Launch Blue Announces Fifth UAccel Cohort
September 1, 2022
Launch Blue is pleased to announce that 14 teams have been selected to participate in the 12-week Fall 2022 UAccel program.
UAccel is a Launch Blue cohort organized in partnership with the University of Kentucky Office of Technology Commercialization and Kentucky Commercialization Ventures. The program is designed to offer business development and an experiential learning opportunity to innovators in higher education interested in learning the best commercialization path for their technology. The goal of the program is to advance the technology toward commercialization, including preparations for Small Business Innovation Research grant applications, the creation of a startup, or licensing of the technology.
Candidates were selected through a competitive application and interview process. The final selections for the cohort were determined by a selection committee appointed by the organizing partners. The application for the Spring 2023 UAccel cohort will open later this fall (click here to sign up to be notified when the application opens).
Participants in the Fall 2022 Cohort are:
Ron Bruntz, PhD, Founder, Atterogen
Atterogen is developing a novel enzyme therapy that targets aberrant glycogen metabolism and may improve brain metabolic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease.
Tim Butterfield, PhD, Professor, College of Health Sciences, University of Kentucky
A device that is designed to permit the proper tuning and quantification of the mechano-therapeutic loads applied during massage. Real time data acquisition allows calculation of the dose of mechanotherapy imparted to the tissues and provides feedback for massage control and stored data for individualized assessment of optimum therapeutic dose-response.
Adrian DeWald, PhD, President, Hill Engineering
Julius Schoop, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering, University of Kentucky
ToolwiseTM is an automated tool condition monitoring system, which helps machine shops and other manufacturers who want to manufacture high-quality parts for critical applications by improving machining efficiency, profitability, and throughput and reducing the amount of quality escapes and scrapped parts unlike existing indirect monitoring systems that have limited reliability.
Melanie Dicks, Pharm.D., MBA, BCACP, Associate Professor, Clinical Pharmacist, University of Kentucky
Sylvia Y. Ofei, MD, MBA, MPH, Associate Professor, Pediatric Gastroenterologist, University of Kentucky
Cow’s milk protein allergy is the most common food intolerance in babies with symptoms including rashes, digestive, and respiratory problems. LacBar is a noninvasive home testing kit to detect the presence of cow’s milk protein in breast milk to help breastfeeding moms determine if they have successfully eliminated dairy from their diet.
Anthony Faiola, PhD, Professor of Health and Clinical Sciences, University of Kentucky
FamCare+ is a mobile health service for reducing anxiety, depression, and PTSD by increasing communication and information flow between rural families and critical care clinicians at the bedside.
Jamie Fredericks, PhD, Director of Forensic Science, Eastern Kentucky University
A modular forensic sample collection tool that can be used to lower the cost and speed up the process of DNA profiling in order to reduce the time it takes to identify victims and suspects of crime.
Ted Kalbfleisch, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary Science, College of Agriculture Food and Environment, University of Kentucky
Managing high-throughput genetic and genomic data and making rapid, remote query and analysis of the data possible to accelerate the use of genetic data in agriculture and medicine.
Tim McClintock, PhD, Research Professor, Louis Boyarsky Professor of Physiology, University of Kentucky; President and Founder, OdoRcept
OdoRcept provides interventions directed at addictions exacerbated by learned smell preferences.
Kathryn Ruf, PharmD, MBA, Director, Office of Pharmacy Value and Analytics, Department of Pharmacy, UK HealthCare
UKHC Pharmacy Services Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Anticoagulation Guidelines (The Blue Book) is a medication policy, dosing, and monitoring reference intended to support clinical pharmacists, Departments of Pharmacy, and Colleges of Pharmacy. The Blue Book provides up-to-date and evidence-based guidance to ensure the safe use of medications and compliance with professional regulatory standards.
Calvin Secrest Jr., Founder and CEO, Q-Zoo
A quantum computing technology that allows researchers, developers, and engineers to build stable, reliable quantum computers and sensors without suffering from noise and hardware error.
Sridhar Sunderam, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky
Diane Iradukunda, PhD Candidate, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky
Alex Wang, PhD Candidate, University of Kentucky
A method of detecting abnormal electrical activity in the brain related to epilepsy to help neurosurgical teams identify specific areas of brain tissue to be removed so that epilepsy patients can be free of seizures.
Mahdi Yazdanpour, PhD, Assistant Professor of Mechatronics Engineering Technology, Northern Kentucky University
An inexpensive, personalized EEG-controlled prosthetic arm to remove barriers faced by individuals with upper limb amputation.
David Yurek, PhD, Research Professor Department of Neurosurgery, University of Kentucky
A combined gene therapy/nanoparticle approach to selectively target brain tumor cells as a means to kill tumor cells while sparing normal brain cells.
Guigen Zhang, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky
A microfluidic-based platform technology with wide-range separation and single-micron differentiation capabilities in an easy-to-operate and high-throughput manner.