CU Technology and Discovery News
Twelve University of Colorado research teams competed for a combined $1.6 million in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC). Judges from CU's entrepreneurial network heard Shark Tank-style pitches across two nights at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, one for innovations in biosciences and another for physical sciences and engineering.
Carson Bruns, associate professor of mechanical engineering at CU Boulder, led development of PhotoTat, a full-color tattoo ink that appears under UV light and fades with visible light.
A CU Boulder team led by Sanghamitra Neogi built FluxGAN, a generative AI system that maps how a coating's microscopic structure controls heat flow, a step toward AI tools that could predict when manufactured materials will fail. Neogi's related CU Boulder startup, AtomTCAD, has drawn matching funding support from Venture Partners.
CU Boulder's Lab Venture Challenge has announced the 2026 finalists of bio- and physical sciences innovators to pitch their ideas to a live audience at the Dairy Arts Center for more than $1 million in awards.
NSF has awarded $1.2 million to a CU Boulder research team developing Regenerative Concrete Repair (RCR), a bacterial nanocellulose composite that repairs both active and dormant cracks in concrete infrastructure.
R&D World—The CU Boulder-developed technology, Mesoporous Optically Clear Heat Insulators (MOCHIs), has received a 2026 R&D 100 Special Recognition Award in Green Tech. Described as "frozen air," MOCHIs combine exceptional transparency with record-setting thermal insulation, transmitting more than 99.5% of visible light
NPR's Short Wave—CU Boulder researchers are uncovering how pythons' remarkable biology—from reversing heart growth to preserving muscle during months of fasting—could lead to new therapies for heart disease, age-related muscle loss and obesity. Their discoveries have also helped launch CU Boulder startup Arkana Therapeutics to translate these evolutionary adaptations into medicines.
Aviation Week—David Dezell Turner, CU Boulder 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.
Larisza Krista, research scientist at CIRES at CU Boulder, 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).
NASA—Research led by Tobias Niederwieser, assistant research professor in CU Boulder's BioServe Space Technologies, is exploring how microgravity can enable the large-scale production of high-quality blood stem cells aboard the International Space Station. The work could improve treatments for blood cancers, immune disorders and other diseases by creating more reliable supplies of stem cells for patients on Earth.