Faculty Innovation

Two CU Boulder spinouts and one technology were among 37 Colorado startups approved for funding as part of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT)’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant Program. The awards went to Darwin Biosciences, Think Biosciences and assistant mechanical engineering professor Carson Bruns.

Researchers at CU Boulder are collaborating to develop a new kind of biocompatible actuator that contracts and relaxes in only one dimension, like muscles. Professor Franck Vernerey of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, Assistant Professor Carson Bruns of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering and ATLAS Institute received $477,000 from the National Science Foundation to begin this three-year project in January 2021.

Led by professors Jianliang Xiao and Wei Zhang, researchers are developing a wearable electronic device that’s “really wearable”—a stretchy and fully-recyclable circuit board that’s inspired by, and sticks onto, human skin.

The company was co-founded by CTO Dana Anderson, who is also a fellow of JILA, and professor in the department of physics and electrical & computer engineering.

MyoKardia was co-founded by Leslie Leinwand, Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and developmental Biology at CU Boulder's BioFrontiers Institute, in 2012. Leinwand and her research lab continue to collaborate with the company, currently on finding new treatments for rare genetic diseases.

Diseases of the blood, like sickle cell disease, have traditionally taken at least a full day, tedious lab work and expensive equipment to diagnose, but researchers have developed a way to diagnose these conditions with greater precision in only one minute.

“This investment and grant capital is critical for our operations through 2021 and will allow us to further develop and harden our HASEL technology while demonstrating intelligent motion solutions in customer driven applications,” said CEO Dr. Tim Morrissey.

The company was recently awarded $225,000 through the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and $310,000 through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These awards will allow the company to further technologies in the field of gastroenterology, specifically their C-Tube product line that incorporates proprietary Pillar™ micro-texture technology.

Wieman, a former 25-year physics professor at CU Boulder and current Stanford physics professor, was the founder of CU Boulder’s award-winning PhET Interactive Simulations project. Working with Kathy Perkins, director of PhET and a faculty member in CU Boulder’s Department of Physics, Wieman will use the prize money to support PhET’s mission to advance STEM education globally.

Colorado State University chemistry professor Garrett Miyake began his work on these processes when he was on the faculty at the CU Boulder where Chern-Hooi Lim (now New Iridium CEO) was a post-doctoral researcher in his lab. The technology being used now is jointly owned by CSU and CU and is undergoing review for a patent.