13 years after launching a business pitch competition for Pitt healthcare technologies, Pitt alum Michael Wells reflects on the growth of the university’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship Michael Wells had already developed an innovation mindset while earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. (EDUC’90, EDUC’92G)
Pitt and UPMC, through its Translational Sciences division, are once again collaborating to provide funding support for therapeutics projects that need further de-risking experiments to determine their clinical and commercial potential. We are featuring two projects that received funding from the first request for proposals from 2022.
Pitt Duo Launches Innovative Shoe Insert to Help People With Foot Pain Beth and Jeff Gusenoff are a podiatrist and a plastic surgeon by trade, but entrepreneurs at heart. Over the past five years they have been developing a supportive pressure-reducing shoe insert crafted initially for their patients recovering from procedures that transfer fat to the bottom of the foot for various foot conditions. Now they have formally launched their company, PopSole™, hired a contract manufacturer in Western Pennsylvania and are pounding the pavement to find distribution partners.
Four innovation projects have been selected to receive funding from the Innovation Institute’s Chancellor’s Gap Fund to have prototypes of their innovations created in collaboration with the Swanson School of Engineering’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship program.
The Innovation Institute recently awarded grants from the Chancellor’s Gap Fund to four Pitt innovation teams working on small molecule drug discovery projects. The funds will enable experiments to validate their innovations and stimulate the interest of potential external investors or industry partners. Established by Chancellor Gallagher, the Gap Fund has proven effective in moving promising Pitt innovations forward on the path to commercialization, such as the universal CAR T cell receptor system developed by Jason Lohmueller, assistant professor of surgery and immunology. Lohmueller received a Gap Fund award in 2021 to help achieve critical experiments that resulted in the licensing of the technology to Pittsburgh-based cell therapy company, Coeptis Therapeutics. “The Chancellor’s Gap Fund has been instrumental in helping Pitt innovators avoid the ‘valley of death’ for their innovations by providing funding for critical de-risking experiments or the development of prototypes,” said Peter Allen, Executive Director, Inventor Engagement and New Ventures at the Innovation Institute.