Innovation of the Year

Kareen Coulombe, associate professor of enginnering: Engineered Cardiac Tissues for Regeneration

The aim of cardiac regenerative engineering is to restore both cellular and functional loss after a heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI). Regenerative cell-based cardiac therapies require advanced biomanufacturing and tissue engineering approaches to create functioning tissue and handle the large number of pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes needed. Kareen L. K. Coulombe has developed a method for manufacturing cell-dense engineered human myocardium that can accommodate the estimated one billion cardiomyocytes typically lost during an MI.

Inventor of the Year

Wafik El-Deiry, associate dean for oncologic sciences at the Warren Alpert Medical School

Wafil El-Deiry is the Director of the Legorreta Cancer Center, and his recent disclosures covered new discoveries in many aspects of cancer research, including new drug candidates, combination therapies, new therapeutic targets, and prognostic biomarkers. Dr. El-Deiry is a world renowned researcher and clinician as well as a prolific inventor and entrepreneur. Please contact andrew_bond@brown.edu if you are interested in learning more.

Startup of the Year

Walah Scientific

Walah Scientific has invented a novel approach to respiratory virus testing. The company’s handheld device, called a BubblerTM, captures aerosolized RNA-containing particles from the breath of a subject, who blows into a straw. The breath is bubbled through an oil/aqueous solution/emulsion that contains reagents for carrying out an enzymatic reverse transcriptase (RT) reaction. The device can also be used in settings such as hospital ERs and airports, by attaching a vacuum pump to an air vent. The Bubbler is non-invasive and the test can be multiplexed to identify different variants and viruses. Walah was co-founded and funded by General Inception.