Lab Venture Challenge

Lab Venture Challenge

Accelerating innovation through entrepreneurial training and funding of up to $125,000.

Through the Lab Venture Challenge (LVC), top innovations from University of Colorado Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs compete for grants of up to $125,000. LVC supports projects that address a commercial need, have a clear path to a compelling market and have strong scientific support. These grants are funded by Venture Partners at CU Boulder and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) Advanced Industries Program.

LVC has funded more than 117 projects through 64 new deep-tech startup companies; collectively, these companies have raised over $349 million to date in follow-on financing. LVC demonstrates a powerful way to advance innovative research and translate it into impactful business ventures. Applications open in July each year, and in October, LVC culminates in two evening showcases where finalists will deliver pitches to a panel of business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors. These final showcases are the can't-miss event of the year to see CU's next wave of breakthrough innovations!

Questions?

Joshua Bennet

Joshua Bennett 路 Senior Licensing Manager and Director of the Lab Venture Challenge

Contact Joshua

Compete in LVC

The application for the 2024 competition is closed. You can still review the information below about LVC eligibility, details and deadlines. Applicants interested in the 2025 competition are encouraged to begin preparation as soon as possible. Sign Up for Updates

2023 Dates & Deadlines

2024 Dates and Deadlines

Program Preparation

  • Competition Information Session鈥
  • 鈥Applicants are encouraged to reach out to their Venture Partners contact with any questions about eligibility and/or to discuss ways in which their applications may be strengthened, especially with regard to the commercialization section of the application.

Application Dates

  • Friday, 鈥婣ug. 16, 5 p.m.: Deadline to disclose innovations
  • Friday, Aug. 16, 5 p.m.: CU Denver deadline to contact your pre-award administrator for your respective school/college.
  • Thursday, Aug. 29, 5 p.m.: CU Boulder and UCCS deadline to contact your Sponsored Projects Office about your request for budget
    • CU Boulder applicants
      • You will work with your unit's Proposal Analyst in the CU Boulder Office of Contracts and Grants (OCG) to finalize your budget.
      • Format your draft budget as an email request to your Proposal Analyst outlining the expenses for this grant award. They will use that information to create the final budget; then you will upload your final budget from OCG with your application submission.
    • UCCS applicants: Contact the .
  • Friday, Sept. 13, 11:59 p.m.: Deadline to apply to LVC鈥 (Log in directly through this link to access the 2024 application; do not select "Lab Venture Challenge 2023" from the menu bar)
  • Friday, Sept. 27: Finalists Announced

Program Dates

  • Oct. 2, noon-2 p.m., Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building (JSCBB), Room B115: Pitch Academy
  • Week of Oct. 7: Pitch Practice 1 (in person on the CU Boulder campus)
  • Week of Oct. 14: Pitch Practice 2 (in person on the CU Boulder campus)
  • Wednesday, Oct. 23, 5:30-8 p.m.: Physical Sciences Showcase鈥
  • Thursday, Oct. 24, 5:30-8 p.m.: BioSciences Showcase鈥

Post-Award Requirements

  • Sept. 4-11: Research-to-Market (R2M) Customer Discovery Program鈥Apply Now
  • Nov. 1, 8 and 15: Starting Blocks Customer Discovery Workshop鈥Apply Now
  • TBD/Nov.: State of Colorado Questionnaire Deadline
  • April 2025: Awards will be distributed to winners. This date is an estimate based on past awards and may change by one to two months.

Applicant Eligibility

LVC applicants must meet the following criteria:

  • CU Boulder and UCCS investigators are eligible to apply. CU Denver investigators in physical sciences and engineering are eligible to apply.
    • CU Denver investigators in biosciences and all CU Anschutz investigators should explore funding opportunities with .
  • The primary applicant must be a CU Boulder professor or post-doc or an eligible CU Denver or UCCS professor or post-doc who would qualify as a grant Principal Investigator.
  • The primary applicant must have submitted their Invention Disclosure Form to Venture Partners on or before the deadline.
  • The subject innovation must fall within one of the seven defined areas: advanced manufacturing, aerospace, bioscience, electronics, energy and natural resources, infrastructure engineering, or technology and information.
  • Applicants are strongly encouraged to complete the NSF I-CorpsTM Hub: West Region's Starting Blocks Customer Discovery Workshop, an experiential program that helps teams create and refine a value proposition using the customer discovery process. Historically, LVC applicants unable to address these topics in detail do not receive funding.
  • There is a $125,000 maximum that an applicant may receive from LVC for a single invention. If significant progress has been made towards a new product or a new venture since a prior LVC award for the same invention, a new proposal with advanced aims will be considered, subject to Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) rules. Preapproval is required if you have already received LVC or other OEDIT funding. Please reach out to Joshua Bennett, director of LVC. Multiple applications for different inventions are permitted.
  • If the applicant has received a prior award under the OEDIT Advanced Industries Proof of Concept Program for the same invention that is the subject of a new LVC application, the total amount of funding, consisting of the present application plus the prior award(s), cannot exceed $150,000 from the state of Colorado. State funding accounts for 75% of each LVC award.
  • If the invention is already licensed/optioned, the licensee/optionee company cannot have raised more than $500,000 in investment capital. Where a company has raised over $500,000, the OEDIT Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA)  is a more appropriate resource.
  • Two concurrent OEDIT awards are not allowed. If the Principal Investigator (PI) or the innovation currently has an LVC or an OEDIT award, that award must be completed before the LVC Showcases of the current application year.

Funding and Budgeting

  • Up to $125,000* (including 8% F&A on total direct costs for the state fund portion only) is available per award in total costs, consisting of two subcategories:

Proof of Concept

  • Up to $100,000* is available for answering critical experimental questions that will help to validate the technology for commercial applications.

Business Development

  • 鈥鈥婾p to $25,000 is available in support of early commercialization activities.
  • Applicants must include $10,000 for patent expenses.
  • The remaining business development funds are often used for:
    • Conferences
    • Customer discovery
    • Accelerator fees
    • Travel ($5,000 maximum recommended) to/from any of the above
    • Startup formation expenses
    • Website development
    • Market assessments
    • Regulatory-related consultants or costs incurred during the award term
  • Other business development expenses are eligible, but these funds cannot be used to fund technical development or proof of concept.

*Funding Details

Project duration can be up to 24 months for physical science awards and up to 36 months for bioscience awards.

State funding requires a match of 25% of the total project costs (which is equivalent to 33.33% of the requested state funds). For example, an applicant requesting $125,000 in total funds would request $93,750 from the State and $31,250 in matching funds. Matching funds are available from Venture Partners only for CU Boulder applicants. For eligible UCCS and UCD applicants, matching funds are often provided by lab startup funds or the researcher鈥檚 department. Matching funds cannot be sourced from federal grants or in-kind services.

Funding under LVC comes from Colorado's Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA) Program, Venture Partners and a share of CU Boulder鈥檚 IP licensing revenues. The observed funding rate over the last three years was approximately 25% over four years.

The AIA program operates within the State of Colorado鈥檚 Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). CU receives a pre-allocation from the total available funding.

Requirements for Finalists and Awardees

Pitch Coaching and Practice

All selected finalists are required to participate in a pitch training workshop called Pitch Academy prior to the final showcase (more below). Pitch Academy teaches high-tech entrepreneurs and startup founders how to engage a business-centric audience and attract funding. Following the workshop, finalists will then participate in two mandatory pitch practice sessions to receive critical feedback from CU Boulder mentors and the Venture Partners team.

Live Pitch at Final Showcases

LVC culminates in a two-night final showcase, with one event featuring bioscience innovations and a second event for physical science and engineering innovations. Selected finalists will deliver 7-minute live pitches to a panel of business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and intellectual property experts. The final showcases are open to the business and university community and serve as a forum for finalists to showcase their innovations.

Required NSF I-Corps Hub: West Region's Customer Discovery Programs

Applicants are strongly encouraged to complete the Starting Blocks Customer Discovery Program before applying to LVC. Starting Blocks is a 3-day customer discovery workshop designed to help scientists and engineers of all types find a market for their innovation by conducting meaningful customer interviews. 

All LVC awardees who have not completed Starting Blocks before applying to LVC must complete the program during the award term. If a startup is contemplated or underway, the LVC awardees are required to complete the Research-to-Market (R2M) Customer Discovery Program within the award term. This greatly strengthens eligibility for future funding and training programs and is a deeper dive into the process of customer discovery to find a product-market fit鈥攃ritical to taking cutting-edge technology into the marketplace.
 
Failure to comply with these requirements means that the team will no longer be eligible for future funding opportunities from or managed by Venture Partners.

鈥Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator

Finalists that have begun or plan to commercialize their innovation through a startup company are encouraged to enroll in the Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator during the award term. This program will provide critical training and early milestone accomplishment, including incorporation, founders agreements, Intellectual Property (IP) agreements (option, license), and coaching to secure further funding. 

Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT)

LVC is run internally at CU Boulder and while it does benefit from Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA) funding, is separate from the statewide AIA competition run by Colorado's OEDIT. LVC and statewide AIA programs have different timelines, funding amounts and other details.

To apply to LVC, please only use the details provided on this page and within the application site. Please do not use the application guidelines on the OEDIT AIA website if applying for LVC. If you are interested in applying for the statewide AIA program, . Please also note that if you apply to and win both the LVC grant and the AIA Proof of Concept grant, you will have to choose one award.

Need guidance?

  • Your Venture Partners Licensing Manager can provide you with details on Intellectual Property (IP) expenses, suggestions for how to best allocate your Business Development budget and connect you with entrepreneurial training opportunities.

For general questions about LVC:

If you need help with or have questions about your budget:

For any post-award questions about your grant no-cost extensions, subcontracts, budget changes, Principal Investigator (PI) changes, Statement of Work (SOW) changes, etc.,

  • Please contact Beatrice Nobles, OCG's contract officer assigned to all Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) awards.

Frequently Asked Questions

No; this is the deadline for new invention disclosures to be submitted Venture Partners. If you have already submitted an invention disclosure(s) for the technology that you are using to apply for LVC, then you do not need to submit anything new.

Joshua Bennett, director of LVC, 303-735-7615, joshua.bennett@colorado.edu

LVC Showcases

Join Venture Partners at CU Boulder as we award up to $1.25 million to top CU innovators. Fourteen teams will each pitch for grants up to $125,000 to support projects with commercial potential in the Biosciences and the Physical Sciences Showcases. Lab Venture Challenge is the can't-miss event of the year to see CU's next wave of breakthrough innovations! Learn more about the 2024 winners and finalists

Information about the 2025 LVC Showcases will be posted soon. Sign Up for Updates

2024 LVC Winners and Finalists

Physical Sciences Finalists

  $125,000 Winner

EcoValeric Innovations

Ecovaleric Innovations

EcoValeric's invention is an electrochemical process that converts biomass-based levulinic acid into 4-hydroxyvaleric acid (HVA), a versatile intermediate for producing biodegradable plastics, biofuels and green solvents. This scalable, renewable process reduces reliance on fossil fuels while enhancing sustainability.

  $125,000 Winner

Mode-Locked Laser Technology

This groundbreaking mode-locked laser technology overcomes the limitations of existing systems and is suitable for harsh environments. These systems excel in applications that require the best phase noise performance in a small and efficient device. Applications include PNT and RF instrumentation.

  • Thomas R. Schibli (CU Boulder Physics): PI, LVC Pitch Presenter
  •  (Alum: CU Boulder Business): Business Development
  • : Product Design, Advanced Manufacturing

  $125,000 Winner

OsmoPure Technologies

OsmoPure Technologies

OsmoPure is introducing a membrane for ultrapure water production tailored to the stringent demands of electronics, aerospace and green hydrogen sectors. The technology uses distillation driven by pressure, rather than heat, to produce high-purity product water with ten times higher energy efficiency.

  •  (PhD student, CU Boulder Chemical and Biological Engineering): CEO, LVC Pitch Presenter
  •  (CU Boulder Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering): Principal Investigator (PI)
  •  (PhD candidate, CU Boulder Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering): Director of R&D

  $125,000 Winner

WHISPER Energy

Whisper Energy

 is a wireless, battery-free sensor platform for smart buildings. It uses machine learning to cut energy consumption by 30%+, providing real-time data to optimize energy use and reduce emissions. Developed with a $2 million ARPA-E grant, it advances zero emissions economically and efficiently.

  $125,000 Winner

Tierra Metrics

Tierra Metrics

Tierra Metrics' novel high-spatial density sensor innovation will enable real-time characterization of the soil nitrogen cycle which will help growers, land managers and others to improve efficiency and profitability, as well as improve soil health and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Finalist

Colexible

Colexible's liquid metal printed circuit board technology offers deformable, stretchable and affordable electronic assemblies that address the challenges that current rigid PCBs face with emerging technologies, such as wearable electronics, virtual/augmented reality and collaborative robots.

Finalist

InfraInform

InfraForm

I2M-B is an end-to-end AI-based software tool that integrates cutting-edge temporal deep learning techniques with novel operations research methodologies to address the lack of an optimized, predictive and proactive approach for cost-efficient bridge and culvert maintenance planning.

  •  (): Co-PI, LVC Pitch Presenter
  •  (): Co-PI, LVC Pitch Presenter
  • Kevin Rens: Co-Investigator, Subject Matter Expert (SME)

Biosciences Finalists

  $125,000 Winner

Codebreaker

Codebreaker

Codebreaker is building a platform for generating variant genomes at scale in an AI framework that drives variant genome design and machine learning to generate significance maps broadly across human disease and drug response.

  $125,000 Winner

Flari Tech

Flari Tech is building a laser-based breathalyzer to detect lung cancer noninvasively and rapidly with high sensitivity. Powered by CU's Nobel Prize-winning optical frequency comb, it would empower healthcare providers, patients and researchers in lung cancer prevention, treatment and monitoring. Read more about Flari

  $125,000 Winner

Kitsune Bio

Kitsune Bio enhances the structural adaptability of cyclic peptides, improving their ability to bind, inhibit and access challenging intracellular targets. This unique platform unlocks new opportunities for treating complex diseases and improving patient outcomes.

  $125,000 Winner

IntraLumenus

Let鈥檚 never cut open a patient again. IntraLumenus is a treaded robotic capsule endoscope that travels through the colon under its own power, provides localization and mapping, and dual channel tool access, enabling colorectal procedures to be performed intraluminally, or from within the colon.

  $125,000 Winner

SteriO3

SteriO3

Peroxide Enhanced Germicidal Irradiation (PEGI) provides rapid, low-resource sterilization of microbial contaminants. With adaptable configuration capabilities, PEGI will be engineered into compact, portable units for low-temperature sterilization of surgical equipment, including 3D-printed implants.

Finalist

Entangl3d

Entangl3d

Entangl3d is transforming spine surgery with a groundbreaking 3D printing platform that produces strong, bioadhesive hydrogels. Easily deployable without tissue damage, our hydrogels will reinforce intervertebral discs to prevent reherniation and degeneration.

Finalist

Vesicle Therapeutics

The Vesicle team is developing a proprietary STAT3 isoform-selective antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) using novel thiomorpholino chemistry (TMO) for the treatment of head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer type, with a low survival rate due to poor responsiveness to treatments. 

  • (CU Boulder Biochemistry): PI, LVC Pitch Presenter
  • Donna Peak: CEO 
  • : COO 
  • Gan Zhang: CTO 
  • Marvin H. Caruthers (CU Boulder Biochemistry): Collaborator

Past LVC Winners and Finalists

We are proud to honor the past winners and participants of LVC. Former funding recipients have used LVC to prepare for Destination Startup庐 and , as a springboard into leading accelerator programs such as Techstars and Innosphere, develop ideas through NSF I-CorpsTM Hub: West and Catalyze CU and raise investment rounds.

2023 LVC Winners and Finalists

$132,505 Funding Awardees 

  • TorDan (previously MDS II) is developing a rotational nail system as an improved technique to correct rotational alignment for femoral surgery. Team: Jacob Segil (Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering) and Omer Mei-Dan (, CU Anschutz Medical Campus).

$125,000 Funding Awardees 

  • Mycobacteria Therapeutics is working toward a new treatment for stress resilience and mental health with oral supplements of beneficial mycobacteria. Team: Christopher Lowry (Integrative Physiology), Adam Bohr and Chris Stamper (both, ).
  • ImmunoLogic is developing first-of-their-kind, site-specific therapeutics for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Team:  Linda Watkins and Suzanne Fulgham (both Psychology and Neuroscience), Peter Grace (, ImmunoLogic), John Forsayeth and Raymond Chavez (both ImmunoLogic).
  • Nausica Arnoult (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) presented a new approach to treating HR-deficient cancer with targeted APE2 inhibitors. Her team also included Xiang Wang (Chemistry and Kerri Ball (MCDB).
  • Meaghan Van Alstyne (Biochemistry) is working on a new treatment for dementia with peptide therapeutics targeting tau aggregation. Her team also included Roy Parker (BioFrontiers, Biochemistry) and Charles Hoeffer (Integrative Physiology).
  • Corey Neu (Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering) has developed a device for improved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cartilage structure and mechanical function, allowing for the early detection of arthritis and cartilage repair.

Finalists

&苍产蝉辫;鈥$132,505 Funding Awardees 

  • Mana Battery is developing sodium-ion batteries that are cheaper and safer than standard lithium-ion ones. Team: Chunmei Ban, Nick Singstock and Tyler Evans (all Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering).

鈥$125,000 Funding Awardees 

Finalists

  • BoldRF鈥擳unable circulators for simultaneous transmit and receive radio-frequency phased array applications. Zoya Popovic, Laila Marzall and Stefan Stroessner (all Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering).
  • Icarus Quantum鈥擠eveloping the first deterministic photon entanglement generator to drastically boost quantum repeater protocols for long-range quantum networking. Poolad Imany (, ), Shuo Sun ().

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Read More 

2022 LVC Winners and Finalists

&苍产蝉辫;鈥$125,000 Funding Awardees 

  • Sound Separations: A cell-based delivery system for drugs targeting solid tumors that do not respond well to existing cell therapies. Wyatt Shields, Katie Trese (both of Chemical and Biological Engineering); Alisa Lee-Sherick, MD (CU Anschutz).
  • Graham Redweik, Principal Investigator Ding Xue (both of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology): A new derivative of resveratrol鈥攁 naturally occurring chemical compound in plants鈥攖o target mitochondrial endonuclease G to help treat both Parkinson鈥檚 disease and cancer. 
  • Nakul Sridhar, Principal Investigator Xiaoyun Ding (both of Mechanical Engineering): A penny-size device that can diagnose sickle cell disease and would dramatically broaden access to lifesaving treatments, especially in the developing world.
  • Won Park (Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering): A novel force sensor with many applications for medical providers, such as monitoring changes in tumor growth, heart tissue and joint repair.

$62,500 Funding Awardees 

  • Randall Shearer (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)); Imma Ferrer, Michael Thurman (both of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering): A new method of manufacturing cannabinoid acids to overcome key hurdles in commercializing cannabinoid-based (CBD) therapeutics.
  • Xiang Wang (Chemistry): Antibiotic adjuvants to re-sensitize drug-resistant bacteria and combat the rising antibiotic resistance crisis in medical care.

 $125,000 Funding Awardees 

  • Boulder Light Technologies: Air quality monitoring devices with rapid, on-site optical identification of toxics. Nazanin Hoghooghi (Mechanical Engineering)
  • Envyro Sensors: A low-cost and disposable sensor鈥攕imilar to diabetic test strips鈥攆or monitoring indoor horticulture and printed with special ink on a regular desktop printer. Greg Whiting (Mechanical Engineering); Elliot Strand (Materials Science & Engineering Program)
  • Nanoplasmonics, LLC: A portable device that uses ultrasensitive fluorescent biochemical sensors to detect mycotoxins, enabling mobile, lab-quality food safety testing at every stage of food production. Anatoliy Pinchuk (Physics & Energy Science, UCCS)
  • Twine: Data security, including internal fraud in the financial industry, with a novel blockchain-based protocol for distributed and immutable record keeping that 鈥渆ntwines鈥 data sources for transparent and 鈥渦nhackable鈥 data authentication. Jasper Palfree (Physics); Krister Shalm (Physics; Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering)

鈥$62,500 Funding Awardees 

  • Rishi Raj (Mechanical Engineering): A new 3D sintering process that will allow the same-day creation of dental implants straight from a device in the dentist鈥檚 office. 
  • Chembotix: A chemical-creating robot and an automated platform to dramatically speed up chemistry research and development. Kailey Shara (ATLAS Institute); Aditya Rengaswamy; Marshall Graybill (Mechanical Engineering); Carson Bruns (ATLAS Institute).

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Read More 

2021 LVC Winners and Finalists
  • Nick Bottenus: New method for improving the quality and speed of ultrasound imaging
  • Camila Uzcategui (Audience Choice Award): Vitro3D鈥擝iomimetic 3D printed lung cancer organoids for drug discovery
  • Alexandra Whiteley: Novel therapeutic for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
  • Corey Neu: NatruGel鈥3D Printing of tissue matrix for drug screening and discovery
  • Simon Kalmus: Seedling Biosystems鈥擲prouting therapies from American farms
  • Liang He: BAuth鈥擝attery-enabled anti-theft vehicle immobilizer
  • Marin Iliev鈥: CANDi enabled ultrahigh speed and precision microscopy
  • Dan Dessau: Low vibration cryogenic platform for quantum applications
  • Kailey Shara(Audience Choice Award): A versatile robotic system for automating organic chemistry operations in the laboratory
  • Cory Pecinovsky: Polaris Electro-Optics Inc.鈥擣ast photonic switching with fluid ferroelectrics
  • Andrew Goodwin: New biomass pretreatments to replace toxic petroleum additives in coatings and adhesives

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2020 LVC Winners and Finalists
  • 鈥Brian DeDecker: Gene-Lock鈥擜 Novel Approach to Gene Assembly
  • Xiaoyun Ding: Lab-on-a-Chip鈥擜cousto Thermal Shift Assay for Fast and Label-free Protein Analysis
  • Jerome Fox: Using Microbes to Drug the Undruggable
  • Robert McLeod: Vitro3D鈥擝iomimetic 3D Printed Scaffolds for Drug Discovery (recipient of Bioscience Audience Choice Award)
  • Zoya Popovic: Non-invasive Compact Internal Body Thermometer
  • Mark Rentschler: Disposable Robotic Endoscope for Deep Enteroscopy
  • Jacob Segil: Hip Arthroscopy Surgical Instruments for Improved Patient Outcomes and Reduced Surgical Time

Winners

  • 鈥Mahmoud Hussein: Resonant Inclusions 鈥 A New Technology for Efficient Thermoelectric Conversion in Bulk Silicon
  • Michael Marshak: OTORO Energy 鈥 High Performance Battery Materials for Affordable Grid Scale Energy Storage (recipient of Physical Science Audience Choice Award)
  • Michael McGehee: Dynamic Smart Windows
  • Scott Palo: Hybrid Small Satellite Radio Frequency and Optical Communication System
  • Wil Srubar: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Building Materials

Finalists

  • Moncef Krarti: Adjustable Building Insulation
  • Bowen Li: Disrupting the Spectroscopy Market with Novel Bidirectional Fiber Laser

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2019 LVC Winners and Finalists

Winners

  • Xuedong Liu: Programmable Gectosomes for Delivery of Therapeutic Nucleic Acids and Proteins
  • Roy Parker: Exocure Therapeutics鈥擯ARN as a Target for Treatment of Specific Human Cancers 
  • Rafael Piestun: Ultrathin Endoscopes
  • Sara Sawyer: SickStick鈥擜 Saliva-Based Test for Infection (recipient of Bioscience Audience Choice Award)

Finalists

  • Jerome Fox: Think Bioscience鈥擡volution-Guided Drug Discovery
  • Wei Tan: Vascular Precision鈥擯recision Prohealing Coating for Vascular Implants

Winners

  • Zach Newman: Octave Photonics鈥擜 Tantala Photonics Platform 
  • Ivan Smalyukh: iFeather鈥擳ransparent Aerogels for Solar Heating and Greenhouse Applications (recipient of Physical Science Audience Choice Award)
  • Alireza Vahid: Theia鈥擭ext Generation Wireless Systems Antenna

Finalists

  • Chris Vargo: Socialcontext.ai鈥擜n AI-Powered Social Media Content Strategy Tool
  • Tam Vu: DenyTheSky鈥擯assive Drone Detection and Tracking

鈥

2018 LVC Winners and Finalists

Winners

  • Anushree Chatterjee鈥擳herapies for Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Infections
  • Svenja Knappe鈥擜 Magnetographic Imaging Device for Early Detection of Cancer
  • Corey Neu鈥擭ext-Generation Dermal Fillers (recipient of Bioscience Audience Choice Award)
  • Ding Xue鈥擳herapies for Side Effects Caused by Radiation Therapy

Finalists

  • Douglas Chapnick鈥擯redicting Clinical Success and Failure of Therapeutic Drugs
  • Xuedong Li鈥擯rogrammable Designer Therapeutics
  • Tin Tin Su鈥擜 High Throughput Screen for Identifying Cancer Therapies
  • Wei Tan鈥擠esigning Personalized Vascular Devices

Winners

  • Mark Hernandez鈥擟orrosion Resistant Concrete Admixture
  • Timothy Morrissey鈥擜rtificial Muscles for the Future of Robotics and Automation (recipient of Physical Science Audience Choice Award)
  • Jeffrey Thayer鈥擠iscovering Shallow Water Hazards
  • Jeffrey Beyle and Qin Lv鈥擜ffordable Digital Tools for Small and Medium Manufacturers

Finalists

  • Donald David鈥 Quantum Plating Solutions
  • Aaron Palumbo鈥擟leaner, Cheaper Magnesium Production

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Thank You to Our LVC Financial Partners