We're pleased to announce the faculty-led projects selected for Tech Venture Teamup (TVT), a new pilot program designed to accelerate the commercialization of NYU research projects in life sciences and healthcare. The program pairs faculty ventures with experienced NYU Master's students who provide hands-on support for business model development. Selected students gain real-world experience developing commercial pathways for early-stage healthcare and life science startups—and the potential to join as co-founders.
These matched teams will receive:
- Office hours with industry experts and coaches to provide coaching on key startup milestones
- $1,000 grant in reimbursable expenses for customer discovery
- Workshops on regulatory, go to market, and more
- Guidance on team-building for success
- An opportunity to pitch at the finale event in front of healthcare/life science investors, where two teams will receive an additional $2,500 in grant funding
Selected projects:
Abvenza
Antibody-based cassette that integrates into existing dialysis system as accessory to enhance the efficiency of dialysis for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Sector: Med device
Led by: Ruimin Pan (Research Scientist, Langone/Grossman), Xiangpeng Kong (Faculty, Langone/Grossman), Christina Luo (Research Associate, Langone/Grossman)
Exo-Q
Bioengineered hydrogel infused with exosomes for treating chronic diabetic wounds. Our target customers are clinicians and hospitals managing non-healing wounds. Exo-Q accelerates tissue regeneration, reduces healing time, and improves patient recovery outcomes.
Sector: Life Science
Led by: Kaushik Sunder (Postdoc, Provost), Hao Wei (PhD Candidate, Tandon), Jin Montclare (Faculty, Tandon)
GIBio
Platform that enables the scalable generation of human mini-organs and AI-driven predictive profiling to model human organ physiology and disease. This breakthrough approach will enable the development of diagnostics and therapeutics for gastrointestinal disorders.
Sector: Life Science
Led by: Edwin Rosado-Olivieri (Faculty, Dentistry), Javier Marquina Solis (Postdoc, Dentistry), EleniRice (PhD Candidate, Tandon)
HabitCamp
An evidence-based, user-centered digital program for smoking cessation, featuring peer support, real-time coaching, and personalized goal setting. The initial target customers are couples (where one partner currently smokes) who are expecting a baby or raising a young child.
Sector: Consumer Health Tech
Led by: Nan Jiang (Faculty, Langone/Grossman), Qiqi Zhou (Global Public Health ‘26), HaofengSun (Dentistry ‘26)
MINDCAM
Decodes the underlying cognitive brain states from the eye-tracking data. The target customers would be students, office workers, or gamers who would like to optimize their cognitive function.
Sector: Med device
Led by: Rose T. Faghih (Faculty, Tandon), Saman Khazaei (PhD Candidate, Dentistry/Tandon),
NeoBoneScuplt
A smart scaffold that delivers drugs and enables local cancer treatment, designed for orthopedic surgeons treating bone cancer. Customers benefit from tissue regeneration, infection control, and targeted therapy in one implant.
Sector: Med device
Led by: Lukasz Witek (Faculty, Dentistry/Tandon), Nikhil Gupta (Faculty, Tandon), Ankita Raja Shinde (PhD Candidate, Dentistry/Tandon)
Omnii Robotics
AI-powered compact surgical robots.
Sector: Med device
Led by: Hao Su (Faculty, Tandon)
Personalized Vision Distortion Assessment Device
Integrated hardware-software platform for providers to identify patients with subjective vision change previously only qualitatively describable. A VR-based home assessment will quantify loss at home and suggest vision restoring therapy.
Sector: Med device
Led by: Nitish Mehta (Faculty/Clinician, Langone/Grossman), Jaideep Prasad (Resident, Langone/Grossman)
Unco Therapeutics
Safe and effective non-opioid drug candidate to treat chronic pain. The overall benefit to this type of therapeutics is that it is not associated with the highly addictive and potential lethal side effects opioid-based pain medicine is known for.
Sector: Life Science
Led by: Alex Thomsen (Faculty, Dentistry), May Khanna
Each of the selected research teams participated in NYU’s Tech Venture Workshop, sponsored by the National Science Foundation I-Corps program (NSF-IIP-2048498).
For questions, contact Rebecca Silver (rgs4@nyu.edu) and Azade Hosseini (ah2375@nyu.edu).
