From shelf-stable blood to artificial intelligence-enhanced surgical tools, teams of physicians, engineers and scientists working across UT campus and beyond are finalists in a process that identifies and nurtures promising solutions to pressing health challenges.
It’s part of what happens when the power of industry meets the strength of research and clinical excellence at a world-class academic medical center.
University of Texas innovators presented entrepreneurial projects in the life sciences, showcasing unique solutions to health challenges.
Hosted at Capital Factory, the Texas Health Catalyst Roundup and Rodeo featured 11 finalist teams of UT collaborators who participated in the 2024 application cycle for Texas Health Catalyst, a hub for life sciences and health care innovation at Dell Medical School.
This year’s cycle issued particular challenges in the spaces of AI and rare disease, aligned with the University’s 2024 observance of the Year of AI and Dell Med’s recent establishment of the Center for Rare Disease. Teams presented their ideas, progress and paths to market, and took questions from judges whose backgrounds spanned venture capital to health IT.
“Most of the time academia thinks of translation as bench to bedside,” said Stephen Ekker, Ph.D., associate dean of innovation and entrepreneurship at Dell Medical School. “But we are going to actually implement what we call the ‘3B’ model: bench to business to bedside. It’s reimagining how we’re actually going to take what’s at UT and implement it in the world, and it’s all possible because of partnerships.”
Since 2015, Texas Health Catalyst has helped identify early-stage technologies and connect UT teams with industry advisors and investors to support innovation across all health care sectors. Program alumni include Babson Diagnostics, which developed a service to provide accessible blood tests with samples collected from a fingertip, and Jurata Thin Film, which manufactures vaccines and therapeutics using a formulation that is stable without cold storage and can be administered without needles.
“Austin is home to some of the most visionary leaders, talented physicians, experienced researchers and greatest innovators in the country. Nonetheless, it is also the largest city in the U.S. without an academic medical center,” said Claudia F. Lucchinetti, M.D., dean of Dell Medical School, in virtual remarks. “As a result, too many of our patients are leaving to obtain much-needed care that they should be receiving here at home. Today’s demonstrations are only the beginning of what we can achieve with new ideas, unwavering commitment and a shared mission.”
The New Scalpel: Artificial Intelligence
This year’s technologies leveraging AI included a surgical tool called Cascade, built by a team led by Joga Ivatury, M.D., associate professor and surgeon at Dell Medical School, and Radu Marculescu, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering. The computer vision software uses deep learning to provide real-time adenoma detection to colorectal surgeons.
“We do 15 million constant colonoscopies a year in the United States to remove adenomas, or precancerous polyps, to prevent the development of colorectal cancer,” Ivatury said. “However, adenoma detection rates really vary between 7% and 50% based on endoscopist’s experience, which leads to either missed or incompletely removed adenomas and puts patients at risk for developing cancer. We need to be better in terms of identifying adenomas and removing them completely.”
Teams are also using AI in remote-sensing technologies that can improve rehabilitation for common conditions outside hospital walls: BreatheEase is a smart mask designed to gamify the rehabilitation process for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , aiming to reduce hospital readmission rates and improve the 4% compliance rate for rehab patients.
Similarly, several teams presented on accessible poststroke rehabilitation solutions utilizing brain-computer interfaces and technologies like real-time EEG monitoring and functional electrical stimulation.
“Recently, our collaborator José Millán demonstrated that brain-computer interfaces with functional electrostimulation facilitates recovery, but this is limited to clinical settings, making it costly and not widely accessible,” said Ilya Pyatnitskiy, entrepreneurial lead for NeuraWear, a technology developed by physicians and engineers across the Cockrell School of Engineering and Dell Medical School. “Our mission is to democratize stroke rehabilitation by offering a highly effective, affordable and convenient device for use at home.”
Beyond the Computer: Genes to Blood Cells
Teams also presented on solutions targeting rare disease, like an inhalable therapeutic for primary ciliary dyskinesia, a genetic condition that impairs a person’s ability to clear pollutants from the nose and lungs. The condition affects 1 in 7,500 people, and there is no cure.
Other targeted health challenges include hemorrhage in remote locations like in conflict zones: A team from the College of Pharmacy developed a freeze-drying technology for creating portable, shelf-stable blood products that can be reconstituted in minutes.
“Today, blood remains stable by two methods: refrigeration and deep freezing, neither of which are portable,” said Michael Sandoval, doctoral student in the College of Pharmacy. “Using our technology, we’re able to freeze cells two orders of magnitude faster than the conventional technologies, which allows us to play a space that has never been used in the past.”
What’s Next for Finalists
Finalists in the program will continue to receive support from Texas Health Catalyst’s team and network of advisors, both in the form of mentorship and possible seed funding.
“Over the following weeks, we will work with teams and their advisors to determine what the biggest risks to their projects are and fund them to mitigate those risks,” says Ruben Rathnasingham, Ph.D., assistant dean for health product innovation at Dell Medical School. “The hope is that once they mitigate these critical risks over the course of a year, they will more likely garner follow-on funds and other support such as strategic partnerships.”
2024 Texas Health Catalyst Finalists
- “BreatheEase: Remote COPD Patient Monitoring” (Cockrell School of Engineering, Dell Medical School)
- “CerebroSonic: A Novel System for Pre-Hospital Diagnosis of Stroke” (Cockrell School of Engineering)
- “A Smart Retractor Platform for Surgical Guidance” (Cockrell School of Engineering)
- “Neurawear: Wearable Brain-Computer Interface for Stroke Rehabilitation” (Cockrell School of Engineering, Dell Medical School)
- “A Novel Delivery Platform for Gene Therapy for Ciliary Dyskinesia” (College of Pharmacy)
- “Diagnosis of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Using ECG Analysis” (Cockrell School of Engineering)
- “Towards Clinically Accurate Continuous Blood Pressure Monitoring” (Cockrell School of Engineering)
- “A Point-and-Click Tool for Digital Therapeutics” (College of Liberal Arts)
- “AI-Facilitated VR-EEG System for Post-Stroke Rehabilitation” (Cockrell School of Engineering)
- “Deep Learning Methods for Real-time Adenoma Detection” (Cockrell School of Engineering, Dell Medical School)
- “A Novel Functional Red Blood Cell Powder for Long-Term Preservation” (College of Pharmacy)