The BF TechCelerator@State College Announces Latest Winner – Virolock Technologies Inc!
State College, PA – On Tuesday, March 1, 2016, the BF TechCelerator@State College awarded a cash prize of $10,000 to Tim Yeh, Ph.D. and his team for their work on the development of “an effective virus trap” that greatly increases the virus detection sensitivity offered by current procedures. Their company, Virolock Technologies Inc., is a recent graduate of an Eight-Week Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs, specifically designed for Penn State researchers in support of the new Invent Penn State commercialization initiative.
Tuesday night’s event included eight minute presentations from the six teams, followed by five minutes of Q&A from a local panel of judges. The entrepreneurs talked about the market they are trying to enter, the problem their product or service solves, and how they will develop their technology into a commercial product. All of the teams made excellent presentations and included:
- AvoColor – AvoColor’s new product is a yellow-red natural food color additive that addresses the growing natural food color need of food manufacturers.
- BioRegen – BioRegen’s wound care products incorporate protein drugs to accelerate the healing and treatment of cuts, burns, diabetic wounds, surgical wounds, traumatic wounds, pressure sores and chronic wounds.
- AnyMDx – AnyMDx is a mobile, point-of-care, genetic diagnostic platform consisting of a compact analyzer, a disposable disease-specific reagent cartridge, and an optional smartphone app.
- Visual Light Communications Technologies – VLCT will provide a faster and safer visual light-based broadband wireless network technology for smart lighting, consumer electronics, aircraft, hospitals, vehicles and RF interference sensitive environments.
- AbDesign BioPharma – AbDesign has developed a software package for the design of new antibodies. This new capability holds great promise for streamlining and facilitating the development of high-affinity antibodies.
Ben Franklin’s Jim Pietropaolo, commented, “Our startup Boot Camps have become so popular that we added an additional session to our traditional schedule. This particular session, which started in December, was specifically for Penn State researchers. Twelve researchers on six commercialization teams participated, and all did an outstanding job! Congratulations to our latest winner.”
