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, the University of Chicago, and the 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’s 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, Dr. Sumit 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 publish their articles 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 enjoys most: talking to people about their ideas and seeing them come 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.”

When Dr. Sumit Borah began mentoring with SCORE Bucks County mentor Kathleen Donohue in November 2020, his objective was to hone his efficiencies and develop a more consistent process.

“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 have 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 improve your process to give a better service,” he said. “She’s been so valuable to me. She always has good advice.”

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 over 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. 

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