Entrepreneurship Hub announces SEED grant recipients
Six projects across four University of Wisconsin–Madison schools and colleges have received annual State Economic Engagement & Development (SEED) funding, totaling $550,000.
The SEED Research Program funds are designated by the state legislature and administered by the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub. SEED grants allow UW–Madison faculty and academic staff who are co-founders in a Wisconsin company to engage in innovative research, generate additional private and public sector support for their research programs, and promote technology transfer between the University and industry.
“One of UW–Madison’s greatest strengths is the ability to translate ideas and research into impact,” says Lewis Sheats, associate vice chancellor for entrepreneurship at UW–Madison and executive director of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub. “The SEED grant program allows these researchers to take important next steps toward commercialization by supporting industry partnerships, advancing innovation, and creating opportunities for economic growth across Wisconsin.”
The six funded projects largely address issues that affect Wisconsin and its residents, including reducing fertilizer use, improving disease outcomes through better screenings and treatments, and developing a more secure navigation system. Read more about each project below.
Improving crop yields with season-long nitrate monitoring
Principal Investigator (PI): Joseph Andrews, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Co-PI: Jingyi Huang, Associate Professor, Soil and Environmental Sciences
Company: Saturn Soilsense
Soil analysis can tell farmers exactly how much nitrate their crops need for maximum crop yield, but current methods require frequent sampling over a growing season, only provide a snapshot of conditions, and are more costly than overapplying nitrate fertilizer. Much of the extra nitrate not taken up by crops finds its way to groundwater and private wells, in some cases causing unsafe levels in drinking water. Joseph Andrews, Jingyi Huang and their teams had previously developed a patented inkjet-printed sensor that continuously monitors nitrate concentration. With the SEED funding, they will work to increase the longevity and reliability of the membranes requires for sensitivity to see if their new technology can provide a cost-effective way to reduce over-application of fertilizers. Their commercialization partner, Saturn Agrisense, produces the hardware that houses the sensor and the software that reads the data. The goal is to reduce excess fertilizer use and improve soil nutrient management by providing real-time nitrate monitoring at a lower cost to farmers than both current soil testing methods and additional fertilizer use.
Reducing treatment toxicity for fibrotic lung disease
PI: Seungpyo Hong, Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Co-PI: Allan Brasier, Professor, Internal Medicine
Company: Quadragenics, Inc.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal lung disease with no cure and limited survival after diagnosis. Although anti-fibrotic medications can slow disease progression, long-term treatment is often limited by systemic toxicities and side effects. Seungpyo Hong, Allan Brasier and their UW–Madison research teams are developing an inhalable lipid- and peptide-based nanoparticle delivery system designed to target fibrotic lung tissue and deliver the antifibrotic therapy, BRD4, directly to the site of disease. Their commercialization partner, Quadragenics, is a Madison-based company developing BRD4 inhibitor therapies. The commercial potential of this project includes the development of a less toxic treatment strategy for IDF as well as broader applications of nanoparticle inhalation platform for the treatment of other lung and airway diseases.
Improved positioning and navigation using quantum sensors
PI: Mikhail Kats, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
Co-PIs: Eric Tervo, Assistant Professor, ECE; Jennifer Choy, Associate Professor, ECE
Company: Dirac Labs, Inc.
Satellite-based GPS is critical for the global navigation market, but it is vulnerable to jamming and spoofing. Positioning based on Earth’s magnetic field is a possible alternative to current GPS. Jennifer Choy’s group at UW–Madison has been developing magnetometers based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond that can serve as the basis of an alternative to GPS, but diamond’s high refractive index limits the strength of the readout signal. Mikhail Kats, Eric Tervo, Choy, and their UW–Madison research groups are investigating a new approach based on compound semiconductors to increase the sensitivity of NV magnetometers. Commercialization partner Dirac Labs, Inc. is a Madison-based company that is developing magnetic navigation systems, but are currently limited by sensor size, cost, and sensitivity. Dirac Labs aims to use enhanced NV sensors developed by the UW–Madison team in the next generation of their navigation system.
Lower-cost, less invasive cancer screenings
PI: Ahna Skop, Professor, Genetics
Company: aMBR genomics, Inc.
The earlier a cancer is detected, the better the outcome for patients. Current liquid biopsies detect cancerous cells, proteins, or nucleic acids from a small blood draw, but they are relatively poor at detecting early-stage cancers. They also function similarly to finding a needle in a haystack, so they carry a high cost to patients or insurers. Ahna Skop’s group at UW–Madison is improving liquid biopsies by isolating the first cell proliferation-linked biomarker designed for cancer screening, , effectively shrinking the haystack and making cancer signals easier to detect earlier. The team will use the SEED funding to benchmark their test on key performance metrics compared to current commercial options. Commercialization partner aMBR genomics will develop the technology into clinical tests for breast, pancreatic, ovarian, and colon cancers in higher-risk groups, as well as broad screening for average-risk adults.
Improving quality and efficiency of a common class of targeted chemotherapies
PI: Weiping Tang, Professor, Pharmacy
Company: GlycoBridge Biosciences, Inc.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) are a class of lower-side-effect targeted chemotherapy that deliver cancer-killing drugs by attaching them to specific proteins expressed on cancer cells. However, simple chemical processes to make ADCs produce non-uniform structures that cause off-target side effects, and the process to make uniform structures is very inefficient, requiring lengthy steps or mutiple enzymes. Weiping Tang’s group at UW–Madison has developed a three-step process to create uniform ADCs, greatly reducing the cost of producing them and reducing side effects. They will use the SEED funding to refine the ADC synthesis process and prepare it for industrial-scale production. Commercialization partner GlycoBridge Biosciences will sub-license the technology to pharmaceutical companies, enabling the production of ADCs with a range of chemotherapeutic drugs conjugated to cancer-specific antibodies.
Reducing overtreatment of brain tumors
PI: Pallavi Tiwari, Associate Professor, Radiology
Company: LivAI, Inc.
Though rare, brain tumors are among the hardest and most invasive to treat, and they have some of the highest rates of debilitation or death from treatment. After initial treatment, patients are monitored by MRI, and about half are flagged for potential treatment failure. The problem is that 40% of those patients are experiencing post-treatment side effects, not failed treatment. These conditions are extremely challenging to distinguish on clinical imaging, leading to costly and potentially dangerous re-treatment for some patients. Pallavi Tiwari’s group at UW–Madison has been analyzing routine MRI images from brain tumor patients and found that aggressive tumors have more chaotic micro-architecture detectable at the pixel level. Commercialization partner LivAI Inc. has developed software that uses patented AI imaging analysis to differentiate patients who need further treatment from those who simply need to be monitored, with approximately 90% accuracy. The SEED funding will be used to obtain FDA clearance and support future implementation of the software.