The program is a nine-month training course where students gain hands-on experience creating and testing their ideas in the real world. The curriculum includes opportunities to prototype new designs while participating in workshops and lectures led by faculty at the UofL School of Medicine, College of Business and J.B. Speed School of Engineering.听

鈥淭his is about training the next generation of innovators in health care and medicine,鈥� said In Kim, a professor of pediatric medicine and program lead. 鈥淲ith Bluegrass Biodesign, we hope to equip UofL students with the tools they need to launch technologies that can save lives.鈥�听

Students complete the program in multidisciplinary teams, each blending undergraduate and graduate students in medicine and engineering. The idea is that they each bring insights from their own area of expertise that could help them solve problems and innovate.

鈥淲hat we find is that innovation is a team sport,鈥� said Beth Spurlin, an associate professor and co-director of the program. 鈥淭he best solutions come from different people with different perspectives working together. With Bluegrass Biodesign, we give students the opportunity to experience that before they even leave campus.鈥�

Eight teams 鈥� a total of 58 students 鈥攑articipated in the 2024-2025 cohort.听Logan Davis, an M.D./MBA student, said the experience taught him just how much work goes into developing the innovations his patients will one day rely on. His team worked on a device to help patients who struggle with both urinary control and motor tremor and/or dexterity. The solution for the former is to self-catheterize, which can be difficult without full control of your hands or arms.听

鈥淲e wanted to target this set of problems to give back some comfort and autonomy to these patients,鈥� said Davis, who also was co-president for the 2023-2024 cohort. 鈥淭his is a process I am so thankful to have been a part of, and I plan on using the biodesign process Bluegrass BioDesign is based on for the rest of my career to design/improve care for all of my patients.鈥�

The student teams also complete business training via , the office鈥檚 accelerated entrepreneurial bootcamp that is part of UofL鈥檚 National Science Foundation program, housed in the . In the 2024 cycle, all eight teams received $3,000 in funding, along with mentorship and training, via the I-Corps program.

鈥淲e are thrilled to formalize the collaboration between Bluegrass Biodesign and UofL’s I-Corps program,鈥� said Jessica Sharon, senior director of innovation programs and new ventures, who leads I-Corps and LaunchIt. 鈥淲e are proud of these students’ hard work in the program to identify and validate market needs they are working to solve!鈥�

Applications for the next cycle of Bluegrass Biodesign will be open for submission at the beginning of the spring 2025 semester. Learn more and apply .

LaunchIt, through the , is an intensive eight-week hybrid course focused on . The program includes coaching, mentoring and curriculum including lessons on customer discovery, product validation and other considerations when preparing for market launch.

The eight innovator team leads in the spring 2023 session were:

• Leanne Bledsoe, a researcher at Western Kentucky University, who works with fluorescent dye tracing products and services for investigating potential contamination to groundwater.*
• Rachel DeWees, a doctoral student at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, who鈥檚 developing lightweight, long-lasting lithium-ion batteries meant to improve the mileage capability electric vehicles.*
• Saba Gray, founder of BioGLITZ, who鈥檚 developed a biodegradable, hemp-based glitter, while exploring her product application for environmentally-conscious textile manufacturers, artisans and consumers.
• Candace Harrington, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing who鈥檚 developing “iCanDriveSafely”, an AI-driven mobile app helping those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias make smarter driving choices.*
• Caleb He, an undergraduate student who鈥檚 developing a tool to help doctors in developing countries with an easy and reliable way to provide quantitative measurement of tissue rigidity for earlier detection of breast cancer.*
• Laura Leon Machado, a researcher at UofL’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, who鈥檚 developing a pediatric postural control chair meant to improve spinal conditions.*
• Ryan G. Nazar, a neurosurgeon, developing a software application, Practical Healthcare, creating a community of health care consumers to empower a patient-first approach to health care engagement.
• Melissa Smith, an assistant professor in the UofL School of Medicine, who鈥檚 developing genomics and bioinformatics tools for predicting individual responsiveness to viral vaccines or infectious disease.*

Starred participants received LaunchIt tuition funding and support through UofL鈥檚 NSF I-Corps site program, which pairs innovative UofL faculty, staff and students (undergraduate and graduate) with entrepreneurial mentors to drive research-backed technologies to market.

Harrington, who had no business experience prior to LaunchIt, said the experience changed her perspective on the potential impact of her research.

鈥淚 started LaunchIt with a good idea and no business knowledge,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ver eight weeks, I developed the acumen to pitch a business and commercialization plan to over 100 people, with potential investors expressing interest in supporting our innovative start-up!听What an amazing program!”

The LaunchIt program is offered by , a group within the UofL Office of Research and Innovation that works to launch and grow startups, and is supported in part by Amplify Louisville. LaunchIt coaches include the office鈥檚 Entrepreneurs in Residence, knowledgeable founders with an in-depth understanding of launching and growing a business.听The program also taps into the region鈥檚 entrepreneurial ecosystem for its speaker lineup, bringing in real-world experience and insights of local innovators, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

鈥淭he participants in this cohort represent such a breadth of industries, each working to turn a good idea into a good product,鈥� said Will Metcalf, an associate vice president of research and innovation who leads UofL New Ventures. 鈥淚鈥檓 proud of their progress this session and the connectivity this program creates between industry and our campus, helping to launch new companies, ideas and economic development.鈥�

The next session of LaunchIt, beginning in fall 2023, is now enrolling. More information and registration is available at .

The program provides training and $50,000 to develop new, technology-backed startups. The UofL team, led by School of Medicine research scientist Matthew Neal, completed an intensive, two-month boot camp learning about commercialization, engaging with industry and talking to more than 100 potential customers.

Neal and his collaborators 鈥� co-technical leads Pavel Zahorik and Shae Morgan, both in the audiology department 鈥� are developing a virtual reality-based technology to help patients test different models and program their hearing aids, without leaving the comfort of the clinical setting.听

With this tool, audiologists could use a VR headset or a wide screen display to demonstrate how specific hearing aid models and settings would perform in different, realistic environments, such as a school, noisy restaurant, grocery store or church. The idea, Neal said, is to help patients find the right fit.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of like test-driving a new car and seeing how it performs in real-world conditions,鈥� Neal said. 鈥淲e want to help people choose the hearing aid and get it programmed specifically for the specific environments where they have trouble, and with virtual reality technologies, you can do that without leaving your audiologist鈥檚 office.鈥�

According to the National Institutes of Health, one in eight Americans over the age of 12 have some degree of hearing loss and about 28.8 million adults could benefit from using hearing aids.

Following the I-Corps national program, the researchers now are developing a working prototype and considering various funding routes to continue research efforts and pursue commercialization of the technology. Their product development efforts are supported by business mentor Tendai Charasika, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in the UofL Office of Research and Innovation.

The team is also in a research partnership with both the听Heuser听Hearing Institute, a not-for-profit hearing healthcare organization serving Kentuckiana, and Sonova, a hearing aid manufacturer.

鈥淲e are proud that our decades-long partnership with the University of Louisville to further the field of audiology with cutting-edge hearing healthcare technology has led to this recognition,鈥� said House CEO Brett Bachmann.听鈥淐ongratulations听to Matthew Neal, Pavel Zahorik and Shae Morgan.

Teams must be nominated for the national I-Corps Teams bootcamp, and must first complete UofL’s regional I-Corps site program and , UofL鈥檚 product innovation bootcamp. UofL and partners recently received $15 million from the National Science Foundation to launch a new regional听NSF Mid-South听Innovation Corps听(I-Corps) Hub, one of only 10 across the U.S.

Neal鈥檚 team also received funding and coaching through UofL鈥檚 Pandemic-Related Product Acceleration & Responsive Entrepreneurship Program, or PRePARE, which partners UofL researchers with companies and members of the community to scale up innovative ideas addressing health, economic and societal issues caused by pandemics. The PRePARE program fostered the additional collaboration between UofL and Heuser Hearing Institute.听

鈥淭hese programs support commercialization of the work being done by our researchers here at UofL,鈥� said Jessica Sharon, UofL鈥檚 director of innovation programs. 鈥淲e鈥檙e proud of Matthew and the team at the Heuser Hearing Institute, and their work to accelerate product development of this innovation that addresses unmet needs in the听 market and could help many people.鈥�听

The new , one of only 10 across the U.S., is part of the operational backbone of the NSF鈥檚 National Innovation Network, which helps translate academic research for the marketplace. The Hubs are charged with providing experiential entrepreneurship training to researchers across all fields of science and engineering while working to build diverse and inclusive regional innovation ecosystems.

The MidSouth Hub is a collaboration among nine regional research universities, led by Vanderbilt University and including UofL, George Mason University, Jackson State University, Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Tennessee – Knoxville and the University of Virginia. As part of the Hub, UofL will receive $1 million over five years to support focused product development and training.听

鈥淎s a top-tier, Carnegie Research-1 university, UofL has a strong track record as a driver of technological innovation and entrepreneurship,鈥� said Kevin Gardner, executive vice president for research and innovation. 鈥淲e are excited to work with our Mid-South Hub partner institutions to accelerate that work, furthering important and often life-saving technologies, launching new growth-focused companies and creating opportunity here and beyond.鈥�听

UofL鈥檚 role in the new hub follows years of leadership as a member of NSF鈥檚 I-Corps Site Program. UofL was named an I-Corps Site in 2015, the first in Kentucky, and has since awarded product development training and microgrants to more than 250 innovative faculty, staff and students.

Those awards have supported the creation of at least 16听new companies, eight intellectual property听licensing agreements and more than $8 million in follow-on funding secured to further product development. Several UofL teams also have been selected to participate in the competitive I-Corps National TEAMS program, each receiving $50,000 to further develop technologies that could improve health care through artificial intelligence, extend the shelf-life of donated blood and more.听

鈥淥ur goal is to take these brilliant research-backed ideas out of the lab and develop them into full-fledged, market-ready products that can improve the way we live and work,鈥� said Will Metcalf, an associate vice president for research and innovation and a lead for the UofL program. 鈥淧articipating in the new Mid-South Hub dramatically expands our ability to support the development and growth of scalable companies that bring ideas to life.鈥�听听

UofL鈥檚 I-Corps programming is led by UofL New Ventures in the , and includes entrepreneurial mentors, prototyping support and , UofL鈥檚 eight-week product innovation bootcamp. The office strives to launch and scale innovative companies that can bring technologies to market and solve big problems.

I-Corps is part of UofL鈥檚 unique suite of prestigious, grant-backed programs aimed at supporting the translation of research into viable commercial products. UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the country to host each of these innovation-associated programs 鈥� and it鈥檚 the only one to receive听all听of them.

鈥淭hese programs have helped support a wide range of technologies and teams, helping them learn the product development process and lens,鈥� said Jessica Sharon, director of innovation programs and a lead on the UofL Hub program. 鈥淭hrough this new Hub, we are very excited to work with our regional partner universities to train more innovators and get research-backed products to market.鈥�

Historically, LaunchIt training had been done in person in downtown Louisville, but in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, program leaders took the bootcamp online. This allowed innovators to participate remotely 鈥� and from farther away. The spring 2020 virtual pilot cohort included entrepreneurs from Michigan, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia and across Kentucky.

鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to invite these regional entrepreneurs into our LaunchIt family,鈥� said program director Mary Tapolsky, assistant director of external programs at the UofL Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship. 鈥淓ach class brings fresh ideas and perspectives, and this expansion will amplify that while accelerating the launch of innovative new products and startups that energize our regional economy.鈥�

Since 2011, more than 600 entrepreneurs and university researchers have completed the program. The curriculum includes lessons on customer discovery, product validation, marketing and other considerations when preparing for market launch.

Participants normally would attend classes in person once per week in the iHub co-working space on UofL’s downtown JD Nichols Campus for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In the virtual program, the meetings and content are entirely online.

One attendee in the spring 2020 virtual pilot cohort was Brad Profitt, assistant professor in the Marshall University School of Physical Therapy in West Virginia. Profitt鈥檚 participation in LaunchIt was sponsored by UofL鈥檚 NSF-designated , part of the UofL’s suite of prestigious innovation programs aimed at commercializing university-born research. Profitt hopes to further develop a patent-pending therapeutic device used to regain knee extension after an injury or surgery.

鈥淭he ultimate goal is to get this device in the hands of patients for home use to promote carryover between their physical therapy visits,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 learned a lot about how to effectively commercialize my product during LaunchIt and I highly recommend it to other researchers looking to do the same.鈥�

Registration is open through Feb. 9 for the spring virtual cohort, which again will accept researchers from partner institutions and universities across Kentucky. More information on registration and grant funding opportunities is available .

The program provides training and $50,000 in funding that helps university researchers translate the ideas they develop in the lab into new, technology-backed startups. Participating teams complete an intense, two-month bootcamp learning about commercialization, engaging with industry and talking to potential customers.

Two projects from UofL were chosen to participate in recent bootcamp cohorts:

• BioCaRGOS, short for Capture and Release Gels for Optimized Storage (bioCaRGOS), uses a novel water-based stabilizer to enable storage of sensitive biospecimens like RNA, DNA or proteins at low temperatures for long periods of time, including during transport to remote locations. The project team includes: co-inventors Gautam Gupta and听Rajat Chauhan, both in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, and business mentor Jeff Cummins, who also is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the UofL Office of Research and Innovation.

• ARNA, short for , an artificially intelligent health care robot created to provide round-the-clock patient monitoring and allow nurses to focus more on direct patient care by taking on some of their time-consuming tasks. The project team includes: co-inventors Dan Popa and Sumit Kumar Das, of engineering, and business mentor Mary Tapolsky, of the UofL Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship.

Chauhan, of the BioCaRGOS team, said the experience helped his team find an industry commercialization partner. They currently are seeking partners for an upcoming application NSF Partnerships for Innovation program, which allows NSF-backed projects like his to work with industry on research and development and accelerate the technology’s path to market.

鈥淰accine stability (especially for COVID-19) remains a critical challenge and is the critical bottleneck for effective distribution of the state-of-art MRNA based vaccines to current population,” said Chauhan, BioCaRGOS entrepreneurial lead and a postdoctoral research scientist. “Our technology has the potential to advance the delivery of vaccines at room temperature, a feat that cannot be achieved currently.鈥�

Teams must be nominated for the national I-Corps bootcamp, and must first complete a regional . Both the BioCARGOS and ARNA teams completed UofL鈥檚 I-Corps site program 鈥� part of UofL鈥檚 suite of听, that also includes the UofL , NIH and NSF programs. I-Corps at UofL requires successful participation and completion of , UofL鈥檚 own 10-week entrepreneurial bootcamp.

鈥淭hese programs support commercialization of the work being done by our researchers here at UofL,鈥� said Jessica Sharon, UofL鈥檚 director of innovation programs. 鈥淲e鈥檙e proud of the ARNA and BioCARGOS teams, and their work to accelerate product development of their innovations to address unmet needs in the market.鈥�听

The team took down four other teams in the 5 Across finals, each with five minutes to pitch their big idea. That earned Pascal , plus the $500 earned for winning a preliminary round in February.

Pascal Tags is led by engineering student Brandon Young, and recent grad Haley Pfeiffer. The company is based on a that can help track inventory, which Young invented with UofL鈥檚 Dr. Thad Druffel.

鈥淭his prize money will help us get our pilot programs started faster and really accelerate our growth,鈥� Pfeiffer said. 鈥淭he competition also allowed us to gain some great connections and tell more people about our innovation.鈥澨�

She said Pascal hopes to begin its first pilot programs within the next three to six months. The team also is working to better understand their customers, and continuing its research and development.

The team worked with UofL to protect and commercialize the technology, and participated in UofL鈥檚 entrepreneurship training and the听NSF 听(I-Corps) site program听for translational research.听

Since then, they鈥檝e gone on to and Young competed .听

Pfeiffer also has recently been accepted into the听听at UofL, aimed at helping women and underrepresented entrepreneurs submit more competitive applications for SBIR and STTR grant funding.

“We are so excited to see the community supporting and believing in Pascal Tags,鈥� Pfeiffer said. “We can’t wait to see what the future holds.鈥澨�

鈥淚 like to work in science that can improve health care, especially if the patient is a relative.鈥� El-Baz said.

The project has now been funded by the Coulter Translational Partnership, NSF I-Corps and NSF AWARE:ACCESS, three funding programs aimed to get entrepreneurs and their inventions to the marketplace more quickly and successfully. The group has applied for patent protection and is collaborating with the University of Michigan on a clinical study. Louisville and Michigan are two of just 16 schools in the U.S. to receive funding from the Coulter Foundation.

鈥淲e would not have been able to do this without the Coulter funding ($223,000),鈥� El-Baz said.

The money from I-Corps and AWARE:ACCESS has gone to support Isaac Gebru, a UofL Speed School of Engineering graduate who worked with El-Baz and has created a start-up company to commercialize and market the technology. Last year, I-Corps paid for Gebru to complete a UofL Foundation-sponsored training course for upstart businesses called LaunchIt while the AWARE:ACCESS program helps minority entrepreneurs, like Gebru, write more competitive grant proposals and hone their customer relations skills.

鈥淚 think this kidney project demonstrates the clear and distinct value of each of these three funding mechanisms,鈥� said Rob Keynton, director of Research Initiatives in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and lead investigator of the three awards. 鈥淭ogether, the awards help UofL faculty and students figure out their potential customer base, secure funding and get their innovations to the marketplace.鈥�