the actual final product of acetaminophen. But before we do that, we need to figure out our feedstock, our starting material, and what makes the most sense—whether it’s a waste stream from somebody else, or if it’s something that we design on our own.
What are your hopes for the company moving forward?
Karlen: In the near term we hope to get an SBIR/STTR grant to develop our technology. In the long term, we really want to bring a plant derived acetaminophen option to the market!
Coplien: This will happen fairly quickly when we figure out the starting material situation.
What drives you personally and what makes phenolvation important to you?
Karlen: I’ve been working for over 10 years on developing biomass conversion technology and helping to develop new generation of biorefineries. Throughout this experience, I’ve wanted to see this concept succeed and there is a developing plant derived commodity chemical market that is being propelled by consumer demand. What’s driving me is my desire to be part of the economic shift and to have my research directly address real-world problems.
Sener: I am an engineer and my job is making things work. I am achieving that goal with Phenolvation. In academia, as a researcher, I have been performing cutting edge science, and it was always exciting. When we were developing our process in the lab, I was more on the engineering side rather than science. I used my engineering skills to make a great innovation to the work which was developed by Steve. This was what I was looking for: to collaborate with a chemist. Phenolvation provided me with an opportunity to realize this and it has been very exciting. Finally, we filled all the gaps in this research with Jason, who has an MBA. I think we are an awesome team with our different expertise, and together we can handle all problems throughout the process from begining to the end. Now, we can make our research deliver a real solution to a real problem!
Coplien: We do a lot of cool science here at the center, but anytime anybody asks us what we do and we start talking about biomass, their eyes glaze over a little bit. But now, with acetaminophen and some of these other intermediates, we now have the potential to actually bring positive attention to biomass. People don’t realize that you can make the products we are making from biomass.
What advice would you give other campus innovators who are just starting to explore their potential ideas?
Karlen: Get involved with D2P, WARF, NSF I-corps, and the the wider community as early as possible. In my time at UW-Madison, I have had a lot of different ideas that I thought could be businesses, but slowly chose to eliminate them because of personal belief that there was not a product-market match. If I had stuck with ideas, I would have made contacts and connections in the community that would have confirmed or disproved my belief. The skills and techniques in these entrepreneurial mentorship programs completely changed how I assess my research ideas and how I approached the whole concept of business planning.
Was there an experience during the development of phenolvation that surprised you or changed your direction and how did you learn from that moment? How did it change your thinking?
Coplien: Every time we thought we had something going in the right direction, another problem would come up. I think our biggest one was how much it was going to cost us to make the product. When we would think we’d have it nailed down, something would get in the way, introducing a new avenue to research. I didn’t expect the amount of back and forth needed, but it has only brought more value to what we’re doing.
Karlen: One of our big challenges was that we wanted to our process to work in water and make our products from current plant biomass processing operations. It was through customer discovery interviews that I really began to appreciate waste management, as one of the most expensive parts of any operation. In conversations with pharmaceutical companies we learned that waste management drives so much of their decision-making, because 60% of their production cost can be dealing with the chemical waste. And so, we we began asking how can we produce our product from chemical waste streams? Where can we get a waste steam that can be used to produce our products? For years, we’ve been selling the idea that you can take poplar trees and treat them with base to produce our chemicals, we always assumed that you’ll have enough poplar wood to make a product and would quickly be able to saturate a boutique chemical markets. We generally did not consider if pulp mills would be willing to only process poplar trees. In discovery interviews we gained insight into the industrial perspective and learned of additional challenges to intergrading our process with theirs.
How do you balance the time that you spend on the project versus other work in life responsibilities?
Karlen: It does help that Phenolvation is closely related to what we do day-to-day. As research scientists we run our own research programs, we lead large interdisciplinary teams, manage research facilities, oversee budgets, manage personnel, write funding proposals, and sell our work to the community. These are the skills needed to build a start-up company. For me, starting Phenolvation is like adding another exciting
project and has been enabled through the tremendous support from the Wisconsin Energy Institute, the Great Lakes Project Research Center, WARF, D2P, NSF I-Corps, UW-Madison, and the Wisconsin entrepreneurial community.
Sener: I believe, people can always make time for things they like. Sometimes I look back and see that it was almost impossible to complete all the tasks on time. But somehow I did it! I think life balances itself when you are doing the things you like. I got a lot of excitement and joy out of it. We are also lucky that we are such a good team. We like spending time together. I am married to Steven, so we continue working at home sometimes. All of this excitement and fun makes us do more and push our capacities a little more. I enjoy pushing my boundaries and seeing what more I can achieve.
A lot of the innovators we talk to don’t identify as entrepreneurs. Do you connect with that term or is there another term that fits better?
Karlen: I’ve always wanted my research to be able to move into industry and have it actually be utilized. I never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur. I’m a research scientist, but since we’ve begun work on Phenolvation, I definitely feel like I’m an entrepreneur. The difference for me is a mentality. An entrepreneur believes that if you try hard enough to make something happen, it will happen, you just have to be scientifically and financially stubborn. You have a belief that all technical challenge can be overcome and nothing is impossible. As a researcher, you are ask questions about fundamental laws of nature and ofen the answer is that your hypothesis is physically not possible, but proving that can take years. The question to me is, when are you an entrepreneur? When you’ve formally created the company with paperwork? When you pay the first taxes, when you get the first paycheck, or when you make your first sale?
Coplien: We have a tendency to think of ourselves as just researchers or scientists a lot of times. When I hear the word “entrepreneur,” I forget that’s also our own process. I don’t think it’s quite latched on to us yet, but hopefully, it will.
Sener: I am a scientist; my first title will always be a Scientist. I like discovering things. Slowly, I am embracing the entrepreneur role. Entrepreneurship with an innovation like ours is another way of showing that we are good scientists, because it means we had a good idea, we made it work, and now we are developing a company out of this idea.