Hilary Liu and Ben Leslie are both Pitt School of Medicine students enduring the tremendous rigor that entails.
Working alongside faculty clinicians, however, they both became enthralled with solving problems faced by surgeons in the pressure-cooker environment of an operating room, where every second is critical and costly.
Committed to seeing the innovations translated from concepts to making a difference in the real world, they pitched their way to the top two prizes in the 2024 Michael G. Wells Student Healthcare Competition.
“My motivation stems from a desire to drive meaningful advancements in plastic surgery,” said Liu, who received the second place $15,000 award for her team’s innovation, a device to insert into incredibly small, severed blood vessels that surgeons painstakingly sew back together during reconstructive microsurgery. The device allows them to equally space the sutures in a more stable environment, saving operating time and reducing mistakes that may require additional surgeries.
“My medical school experiences not only strengthen my foundational knowledge but also fuel my commitment to innovate, providing insights that guide my work toward solutions grounded in real clinical needs.”
For the past 13 years the Wells competition has provided Pitt students in health science disciplines the opportunity to explore the commercial potential of their lab’s research and gain skills in innovation and entrepreneurship through a business mentor assigned to each team.
The 89 teams that have gone through the competition have resulted in 37 startup companies that have spun out of the university.
“We are deeply grateful to Michael Wells for his vision and his generosity in sponsoring the competition over the years,” said Evan Facher, Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “The results speak for themselves. The Wells competition has been integral to our efforts to develop the next generation of Pitt innovators and help translate their innovations into products that improve and save lives.
Leslie, who pitched his way to the $20,000 top prize, is already a veteran of the Pitt innovation ecosystem.
His passion for solving problems began as a Pitt undergraduate bioengineering student working alongside two of Pitt’s most prolific innovators, William Wagner, former director of the McGowan Center for Regenerative Medicine, and Antonio D’Amore, associate professor of bioengineering and surgery who is co-founder of a Pitt startup that has secured an agreement with a major medical device company to bring a biomimetic heart valve replacement to market.
He subsequently collaborated with Michael McDowell, assistant professor of pediatric neurosurgery, who had an idea for a new surgical device that combines the elements of retraction and suction into a single device, saving surgeons valuable time.
"Coming from a bioengineering background, I have always had a passion for medical device development and innovation within the start-up space,” he said. “Pursuing this passion enables me to integrate my experiences in engineering and medicine, where I can work at the interface of both fields and continue pursuing my goal of becoming a physician-innovator.”
Leslie said the Wells prize money will be used to develop production-ready prototypes and finalize the regulatory strategy for Malleous, the company created to commercialize the device.
Liu said her team has begun prototype development and with the prize money will perform in vivo testing while applying for non-dilutive federal SBIR grants to provide funding for clinical trials.
“My business mentor Alan West, along with the entire OIE team, has guided me through pitch practices, market research, business strategy, commercialization, and regulatory considerations. Their mentorship has been particularly valuable as I developed a stronger understanding of the entrepreneurial aspects of innovation, complementing my background in science and medicine,” she said.
Placing third in the 2024 competition with a $5,000 award was PhD candidate Erin Lucatorto of team AcceloWave Technologies, which is developing a medical device that can quickly and accurately detect aspiration for people suffering from dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing. The team previously was awarded a prize in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) Challenge earlier this year.
The competition judges, led by the competition’s benefactor Michael Wells, decided to add an extra $5,000 award for team BITE, after being impressed by the pitch from Pitt Johnstown undergraduate chemistry student Korina Pebley.
Pebley’s team, the first from a Pitt satellite campus to participate in the competition, is developing an all-natural tick repellent that masks the carbon dioxide emitted by skin that ticks use to identify a potential host.
Priya Amin, Innovation Institute entrepreneur in residence, who has managed the competition for the past two years, credited the team of people who helped make it a success. This included the volunteer mentors and the judges, who each brought significant experience in healthcare commercialization to the table.
In addition to Michael Wells, judges were healthcare commercialization strategist Laura Ohlund, biomedical consultant, Allison Sharrow; tech investor, advisor and CEO Adam Miller; and Director of Growth of Scarlet Health, Taafoi Kamara.
Below are the teams that competed in the 2024 Wells Competition. Each team includes an Entrepreneurial Lead (EL); a Principal Investigator (PI); and a business mentor (BM).
AcceloWave Technologies
Sensors on the neck to communicate sound and vibratory signals to a handheld device that detects aspiration instantly and accurately
EL: Erin Lucatorto
PI: James Coyle
BM: Ross Beresford
BITE - Safe, greener tick repellant alternative to DEET
EL: Korina Pebley
PI: Manisha Nigam
BM: Gretchen Jezerc
Micro-DNP- Dual modality microinvasive probe to measure neurochemical signals
EL: Ritesh Shrivastav
PI: Helen Schwerdt
BM: Bill Gaussa
EASI - Device that is inserted into the lumen of 2-5mm blood vessels during microsurgery, without the need for expensive microscopes or expertise
EL: Hilary Liu
PI: Francesco Egro
BM: Alan West
IntelliKnee- Metamaterial total knee replacements that harness energy from daily body movements to transmit sensed data without additional electronics
EL: Ben Carnovale
PI: Nitin Agarwal
BM: Brian Sullivan
Malleous - Surgical suction and retraction tool combined in one
EL: Ben Leslie
PI: Michael McDowell
BM: Zvika Shinar
TB Detector - A highly sensitive sensor using carbon nanotube technology to detect TB
EL: Jieyu wang
PI: Alex Star
BM: Jan Berkow