CU Technology and Discovery News

ɫ��ֱ�� awards therapeutics funding to advance promising drug development projects

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:15:58 +0000

ɫ��ֱ�� awards therapeutics funding to advance promising drug development projects Daniel Corbin … Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:15

Venture Partners at ɫ��ֱ�� has announced the first recipients of a new translational funding program designed to advance promising, early-stage therapeutics with strong commercial potential. The program provides up to $50,000 per project to help ɫ��ֱ�� researchers generate critical validation data or develop new intellectual property, bringing new treatments a step closer to patients in need.

“ɫ��ֱ�� is a world-class destination for bioscience research,” said Hannah Nelson, associate director of licensing at Venture Partners, “and our innovative faculty have created a robust pipeline of novel drugs and therapeutic targets.”

Many promising therapeutic projects reach a stage where they no longer qualify for basic research funding but are still too early for translational grants or private investment. This funding gap can stall progress.

But what is "commercialization?"

The path to commercialization—also known as "research translation" or "tech transfer"—can be challenging, so Venture Partners unites industry partners, entrepreneurs and investors to help researchers, inventors and creators at the University of Colorado bring their groundbreaking discoveries into the marketplace.

Explore the Path to Commercialization

This funding program is designed to bridge that gap by supporting commercially promising drug development efforts. The awarded projects ultimately aim to develop FDA-approved drugs and have a clear path to commercialization, having validated their development approach through customer discovery interviews.

“This funding supports a critical stage in drug development,” said Justin Stitzlein, venture analyst at Venture Partners. “Our goal is to give these teams the support they need to generate compelling data and position themselves for the next stage of development. We believe this kind of early support can unlock significant long-term impact.”

Awardees

Orally Available Obesity Therapeutic

Led by Distinguished Professor Leslie Leinwand (BioFrontiers Institute, ɫ��ֱ�� Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology), with PhD student Jack Gugel and postdoctoral researchers Thomas Martin and Yuxiao Tan, the team is developing an orally available obesity drug that suppresses appetite without affecting gastric emptying or causing muscle loss. Their compound offers a differentiated mechanism from current GLP-1 agonists such as Wegovy/Ozempic, aiming to improve tolerability and adherence.

Efflux Pump Inhibitor Discovery Platform

Professor Corrie Detweiler (ɫ��ֱ�� Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) and her team are developing novel small-molecule inhibitors that restore the effectiveness of antibiotics against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Using a host-informed, high-throughput assay platform that better reflects infection conditions, they aim to identify efflux pump inhibitors to treat patients with infections that do not respond to traditional antibiotics alone.

What can we do together?

Disclose and protect your innovation

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Find a mentor to advance your innovation

Get funding for your innovation

Find partners and opportunities for your innovation

Explore investing in and partnering with CU researchers

Explore our startups portfolio

Explore our technology portfolio

Venture Partners at ɫ��ֱ�� has announced the first recipients of a new translational funding program designed to advance promising, early-stage therapeutics with strong commercial potential. The program provides up to $50,000 per project to help ɫ��ֱ�� researchers generate critical validation data or develop new intellectual property, bringing new treatments a step closer to patients in need.

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How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation—a ɫ��ֱ�� administrator explains

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 17:39:46 +0000

How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation—a ɫ��ֱ�� administrator explains Daniel Corbin … Tue, 07/08/2025 - 11:39

Supporting a Groundbreaking Innovation Pipeline

$8 billion in economic impact, a record-breaking 36 startups launched in a single year and $1.2 billion raised for CU startups and innovations: These are some of the results reported in the latest annual report from Venture Partners.

Read Our Annual Report

From The Conversation

Over the past several months, universities have lost more than $11 billion in funding. Research into cancer, farming solutions and climate resiliency are just a few of the many projects nationally that have seen cuts. The Conversation asked Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at ɫ��ֱ��, to explain how these cuts and freezes are impacting the university and Colorado’s local economy.

Read on The Conversation Website

The Conversation—Over the past several months, universities have lost more than $11 billion in funding. Research into cancer, farming solutions and climate resiliency are just a few of the many projects nationally that have seen cuts. The Conversation asked Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at ɫ��ֱ��, to explain how these cuts and freezes are impacting the university and Colorado’s local economy.

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Scientists develop method to build tiny custom microrobots

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:30:46 +0000

Scientists develop method to build tiny custom microrobots Daniel Corbin … Mon, 07/07/2025 - 14:30

Explore CU Innovations for Licensing and Partnership

Venture Partners manages a portfolio of over 1,000 technologies from university investigators and manages licensing partnerships with companies of all sizes—from startups to the Fortune 500—to bring these inventions to market.

Explore CU Technologies

Researchers at the ɫ��ֱ�� have created a new way to build and control tiny particles that can move and work like microscopic robots, offering a powerful tool with applications in biomedical and environmental research. The study, published in Nature Communications, describes a new method of fabrication that combines high-precision 3D printing, called two-photon lithography, with a microstenciling technique.

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New quantum navigation device uses atoms to measure acceleration in 3D

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 20:23:13 +0000

New quantum navigation device uses atoms to measure acceleration in 3D Daniel Corbin … Wed, 06/11/2025 - 14:23

Licensing Opportunities for Quantum and Photonics Technologies

Quantum technology represents one of the most promising frontiers of modern science, potentially revolutionizing industries from computing to healthcare and beyond. The university is at the forefront of this exciting field, leveraging its robust academic and research capabilities to push the boundaries of what quantum technologies can achieve.

Explore Licensing and Partnership Opportunities

Read this full article at colorado.edu/today

In a new study, physicists at the ɫ��ֱ�� have used a cloud of atoms chilled down to incredibly cold temperatures to simultaneously measure acceleration in three dimensions—a feat that many scientists didn’t think was possible.

The device, a new type of atom “interferometer,” could one day help people navigate submarines, spacecraft, cars and other vehicles more precisely.

“Traditional atom interferometers can only measure acceleration in a single dimension, but we live within a three-dimensional world,” said Kendall Mehling, a co-author of the new study and a graduate student in the Department of Physics at ɫ��ֱ��. “To know where I'm going, and to know where I’ve been, I need to track my acceleration in all three dimensions.”

The researchers published their paper, titled “Vector atom accelerometry in an optical lattice,” this month in the journal Science Advances. The team included Mehling; Catie LeDesma, a postdoctoral researcher in physics; and Murray Holland, professor of physics and fellow of JILA, a joint research institute between ɫ��ֱ�� and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

In 2023, NASA awarded the ɫ��ֱ�� researchers a $5.5 million grant through the agency’s Quantum Pathways Institute to continue developing the sensor technology.

The new device is a marvel of engineering: Holland and his colleagues employ six lasers as thin as a human hair to pin a cloud of tens of thousands of rubidium atoms in place. Then, with help from artificial intelligence, they manipulate those lasers in complex patterns—allowing the team to measure the behavior of the atoms as they react to small accelerations, like pressing the gas pedal down in your car.

Today, most vehicles track acceleration using GPS and traditional, or “classical,” electronic devices known as accelerometers. The team’s quantum device has a long way to go before it can compete with these tools. But the researchers see a lot of promise for navigation technology based on atoms.

“If you leave a classical sensor out in different environments for years, it will age and decay,” Mehling said. “The springs in your clock will change and warp. Atoms don’t age.”

ɫ��ֱ�� Today—In a new study, physicists at the ɫ��ֱ�� have used a cloud of atoms chilled down to incredibly cold temperatures to simultaneously measure acceleration in three dimensions—a feat that many scientists didn’t think was possible. The device, a new type of atom “interferometer,” could one day help people navigate submarines, spacecraft, cars and other vehicles more precisely.

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Carson Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 20:03:15 +0000

Carson Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant Daniel Corbin … Wed, 06/11/2025 - 14:03

Read this full article at colorado.edu/atlas

Licensing Opportunities for Climate, Energy and Sustainability

Climate, energy and sustainability innovations are shaping the most urgent frontier of science and society—transforming how we power our world, manage resources and respond to environmental change. At the University of Colorado, groundbreaking research is driving not just new insights, but practical solutions to the global climate crisis.

Explore Licensing and Partnership Opportunities

Plastics are a problem. They are made with petroleum, are rarely recycled, and turn into microplastics over time—an increasingly intractable global environmental and health concern.

Current bio-based alternatives have yet to see widespread adoption for a number of reasons. Carson Bruns, associate professor (ATLAS Institute, Mechanical Engineering), aims to change all that with a new line of research in his Emergent Nanotechnology Lab focused on turning agricultural materials into bio-based plastics that can be more easily recycled, composted or even used as fertilizer.

Bruns was recently awarded a 2025 Research & Innovation Seed Grant from ɫ��ֱ��’s Research and Innovation Office for this work.

We discussed the thinking behind this research and possible applications (interview lightly edited for clarity):

What are the challenges with bio-based plastics?

The biggest challenge that everybody is dealing with in sustainable plastics right now is that the current options for bio-based and compostable plastics are not actually very good. They don't compete with the oil-based plastics in terms of how tough and flexible they are, so people don't like to use them as much because they crack and they're brittle.

And in reality, you cannot throw such plastics onto your backyard compost pile. They need special conditions to properly break down. You need a composting facility that heats the compost up to 60°C and it has all these fans and equipment to circulate it, and even then, it still doesn't work that well. [Note: This is one of the reasons why A1 Organics, ɫ��ֱ��, Colorado’s main composting partner, stopped accepting these biodegradable plastics.]

The ATLAS Institute—Plastics are an increasingly intractable global environmental and health concern, and bio-based alternatives have yet to see widespread adoption. Carson Bruns aims to change all that with a new line of research focused on turning agricultural materials into bio-based plastics that can be more easily recycled, composted or even used as fertilizer.

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Tiny robot team could be a gamechanger for safety inspections

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Wed, 21 May 2025 16:58:14 +0000

Tiny robot team could be a gamechanger for safety inspections Daniel Corbin … Wed, 05/21/2025 - 10:58

ɫ��ֱ�� Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering—ɫ��ֱ�� engineers have developed a team of palm-sized robots designed to work together to inspect and monitor dangerous environments like ship ballast tanks and storage vessels. The innovation could transform industrial safety by reducing human risk and enabling faster, more efficient inspections.

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WATCH: Twin CU Denver sisters develop tool to help users outsmart phishing scams

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Thu, 01 May 2025 21:26:31 +0000

WATCH: Twin CU Denver sisters develop tool to help users outsmart phishing scams Daniel Corbin … Thu, 05/01/2025 - 15:26

Denver7—As phishing scams continue to rise, two graduating sisters from CU Denver are turning their capstone project into a tool to help people avoid phishing scams.

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WATCH: ɫ��ֱ�� researchers building shape-shifting robots

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 21:46:01 +0000

WATCH: ɫ��ֱ�� researchers building shape-shifting robots Daniel Corbin … Tue, 04/29/2025 - 15:46

FOX31—Kaushik Jayaram (ɫ��ֱ�� Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering) received more than $1 million in grants to build shape-shifting robots the size of an insect.

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Aircrafts of the future: Boosting aerodynamic performance by engineered surface vibrations

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 19:17:16 +0000

Aircrafts of the future: Boosting aerodynamic performance by engineered surface vibrations Daniel Corbin … Mon, 03/24/2025 - 13:17

ɫ��ֱ�� College of Engineering and Applied Science—As the principal investigator of a $7.5 million, five-year Department of Defense Office of Naval Research (ONR) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), Hussein is leading an effort to reshape the fundamental character of fluid-structure interactions to reduce drag on high-speed aerospace vehicles—the focus of the project.

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New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 19:51:59 +0000

New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit Daniel Corbin … Mon, 02/17/2025 - 12:51

ɫ��ֱ�� College of Engineering and Applied Science—A team of engineers and material scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at ɫ��ֱ�� has developed a new technology to turn thermal radiation into electricity in a way that literally teases the basic law of thermal physics.

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CU Technology and Discovery News

ɫ�����ֱ�� awards therapeutics funding to advance promising drug development projects

But what is "commercialization?"

Awardees

Orally Available Obesity Therapeutic

Efflux Pump Inhibitor Discovery Platform

What can we do together?

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How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation—a ɫ�����ֱ�� administrator explains

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Scientists develop method to build tiny custom microrobots

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New quantum navigation device uses atoms to measure acceleration in 3D

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Carson Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant

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Tiny robot team could be a gamechanger for safety inspections

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WATCH: Twin CU Denver sisters develop tool to help users outsmart phishing scams

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WATCH: ɫ�����ֱ�� researchers building shape-shifting robots

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Aircrafts of the future: Boosting aerodynamic performance by engineered surface vibrations

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​New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit

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ɫ��ֱ�� awards therapeutics funding to advance promising drug development projects

How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation—a ɫ��ֱ�� administrator explains

WATCH: ɫ��ֱ�� researchers building shape-shifting robots

New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit