Biotech Showcase

1:00 – 1:15 p.m.  – Event welcome

1:15 – 2:30 p.m.  – Presentation 1 of CSU Startups

2:30 – 2:45 p.m.  – Break

2:45 – 4:15 p.m.  – Presentation 2 of CSU Startups

4:15 – 4:30 p.m.  – Closing remarks

4:30 – 5:30 p.m.  – Networking and happy hour

Alicanto is developing novel methods to control the spread of infectious diseases that are spread by avian reservoir hosts and the mosquitoes that bite them, including West Nile.

Contact: Brian Foy ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Pre-seed

Burst Diagnostics is revolutionizing diagnostics by developing rapid, accurate, and low-cost immunoassay solutions that make lab-quality health insights accessible at-home and at the point-of-need. Our capillary-driven immunoassay (CaDI) platform delivers laboratory-grade, quantitative results in under ten minutes without the need for traditional lab infrastructure.

Today, there is a significant tradeoff in immunoassay technology. Lateral flow assays (LFAs) are fast and inexpensive but lack sensitivity and quantitative capability, while laboratory ELISAs offer high sensitivity but require four or more hours, specialized equipment, and trained personnel. BurstDX eliminates this tradeoff by enabling ten-minute, low-cost, quantitative results with more than 100x improved sensitivity compared to standard LFAs.

CaDI cartridges automate the full workflow of an ELISA within a compact, user-friendly microfluidic cartridge that requires only a single sample addition step. Test cartridges are paired with an affordable chemiluminescence reader to further enhance sensitivity, improve detection limits, and enable precise quantification. The CaDI platform supports a wide range of sample types, including saliva, blood, plasma, swabs, and urine.

Our first product will be an at-home testosterone test, addressing a $1.1B underserved male hormone testing market before expanding into women’s health and broader at-home wellness solutions. Many “at-home” kits still require lab send-out, cost $60 to $150+, and take days to weeks for results. BurstDX enables fast, accurate, and truly at-home testosterone insights that support proactive health monitoring. The CaDI platform supports both Burst-branded products and OEM custom assay development for partners across healthcare, food safety, VetDX, environmental monitoring, and beyond.

Contact: Charles Henry  ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Series-A

Website: https://burst-dx.com/

Poor healing of long bone defects affects 1.5 million Americans every year, and traditional bone grafts fail to address this issue. Bone graft repairs report failure rates up to every 1 in 5 patients due to complications such as donor site infections. Porous scaffolds made of bioceramic materials like tricalcium phosphate (TCP) partially mimic the mineral component of bone tissue, providing instructive architecture and avoiding most autograft complications, but do not drive bone healing quickly enough to allow the repair site to bear load before the TCP degrades. At Inductify, a start-up out of the Prawel Lab and the Orthopaedic Bioengineering Research Laboratory (OBRL) at Colorado State University, we ask the question, “If TCP scaffolds have instructive architecture but lack the proper material composition, why not create a scaffold with instructive, porous architecture from bone itself?” We have designed a method for decellularizing and deproteinizing bone, producing an anorganic bone material (ABM) which can be 3D printed via photopolymerization into complex scaffold geometries. Our ABM scaffolds have shown promising results in pilot studies, and Inductify is currently raising funding for an expanded pilot study to more thoroughly demonstrate the heightened performance of our ABM scaffold in comparison to TCP materials.

Contact: Daniel Palmer ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Pre-seed

MediFlex is a company founded by Colorado State engineers to 3D print prosthetic feet that achieve a higher quality of life for our users. Our products specialize in integrating a latticed foot shell to new and existing prosthetic feet for a comfortable and compatible experience.

Contact: Garrison Hayes ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Pre-seed and seed

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/mediflexprosthetics/home

MOLA Biotechnologies is on a mission for a safer blood supply with the development of a flow through pathogen reduction technology to inactivate all pathogens (viruses, bacteria, parasites and white blood cells) using riboflavin (vitamin B2) and UV light.

Contact: Richard Gonzales ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Pre-seed

PhotonPharma is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing Innocell™, a personalized cancer immunotherapy platform that leverages patients’ own tumor cells to stimulate comprehensive immune responses against solid tumors.

The core technology uses PhotonPharma’s proprietary UV photochemical inactivation process to create replication-incompetent tumor cells. Innocell preserves the complete tumor antigen profile, reduces the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and enhances immunogenicity. The therapy is rapid and cost-effective, able to be produced in under 7 days, versus 4-6 weeks for competing cell therapies.

PhotonPharma received IND clearance and is poised to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Contact: Ray Goodrich ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Seed and Series-A

Website: https://photonpharmaceuticals.com/

Revalix Labs is advancing the frontier of cryo-electron microscopy with gold nanoclusters that offer unmatched precision and labeling accuracy.

Contact: Andrew Hendrickson ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Pre-seed

Website: https://www.revalix-labs.com/

SusMer (Sustainable Monomers & Polymers) is a Colorado-based biomaterials company developing a scalable chemical manufacturing platform for poly-4-hydroxybutyrate (P4HB), a bioresorbable polymer used in implantable medical devices.

P4HB is widely regarded as one of the highest-performing bioresorbable materials for long-term implant applications due to its strength, biocompatibility, and favorable resorption profile. Despite decades of research across the broader PHA polymer family, P4HB remains the only member to achieve FDA clearance and CE marking. Today, access to P4HB is constrained by a single incumbent supplier using a capital-intensive microbial fermentation process, limiting innovation and supply for medical device manufacturers.

SusMer’s proprietary chemical synthesis approach enables controlled, high-purity production of P4HB with greater scalability and molecular-weight precision than fermentation. This unlocks reliable access for medical device OEMs developing sutures, meshes, fibers, cardiovascular devices, and other regenerative applications.

The company partners directly with leading medical device manufacturers through paid development programs and is scaling in Colorado to support multi-kilogram and commercial supply. By removing a critical materials bottleneck, SusMer accelerates device innovation, reduces supply risk, and improves patient outcomes while establishing advanced biomaterials manufacturing in Colorado.

Contact: Jake Larger ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Pre-seed and seed

Website: https://susmer.com/

Vital Foams develops flowable, bioabsorbent foams for advanced wound care. Engineered for adaptability, our non-solidifying formulations enable field-ready delivery of hemostatic, anti-infective, wound healing and analgesic therapeutics in both civilian and military trauma settings.

Contact: Kirk McGilvray ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Seed

Website: https://www.vitalfoams.com/

YoungHeartValve, Inc. is an early-stage MedTech company developing the next generation platform technology for transcatheter and surgical heart valve replacement. We address the needs that are inherent in all valve technology today. Transcatheter heart valves rely on harvested, animal tissue, most commonly from cows and pigs. Our novel patent-protected heart valve technology incorporates shaped leaflets manufactured from a biostable engineering plastic and a biomolecule that transforms the synthetic material to mimic the lining of healthy native leaflets and blood vessels. Consequently, our implants are highly durable and resist blood clotting and calcification, overcoming the drawbacks of existing valves on the market. Devices made from our technology are significantly less complex and amenable to automatic fabrication compared to animal tissue-based devices, which rely on the setup of expensive supply-chain integration of animal tissue harvesting, and skilled labor-intensive manufacturing. The strong clinical and economical value proposition position our technology as a market disruptor, becoming the first valve of choice for any patient demographic and a sought-after acquisition target given the potential for significant improvement in profit margins for manufacturers, buyers, and payors.

Contact: Susan James ([email protected])

Affiliation: Colorado State University

Funding Round: Series-A

Website: https://youngheartvalve.com/