CU Innovators News

From lab discoveries to life-changing heart drugs and billion-dollar companies

Daniel Leonard — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 20:31:14 +0000

From lab discoveries to life-changing heart drugs and billion-dollar companies Daniel Leonard Thu, 10/01/2026 - 14:31

Heather Hansen

Photo: Leslie Leinwand (left), distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, converses with graduate student Skip Maas (right), holding two pythons. Photo by Patrick Campbell, ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��.

Internationally renowned cardiac researcher and serial entrepreneur Leslie Leinwand has revolutionized understanding of the heart through her decades-long mission to bring innovations from the lab bench to patient bedsides — and with billion-dollar “unicorn” spinouts Myogen, MyoKardia and, most recently, Kardigan.

After speaking at a medical conference recently, Leslie Leinwand, distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, met an appreciative attendee. “She was not a physician or scientist; she was a patient,” said Leinwand. The woman had suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a common inherited cardiac disorder that prevents activities that strain the heart. That is, until she started taking mavacamten (CAMZYOS®), a therapeutic developed to treat the underlying mechanism of the disease based on research done in Leinwand’s ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� lab. “She came up to me afterward, and she said, ‘I couldn’t walk up and down the steps to get onto the subway; I can now do it without even thinking about it,’” said Leinwand.

That moving meeting between researcher and patient was decades in the making. Leinwand, founder and head of the Leinwand Lab and executive scientific officer of ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� BioFrontiers Institute, was fascinated by genetics by the time she went off to college in the 1970s and has been passionate for nearly as long about unraveling the genetic aspects of HCM, which is the leading cause of sudden death in young people, as well as a chronic, progressive disease that in some people can be asymptomatic.

Leinwand calls HCM “a big sick heart that runs in the family,” affecting as many as one in 500 people worldwide. The condition causes thickening of the heart wall and reduced blood flow into and out of the heart. HCM is also the most common cause of sudden death among athletes, who often don’t know they have the disease until their hearts are taxed to a lethal degree. What ultimately causes the disorder had long been a heartbreaking mystery — until a team of scientists, including Leinwand, cracked the code.

From bench to bedside — with unicorns

The heart is a big muscle that beats about 100,000 times a day, and the motor that drives that contraction is a protein called myosin. Leinwand has been studying cardiac myosin for most of her career, and since 1995 at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, having had the sense early on in her research that a malfunction in the protein played a role in heart disease. When myosin mutates, in fact, it can produce the too-fast, too-powerful heartbeat characteristic of HCM. “My lab studied how certain muscle mutations lead to disease,” said Leinwand, “and how a small DNA change leads to an often fatal crisis in the heart.”

Still, into the 2000s, no one knew how exactly the heart’s myosin motors were affected by gene mutations, and the only treatments for HCM were medications to slow heart rate, surgery to trim excess heart muscle or, in extreme cases, a heart transplant. HCM sufferers led sedentary yet anxious lives, trying to prevent the worst-case scenario. Then Leinwand’s lab, one of just a handful in the world studying cardiac myosin at the time, devised a game-changing system for producing lab-made cardiac myosin motors engineered with mutations. Those copies proved to be a critical step in studying the effects of DNA glitches that made the protein overreact, and in identifying them as a promising target for treatment.

Those groundbreaking discoveries led Leinwand to co-found MyoKardia in 2012, with colleagues at Stanford and Harvard. The company was centered on developing a therapeutic for HCM that essentially targeted myosin activity and pumped the brakes on the heart’s overactive motor.

Leinwand said the clinical trials of mavacamten exceeded the scientists’ expectations. “It was even better than what we had hoped for; we thought we might be able to slow the progression of this disease, but we’re seeing reversal of the disease,” said Leinwand. “In that population of people who respond very well, it’s been life-changing and life-saving.” In 2020, Bristol Myers Squibb acquired MyoKardia for $13.1 billion and brought the myosin inhibitor to market as CAMZYOS^® two years later.

By the time she co-founded MyoKardia, Leinwand was already a seasoned entrepreneur. Just a year after arriving at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, she co-founded Myogen with the late Michael Bristow, then a professor of cardiology at what is now the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and two colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Leinwand credits Bristow, then head of the division of cardiology, with getting her interested in biotechnology. “At one point, he said to me, ‘How’d you like to start a company to treat heart failure?’ And I said, ‘I know nothing about starting companies,’” said Leinwand. “He said, ‘Well, luckily for you, I do, and I’ll teach you’ — and we were off to the races.”

Myogen focused on discovering, advancing and commercializing drugs for the treatment of heart failure and related cardiovascular diseases. One of its major successes was a therapy called ambrisentan, developed to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a progressive disease causing extreme fatigue and breathlessness. Myogen’s savvy strategy of licensing products developed by other companies and then repurposing them for use in the heart caught the attention of private investors, then Gilead Sciences, which bought the company for $2.5 billion in 2006. Soon after the purchase, ambrisentan gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval (marketed as Letairis®) and became a standard-of-care therapy for PAH. “That was very satisfying, because there weren’t any treatments for it, and PAH was quite lethal. Many young women, in particular, were dying as a result of that disease,” said Leinwand. “So it was a success commercially and from the patient standpoint.”

But what is "commercialization"?

The path to commercialization — also known as "research translation" or "tech transfer" — can be challenging, so Venture Partners unites industry partners, entrepreneurs and investors to help researchers, inventors and creators at the University of Colorado bring their groundbreaking discoveries into the marketplace.

Explore the Path to Commercialization

The immense commercial success of Myogen and MyoKardia already makes Leinwand a rarity, said Bryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. “As a biotech innovator, Leslie has reached legendary status,” he said. That position is based on Leinwand’s prolific discoveries, life-saving drug developments and the success of her commercial ventures, he said.

“One of the really remarkable things about Leslie is that Myogen, MyoKardia and now Kardigan are all among [��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��] unicorns,” said Rees, referring to the status companies achieve when they reach a valuation of $1 billion. “Having one unicorn is incredible. Building three over the course of a career is almost unheard of.”

Luckily for those within and outside the university, Leinwand is an unstoppable innovator, said Rees. In 2023, she co-founded Kardigan with MyoKardia alumni, a “heart health” biotech company focused on developing therapeutics that prevent and cure heart disease, in addition to treating it. Kardigan is advancing three clinical-stage drug candidates targeting hard-to-treat cardiovascular diseases. The company — Leinwand’s extraordinary third unicorn — had raised nearly $600 million in private venture funding by late last year and, in June, Leinwand and colleagues were ringing the Nasdaq opening bell in Times Square to mark Kardigan’s initial public offering of $400 million.

Going out on the edge

By her own admission, Leinwand doesn’t sleep much and, when she invariably wakes in the middle of the night, she jots down thoughts in a notebook kept by her bedside. “I actually think sleep is a waste of time,” she said. Even today, the waking hours provide her with opportunities to pursue her passion.

“For me, that passion for discovery and translating research into something that could be useful for humans in both health and disease is what drives me,” said Leinwand. “I feel like I’m still learning and I look forward to that.”

Throughout her career, Leinwand has also been a strong advocate of encouraging others to follow their passion toward discovery. Over the past few decades, in the Leinwand Lab and beyond, she has mentored hundreds of scientists, some of whom are also now leaders in cardiac research. “Clearly, I’ve had a lot more interest than I ever thought I would in developing these companies, but I never wanted to be out of academics,” said Leinwand. “I didn’t want to give up mentoring students; I love that too much.”

By design, the Leinwand Lab and later the BioFrontiers Institute have always taken an interdisciplinary approach to human health and disease. Leinwand attributes much of her success to working with others at the university who can look at a shared problem from a different angle. “Human health is very complex and requires true interdisciplinary approaches. Being able to learn from people who do and think a little bit differently [is important],” she said. That collaborative environment encourages people to “go out on the edge,” she said, where answers to complex questions often lie.

Leinwand’s mentorship and policy of academic freedom drew Jack Gugel to her lab when he was pursuing his PhD several years ago. And then there were the pythons in residence in the Leinwand Lab. “The snakes were one of the things that really got me,” Gugel said. “And yeah, they are pretty awesome.”

The “Python Project” launched two decades ago at the Leinwand Lab to study the remarkable snakes whose heart size increases 25 percent or more after eating a massive meal — then shrinks back to normal. That led to Leinwand’s short-lived startup called Hiberna, which looked at translating research on “metabolic depression” (like that experienced by hibernating animals) into treatments that could protect the heart during adverse events by slowing metabolism in a controlled way. Her lab continues to study the ways in which understanding a python’s powerful, pliable heart may inform human health.

More recent python research led to another Leinwand Lab startup, Arkana Therapeutics, co-founded in 2025 by Gugel, Leinwand, Thomas Martin (a postdoctoral fellow in the Leinwand Lab at the time) and Jonathan Long at Stanford. The company is based on research into pythons’ response to eating a big meal, which, in the wild, can equal their body weight. “They can really eat one of the biggest meals of any animal in the animal kingdom,” said Gugel, “so we wanted to see what happens to their physiology and what kind of molecules they were producing.”

Photo: Members of Arkana Therapeutics with their prize-winning check at the 2025 Lab Venture Challenge. From left: Yuxiao Tan, Thomas Martin and Jack Gugel.

Ultimately, they discovered a molecule that increases 1,000-fold after the python eats, acting as a natural appetite suppressant. That science laid the groundwork for Arkana’s metabolite-based therapeutics for obesity, which are now in the proof-of-concept phase.

For Gugel, now CEO of Arkana, Leinwand has been a north star in getting the company off the ground. “She’s been huge both on the scientific side as a grad student, and especially as I’ve been transitioning into this startup role,” he said. Leinwand has opened up her network on the science and business fronts, said Gugel. “She’s walked down this road so many times before with previous companies and is so helpful in that regard,” he said.

Gugel and his team have also benefited tremendously from the commercialization arm of the campus, Venture Partners at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, which didn’t exist when Leinwand launched her first companies but now helps would-be entrepreneurs follow in her footsteps.

“Venture Partners has really helped lay out the roadmap of ‘here are all the things you need to do, and all the sources of funding you can get,’” said Gugel. “They stand out compared to what I’ve seen at other universities in terms of their professionalism and how good they are at what they do.”

Arkana has participated in several Venture Partners programs, including the 2025 Lab Venture Challenge (in which it won $127,500); the 2026 Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator, supporting business formation, market strategy and fundraising; and it was among the first recipients of a new translational funding program that provided up to $50,000 per project to advance promising, early-stage therapeutics with strong commercial potential.

Leinwand was reflective when asked what those moments of discovery are like — when a scientific mystery is solved, or a person reaches out to you whose life has been improved by a therapeutic you helped develop. “[Those moments] are indescribable in the sense that you have this sort of feeling of satisfaction, that you are glad you stuck with this idea and didn’t get distracted. They keep you going,” she said. “I absolutely love what I do.”

What can we do together?

Disclose and Protect Your Innovation

Engage in Entrepreneurial Training Programs

Find a Mentor to Advance Your Innovation

Get Funding for Your Innovation

Find Partners and Opportunities for Your Innovation

Explore Investing in and Partnering with CU Researchers

Explore Our Startups Portfolio

Explore Our Technology Portfolio

Internationally renowned cardiac researcher and serial entrepreneur Leslie Leinwand has revolutionized understanding of the heart on her decades-long mission to bring innovations from the lab bench to patient bedsides — and with billion-dollar “unicorn” spinouts Myogen, MyoKardia and, most recently, Kardigan.

Off

Traditional

White

Two ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��-connected founders join national lab's newest class of entrepreneurship fellows

Daniel Leonard — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 20:26:40 +0000

Two ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��-connected founders join national lab's newest class of entrepreneurship fellows Daniel Leonard Mon, 08/31/2026 - 14:26

National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR)—Seven entrepreneurs have joined NLR’s 2026 West Gate fellowship cohort, a two-year program under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program that pairs founders with national laboratory experts, facilities and commercialization resources. Two of the new fellows have roots at the University of Colorado Boulder: Boris Chubukov of Big Blue Technologies, working to manufacture affordable magnesium metal in the U.S., and Evan Flitz of Orva Energy, developing machine learning tools to speed the discovery of new battery materials.

More: National Laboratory of the Rockies

The University of Colorado Connection

Big Blue Technologies is a ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� spinout founded in 2015, based on technology from the lab of Alan Weimer, professor of chemical and biological engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. The company has designed an automated, electrified smelting process for magnesium metal that it says can cut material, energy and labor costs below the conventional Pidgeon process—no U.S.-based company has produced magnesium metal since 2021. West Gate fellow Boris Chubukov, the company's co-founder and chief technology officer and PhD alum of chemical engineering and biological engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, will work with NLR researchers to test the process at full scale and develop a use for the cement byproduct it generates.

Orva Energy is a ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� spinout founded by Evan Flitz, a Ph.D. student of chemical engineering, to advance discoveries made in the lab of Chunmei Ban, professor of mechanical engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. The company uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify and troubleshoot new battery materials, including sodium-ion and other lithium-free chemistries that rely on more abundant, domestically available minerals. Through West Gate, Flitz plans to draw on NLR’s thermal modeling and safety-evaluation capabilities to test how Orva’s materials perform in real-world conditions.

What could CU research do for you?

Venture Partners connects entrepreneurs and companies—from early-stage startups to the Fortune 500—with more than 1,500 CU technologies ready to license and bring to market.

Explore Partnership Opportunities

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

If you're a CU researcher or inventor, Venture Partners guides you from idea to market—IP protection, funding, mentorship and licensing.

More for University Innovators

Big Blue Technologies' Boris Chubukov and Orva Energy's Evan Flitz, both with roots at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, are among the seven founders selected for NLR's 2026 West Gate fellowship, working to bring affordable domestic magnesium and next-generation battery materials to market.

Off

Traditional

White

$1.2M National Science Foundation award backs self-healing concrete repair technology

Daniel Leonard — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 19:19:29 +0000

$1.2M National Science Foundation award backs self-healing concrete repair technology Daniel Leonard Tue, 08/25/2026 - 13:19

Photo: Elena Forchielli and Mija Hubler in their CU lab.

Secure Non-Dilutive Funding with the Center for Translational Research

As a resource for startups partnering with or originating from the university seeking non-dilutive funding—including Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards—the center advises on best practices for securing non-dilutive capital, provides market research and industry analysis and offers proposal editing and critique.

Visit the CTR Website

The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded $1,199,341 to a University of Colorado Boulder research team developing Regenerative Concrete Repair (RCR), a bacterial nanocellulose composite that repairs both active and dormant cracks in concrete infrastructure. The three-year award is through the Translate track of the Translation to Practice (TTP) program, administered by NSF's Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP).

Existing repair methods are often complex, labor-intensive and prone to failure, causing many agencies to defer needed maintenance; RCR is designed to tolerate real-world variability in crack behavior and installation conditions, making preventive maintenance feasible at scale for the nation's aging concrete infrastructure. As part of its public engagement plan, the team will place QR codes on municipal sidewalks so passersby can learn about the science behind the repairs as the technology moves toward commercialization.

RCR is being developed in the laboratory of Mija H. Hubler, associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, with co-principal investigators Wil V. Srubar, professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� and Elena Forchielli, co-founder and CEO of RipaLith, the ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� startup commercializing the technology through the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator.

What could CU research do for you?

Venture Partners connects entrepreneurs and companies—from early-stage startups to the Fortune 500—with more than 1,500 CU technologies ready to license and bring to market.

Explore Partnership Opportunities

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

If you're a CU researcher or inventor, Venture Partners guides you from idea to market—IP protection, funding, mentorship and licensing.

More for University Innovators

NSF has awarded $1.2 million to a ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� research team developing Regenerative Concrete Repair (RCR), a bacterial nanocellulose composite that repairs both active and dormant cracks in concrete infrastructure.

Off

Traditional

White

Bold ideas from the arts, humanities and social sciences backed by Creative Futures Fellowship

Daniel Leonard — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:02:05 +0000

Bold ideas from the arts, humanities and social sciences backed by Creative Futures Fellowship Daniel Leonard Thu, 07/16/2026 - 14:02

Daniel Leonard

Creative Futures Fellowship

Funding, support and community for ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� teams in the arts, humanities and social sciences to transform their ideas and creative works into real-world impact.

Learn More

Subscribe for updates about future Creative Futures Fellowship applications.

Venture Partners at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� has announced the inaugural cohort of Creative Futures Fellows, supporting arts, humanities and social science projects that address challenges facing communities in Colorado and beyond.

Selected through a competitive review process, the 2026 fellows represent disciplines from across ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, from design, music and media studies to education, history and wellness research. Their projects explore topics including neurodiversity, educator wellbeing, artificial intelligence, human rights, public health, cultural preservation and civic understanding.

The Creative Futures Fellowship supports scholarship and creative practice that have historically had fewer pathways to “translational” funding—support that moves promising ideas into real-world applications. The fellowship also provides mentorship, professional development and a community of support.

"��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� has long been recognized for translating scientific discoveries into startups and products that improve lives," said Bryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. "The Creative Futures Fellowship reflects a broader understanding of innovation by recognizing the power of artists, scholars and social scientists to create new approaches to community wellbeing, cultural understanding and social progress."

Six of the projects participated in a customer discovery program offered by the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps^TM Hub West and Venture Partners. Through interviews and community engagement, participants tested assumptions, worked to better understand their audiences and strengthened their projects' real-world relevance.

Venture Partners' track record of translating university innovations into impact includes a record number of startups launched from CU discoveries, 11 unicorn companies and $8.7 billion in national economic impact.

The Creative Futures Fellowship is Venture Partners’s first program specifically designed to help arts, humanities and social science innovators move beyond the university and into communities. "These fellows are demonstrating how creative and human-centered work can generate meaningful impact far beyond campus," Rees said.

The fellowship builds on ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��'s broader approach to innovation, supporting big ideas beyond deep tech. Examples range from educational and wellness tools such as PhET Interactive Simulations and Mindful Mood Balance for Moms and Virridy's work to improve water security.

“These projects reflect the remarkable range of talent at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� and the impact the arts and humanities have in the community,” said Jonathan Marenus, director of the Creative Futures Fellowship. “Investing in these disciplines is vital. These fellows are turning knowledge and creativity into action. We are proud to support their work and help them build what’s needed to advance that work in the world.”

Fellows will receive a combined $150,000 in funding, with awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. Over the coming months, they will participate in the fellowship's Support Studio, connecting with mentors, refining implementation strategies and building partnerships to advance their work.

Subscribe for updates about future Creative Futures Fellowship applications.

2026 Creative Futures Fellows

The Day it Rained Forever: A New Opera ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� the Power of Music

The Day It Rained Forever is an operatic parable on how finding our shared humanity can heal conflict and isolation. This project will use performances to bring improved wellness and connection to senior living communities, offering a new model for building shared wellbeing through the arts.

Team:

Jeffrey Nytch; Professor of Composition; PI, Composer and Librettist
Leah Peña Teeters, Director of Education Initiatives at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute; Co-PI and Program Coordinator

Designing with AI Ethically: A Public Humanities Initiative

This project develops a public humanities initiative that helps emerging designers critically engage with artificial intelligence through workshops, dialogue and an ethics guide. It promotes responsible, socially aware and environmentally conscious approaches to technology in creative practice.

Team:

Nesrine Mansour, Assistant Professor of Environmental Design, PI

Encuentros: Latin American Media Practices Towards Human Rights

Encuentros is a transnational network of Latin American human rights media activists that aims to amplify community-rooted human rights narratives through a podcast series, an online gathering and an open-source archive, enabling alternative human rights discourses.

Team:

Stephanie Graeml Abdalla, PhD Student in Media Studies, Project Lead and PI
Leila Gómez, Professor of Women and Gender Studies, Interdisciplinary Research Advisor
Júlia Martins Rodrigues, Associate Director of Media Economies Design Lab, Logistics and Operations Coordinator

Energy, AI and Us: Building Science Literacy Through Student Outreach

From electricity bills to data centers, forces shaping communities are complex. This project pairs ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� students with middle schools to explore energy and artificial intelligence, building skills to reason through complexity and bring conversations home, as these issues do not pick sides, and neither does science.

Team:

Nirav S. Patel, Assistant Teaching Professor of Environmental Studies and a SPIKE Faculty Affiliate, PI

Extreme Temperatures in Prisons: Embodied Testimonials for Change

Through a series of workshops, formerly incarcerated participants will create three-dimensional architectural models of prison spaces where they experienced temperature extremes. Context and recommendations for policy changes will be developed by participants and will accompany models in written or audio formats.

Team:

Sophie Weston Chien, Assistant Professor of Environmental Design, Co-PI and Architecture Lead
Liz Corrado, PhD Student in Environmental Studies, Co-PI and Policy Lead
David Ciplet, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Co-PI and Policy Advisor
Shawhin Roudbari, Associate Professor of Environmental Design, Co-PI and Architecture Advisor

Her Sound, Our Story: Women Composers Honor Colorado's Jazz Legends

"Her Sound, Our Story" celebrates Colorado's jazz heritage through newly commissioned works by four women composers inspired by local jazz legends. Through recording, storytelling and a free public presentation, the project honors cultural legacy, fosters community connection and expands representation in jazz.

Team:

Annie Booth, Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies; Creator, Artistic Director and PI

Mentor BWell: Educator Mentoring for Wellbeing

The aim of this project is to co-design, pilot and refine Mentor BWell, an evidence-based educator wellness mentoring model, for Boulder Valley School District’s induction program. The project seeks to strengthen mentors' wellbeing and leadership capacities and enhance the induction experience for all involved.

Team:

Mining the Sun: An Arts and Humanities Public History Initiative

Mountain communities confront issues of environmental stewardship, economic survival, industrial expansion and regional identity. Mining the Sun creates new platforms for civic engagement and community development through documentary art practice, creative storytelling and the curation of archival media.

Team:

Hanna Rose Shell, Professor of Cinema Studies, Moving Image Arts, Art and Art History

Modeling African Origins from Inland Conflict to Atlantic Networks

This project calculates the probabilities of African origins by tracing slave routes from inland conflict zones to Atlantic slave ships. Combining historical records and spatial statistical modeling, it transforms complex research into an interactive resource for educators, museums and descendant communities.

Team:

Henry Lovejoy, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Digital Slavery Research Lab, PI and Director
Eric Vance, Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics and Lab of Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis, Co-PI and Director
Kartikay Chadha, Web Development and Technical Partner (Walk With Web)

Rehearsing the Future: Neural Data, Consent and the Public

Noetic Commons produces participatory art installations and public documentation in which audiences encounter speculative futures defined by who controls their neural data. The work advances public understanding of neurorights and consent in an era of expanding consumer neurotechnology.

Team:

Christina Charlton, Graduate Student in Creative Technology & Design and at the ATLAS Institute, Artist-Researcher and PI
Tyler Grimes, PhD Candidate in Critical Media Practices and at the Institute of Cognitive Science, Artist-Researcher

Squishyd: A Next-Generation Fidget Toy for Neurodivergent Users

Squishyd translates ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� metamaterial research into customizable sensory fidget tools that support focus, self-regulation and well-being. By combining engineering, design and neurodiversity research, the project creates adaptive tactile experiences through science-backed play.

Team:

Elena Sabinson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Design, Principal Investigator (PI)
Robert MacCurdy, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Co-PI
Joel Swanson, Associate Professor at the ATLAS Institute, Co-PI
Teri Ham, Embark Startup Founder with Venture Partners, Co-PI

Screening to Prevent Violence: Expanding Access to Threat Assessment

The investigations that follow mass shootings frequently reveal missed opportunities to interrupt the attacker’s violence. The Targeted Violence Lethality Assessment Protocol is a 12-question tool to help law enforcement agencies and corporations evaluate an individual’s risk for violence and identify interventions.

Team:

Sarah Goodrum, Research Professor with the Center on Crime and Justice and the Prevention Science Program at the Institute of Behavioral Science, PI

What can we do together?

Disclose and protect your innovation

Engage in entrepreneurial training programs

Find a mentor to advance your innovation

Get funding for your innovation

Find partners and opportunities for your innovation

Explore investing in and partnering with CU researchers

Explore our startups portfolio

Explore our technology portfolio

Venture Partners has announced the inaugural cohort of Creative Futures Fellows, supporting arts, humanities and social science projects that address challenges facing communities in Colorado and beyond.

Off

Traditional

White

Neurological drugs dominate the headlines, and therapeutics from snakes

Daniel Leonard — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:11:21 +0000

Neurological drugs dominate the headlines, and therapeutics from snakes Daniel Leonard Tue, 07/14/2026 - 13:11

Jack Guglel, co-founder and CEO of Arkana Therapeutics and ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� PhD alum of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, is developing appetite-suppressing molecules discovered through python biology that could offer an alternative to GLP-1 drugs with fewer gastrointestinal side effects.

What could you do with a CU technology?

Venture Partners manages a portfolio of over 1,000 technologies from university investigators and partners with entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes—from startups to the Fortune 500—to bring these inventions to market.

Explore Partnership Opportunities

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Venture Partners helps researchers, inventors and creators take their groundbreaking discoveries every step of the way, from intellectual property (IP) management to market launch.

More for University Innovators

The Biotech Voyager—Jack Guglel, co-founder and CEO of Arkana Therapeutics and ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� PhD alum of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, is developing appetite-suppressing molecules discovered through python biology that could offer an alternative to GLP-1 drugs with fewer gastrointestinal side effects.

Off

Traditional

White

Ban takes next-generation battery research global with Fulbright award

Daniel Leonard — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:58:17 +0000

Ban takes next-generation battery research global with Fulbright award Daniel Leonard Tue, 07/14/2026 - 12:58

Chunmei Ban, a professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, has received a Fulbright Global Scholar award to explore the future of energy storage through next-generation battery technologies.

The prestigious program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, supports international academic and cultural exchange in the form of multi-regional projects involving research and teaching activities.

The award will support collaborations with researchers in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Germany, where Ban will study safer battery materials, investigate emerging non-lithium battery alternatives and strengthen global partnerships in battery research and education.

“I am extremely grateful for all my collaborators, mentors and students for helping me reach this incredible milestone,” said Ban, who is also affiliated with the Materials Science & Engineering Program. “Our lab group has spent a long time developing and even commercializing electrochemical materials for energy storage. This project is a wonderful opportunity for us to dive deeper into new battery materials and applications.”

What could you do with a CU technology?

Explore Partnership Opportunities

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Venture Partners helps researchers, inventors and creators take their groundbreaking discoveries every step of the way, from intellectual property (IP) management to market launch.

More for University Innovators

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� College of Engineering and Applied Science—Chunmei Ban, a professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, has received a Fulbright Global Scholar award to explore the future of energy storage through next-generation battery technologies.

Off

Traditional

White

WATCH: Google Maps for space—how a 20 Twenties winner built HoloAstro

Daniel Leonard — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 19:01:48 +0000

WATCH: Google Maps for space—how a 20 Twenties winner built HoloAstro Daniel Leonard Thu, 07/09/2026 - 13:01

David Dezell Turner, ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� PhD candidate in astrodynamics and satellite navigation, shares how winning the 2024 20 Twenties award became the catalyst for founding HoloAstro—a revolutionary augmented reality tool that's transforming space mission design.

What could you do with a CU technology?

Explore Partnership Opportunities

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Venture Partners helps researchers, inventors and creators take their groundbreaking discoveries every step of the way, from intellectual property (IP) management to market launch.

More for University Innovators

Aviation Week—David Dezell Turner, ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� PhD candidate in astrodynamics and satellite navigation, shares how winning the 2024 20 Twenties award became the catalyst for founding HoloAstro—a revolutionary augmented reality tool that's transforming space mission design.

Off

Traditional

White

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� space research honored by NASA

Daniel Leonard — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:31:08 +0000

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� space research honored by NASA Daniel Leonard Thu, 07/02/2026 - 13:31

BioServe Space Technologies has earned a rare NASA accolade.

The University of Colorado Boulder research center is being recognized for decades of contributions to the International Space Station with a NASA Space Flight Awareness Supplier Award.

The honor is only bestowed on rare occasions, with the most recent recipients in 2024 and 2018.

The award recognizes BioServe’s “outstanding contributions and unbridled success advancing space exploration and scientific discovery.”

The center, housed within the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, has been designing, building, and flying microgravity life science research experiments and hardware since 1987, with six payloads launching less than two months ago.

What could you do with a CU technology?

Explore Partnership Opportunities

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Venture Partners helps researchers, inventors and creators take their groundbreaking discoveries every step of the way, from intellectual property (IP) management to market launch.

More for University Innovators

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� College of Engineering and Applied Science—��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��'s BioServe Space Technologies is being recognized for decades of contributions to the International Space Station with a NASA Space Flight Awareness Supplier Award. Housed within the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, the center has been designing, building and flying microgravity life science research experiments and hardware since 1987, with six payloads launching less than two months ago.

Off

Traditional

White

Larisza Krista awarded $600,000 NSF grant to translate coronal mass ejections research

Daniel Leonard — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:43:10 +0000

Larisza Krista awarded $600,000 NSF grant to translate coronal mass ejections research Daniel Leonard Thu, 06/25/2026 - 13:43

Secure Non-Dilutive Funding with the Center for Translational Research

Visit the CTR Website

Larisza Krista, research scientist at CIRES at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, was awarded a $600,000 U.S. National Science Foundation Translation to Practice—Explore (NSF TTP-E) grant to translate fundamental research on coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from their low-corona signatures to their effects near Earth, establishing actionable parameters for operational space weather forecasting and contributing to next-generation space weather warning systems that help protect satellites, aviation and power grids—including Helio Today (by Helio Physics), the forecasting platform founded by Krista, which integrates her patented flare-forecasting technology, DEFT.

View the NSF Award Details

CIRES scientist Larisza Krista fuels new space weather forecasts with Helio Today

CIRES research advances space weather forecasting through the observation, modeling, and interpretation of solar eruptions and geomagnetic storms. These events can cause major disturbances to Earth’s magnetic field, impacting power grids, communications, satellites, and the health of airplane crew and astronauts in space. As our reliance on orbital infrastructure grows, the economic risk of a single unpredicted solar event now totals in the billions.

Building on decades of experience in this space, CIRES Senior Research Scientist Larisza Krista identified a gap between what public forecasting systems provide and what commercial industries need: while probabilistic forecasts alert that a disruption might happen or is already underway, operators require early alerts, consistency, and improved certainty. To meet this need, Krista created Helio Today to identify the early physical triggers and signs of solar phenomena and provide deterministic arrival windows and magnitudes that help operators respond effectively.

Full Story from CIRES

Larisza Krista, research scientist at CIRES at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, was awarded a $600,000 National Science Foundation Translation to Practice—Explore (NSF TTP-E) grant to translate fundamental research on coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Off

Traditional

White

Eight ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� researchers and four startups receive funding through Colorado’s Advanced Industries Accelerator

Daniel Leonard — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 23:21:52 +0000

Eight ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� researchers and four startups receive funding through Colorado’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Daniel Leonard Tue, 06/02/2026 - 17:21

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) has announced that eight University of Colorado Boulder researchers and four university-connected startup companies received funding through the latest round of the Advanced Industries Accelerator Program. The awards, granted through the Proof of Concept and Early-Stage Capital and Retention programs, represent one of the university's strongest performances to date.

The grants support a range of ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� innovations, including gene therapies, augmented reality, aerospace, advanced materials, robotics, AI and regenerative medicine. Statewide, OEDIT awarded nearly $7.5 million to Colorado researchers and companies developing technologies to accelerate and expand Colorado’s advanced-industries economy. ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� startups and researchers will receive a total of $2.2 million.

"��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� research enterprise continues to produce discoveries with the potential to address major global challenges, and these awards demonstrate the importance of strategic public investment in helping research breakthroughs achieve their full potential,” said Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. "Programs like the Advanced Industries Accelerator play a critical role in helping transformative technologies move from the laboratory into practical application, delivering tangible benefits to communities in Colorado and beyond."

The Proof of Concept Grant program helps Colorado research institutions accelerate applied research and commercialization activities, while the Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grant supports Colorado companies commercializing innovative technologies that will be manufactured or scaled in Colorado.

Historically, these grants have provided powerful returns to the state, in terms of follow-on investment and company growth, according to Bryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. “Colorado has built one of the strongest environments in the country for translating research into new businesses. OEDIT has been an essential partner in that effort. ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� spinout companies like Forge Nano and OnKure Therapeutics have grown to become publicly traded companies, and for them, early support from the Advanced Industries program was critical. This new round of awards is a great signal of what is to come,” said Rees.

But what is "commercialization?"

The path to commercialization—also known as "research translation" or "tech transfer"—can be challenging, so Venture Partners unites industry partners, entrepreneurs and investors to help researchers, inventors and creators at the University of Colorado bring their groundbreaking discoveries into the marketplace.

Explore the Path to Commercialization

Today, Venture Partners at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� and the campus’ Center for Translational Research support researchers and startup teams pursuing translational funding—financial support that helps move discoveries and innovations from the research laboratory toward real-world application and commercialization—opportunities, including OEDIT grants, U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards and other translational research programs.

“These funding programs are often catalytic moments for research teams and startup companies,” said Sarah Hughes, director of the Center for Translational Research at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. “The Center for Translational Research helps innovators identify opportunities, strengthen commercialization strategies and compete for funding that can accelerate the path from discovery to impact.”

The latest Advanced Industries awards come as ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� continues to demonstrate national leadership in research commercialization and startup formation.

Fourteen of the awardees—including teams from the Colorado School of Mines and CU Denver—participated in the National Science Foundation I-Corps™ customer discovery and commercialization programs offered through ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. The university is part of NSF I-Corps Hub West, a partnership of 11 research institutions that includes Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, University of Southern California and others.

Most recently, Forge Nano announced plans to go public through a $1.6B SPAC deal, making it ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� 11th “unicorn” company—a startup valued at $1 billion or more while still privately held. Forge Nano traces part of its early support to funding from OEDIT through a partnership with the ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� that would later become the Lab Venture Challenge. The company commercializes atomic layer deposition nanocoating technology developed at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� and now produces advanced battery materials and semiconductor manufacturing technologies.

In fiscal year 2024, ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� launched 35 new companies based on university intellectual property, more than any other U.S. campus that year. Commercialization activities through Venture Partners generated an economic impact of $8.7 billion nationally and $5.1 billion in Colorado over the last five years, according to a report from the Leeds School of Business.

The university also recently announced a strategic partnership with Techstars, the global startup accelerator and investor network founded in Boulder, to expand opportunities for founders and further strengthen Colorado’s innovation economy.

The Advanced Industries Accelerator Program received 144 applications during the latest funding cycle, which were reviewed by panels of business, technical and financial experts across Colorado’s advanced industries sectors. Final recommendations were approved by the Economic Development Commission on May 21, 2026. The next application cycle will open July 1, 2026.

CU Proof-of-Concept Grants

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Mirela Alistar - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing a nanorobotic DNA synthesis platform that uses real-time error correction to produce the long genetic templates required for advanced gene therapies.

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Christopher Bowman - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing a photopolymer-based optical materials platform to improve the performance and manufacturing of holographic elements for augmented reality displays.

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Xiaoyun Ding - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing a microfluidic cell-modification platform to improve the manufacturing efficiency and payload capacity of cell and gene therapies.

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Timothy Hellickson - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing a satellite-mounted, space-debris detection system to identify and characterize orbital debris that is too small for conventional radar tracking.

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Mija Hubler - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing a regenerative, biobased tape for the durable repair of cracks in residential, commercial, and municipal concrete infrastructure.

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Laila Marzall - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing an innovative in-band full-duplex analog hardware architecture to enable spectrum-agile wireless communication systems.

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Jay McMahon - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing an artificial intelligence–powered strategic wargaming platform for evaluating complex conflict scenarios in the defense and aerospace sectors.

University of Colorado Boulder, PI Stephanie Bryant - Boulder, CO $150,000: Developing a customizable therapeutic platform to restore cartilage and bone in patients with osteoarthritis at any stage of disease progression.

University of Colorado Denver, PI Zhengxiong Li - Denver, CO $150,000: Developing a foundation model platform that enables robots equipped with high-degree-of-freedom anthropomorphic hands to master complex manufacturing and assembly tasks.

CU Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grants

Blue Cubed LLC - Lafayette, CO $250,000: Developing a laser communications terminal designed for seamless interoperability between satellite networks.

Codebreaker Tx Inc. - Boulder, CO $250,000: Developing a genomic data-as-a-service platform that generates high-resolution biological datasets for artificial intelligence-driven research and drug development.

Modendo Inc. - Boulder, CO $250,000: Developing an ultrathin, fiber-based optical probing platform designed for the failure analysis and security evaluation of advanced 3D semiconductor architectures.

Vesicle Therapeutics Inc. - Boulder, CO $250,000: Developing a targeted genetic therapy to treat head and neck cancer by distinguishing between different versions of the same protein.

What can we do together?

Disclose and protect your innovation

Engage in entrepreneurial training programs

Find a mentor to advance your innovation

Get funding for your innovation

Find partners and opportunities for your innovation

Explore investing in and partnering with CU researchers

Explore our startups portfolio

Explore our technology portfolio

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) has announced that eight ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� researchers and four startups received funding through the latest round of the Advanced Industries Accelerator Program. The awards, granted through the Proof of Concept and Early-Stage Capital and Retention programs, represent one of the university's strongest performances to date.

Off

Traditional

White

CU Innovators News

From lab discoveries to life-changing heart drugs and billion-dollar companies

From bench to bedside — with unicorns

But what is "commercialization"?

Going out on the edge

What can we do together?

Off

Two ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������-connected founders join national lab's newest class of entrepreneurship fellows

The University of Colorado Connection

What could CU research do for you?

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Off

$1.2M National Science Foundation award backs self-healing concrete repair technology

What could CU research do for you?

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Off

Bold ideas from the arts, humanities and social sciences backed by Creative Futures Fellowship

2026 Creative Futures Fellows

The Day it Rained Forever: A New Opera ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ the Power of Music

Team:

Designing with AI Ethically: A Public Humanities Initiative

Team:

Encuentros: Latin American Media Practices Towards Human Rights

Team:

Energy, AI and Us: Building Science Literacy Through Student Outreach

Team:

Extreme Temperatures in Prisons: Embodied Testimonials for Change

Team:

Her Sound, Our Story: Women Composers Honor Colorado's Jazz Legends

Team:

Mentor BWell: Educator Mentoring for Wellbeing

Team:

Mining the Sun: An Arts and Humanities Public History Initiative

Team:

Modeling African Origins from Inland Conflict to Atlantic Networks

Team:

Rehearsing the Future: Neural Data, Consent and the Public

Team:

Squishyd: A Next-Generation Fidget Toy for Neurodivergent Users

Team:

Screening to Prevent Violence: Expanding Access to Threat Assessment

Team:

What can we do together?

Off

Neurological drugs dominate the headlines, and therapeutics from snakes

What could you do with a CU technology?

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Off

Ban takes next-generation battery research global with Fulbright award

What could you do with a CU technology?

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Off

WATCH: Google Maps for space—how a 20 Twenties winner built HoloAstro

What could you do with a CU technology?

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Off

���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ space research honored by NASA

What could you do with a CU technology?

Turn your discovery into real-world impact

Off

Larisza Krista awarded $600,000 NSF grant to translate coronal mass ejections research

CIRES scientist Larisza Krista fuels new space weather forecasts with Helio Today

Off

Eight ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ researchers and four startups receive funding through Colorado’s Advanced Industries Accelerator

But what is "commercialization?"

CU Proof-of-Concept Grants

CU Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grants

What can we do together?

Off

Two ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��-connected founders join national lab's newest class of entrepreneurship fellows

The Day it Rained Forever: A New Opera ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� the Power of Music

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� space research honored by NASA

Eight ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� researchers and four startups receive funding through Colorado’s Advanced Industries Accelerator