Cornell-licensed company REEgen and RETRN Bio to establish local manufacturing space

Two members of Cornell’s on-campus business incubators will soon expand their businesses in Ithaca, creating local jobs and building capacity for future startups to grow in the region. 

REEgen, a Cornell spinout that engineers bacteria to extract rare earth elements from industrial waste with technology licensed from Cornell, and RETRN Bio, a startup that upcycles agricultural waste into bioplastics, will both scale up at a new development on Ithaca’s South Hill. 

The development, SouthWorks, was recently awarded $38 million from New York’s Regional Economic Development Council to transform the former Morse Chain Factory site into a mixed-use, adaptive reuse project. The development will include an innovation hub to retain startups in advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and agtech. 

Read the story here.

Cornell CTL Releases FY25 Technology Commercialization Report

Cornell University’s Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) has released its FY25 Technology Commercialization Report, highlighting another year of progress in translating research discoveries into real-world impact.

The report provides an overview of Cornell’s technology commercialization activity across its campuses, showcasing the inventors, startups, partnerships and programs that help bring university innovations to market.

In fiscal year 2025, CTL reached several milestones. Twenty new startups based on university technologies were launched — the highest number in Cornell’s history. The startup portfolio collectively raised $450 million in FY25, contributing to more than $2.4 billion raised over the past five years. During the same period, CTL executed 93 licenses and options, connecting Cornell inventions with both established companies and emerging ventures.

Beyond these metrics, the report highlights the people and collaborations behind the numbers. The FY25 edition features Cornell engineer Professor Iwijn De Vlaminck, whose work in precision medicine technologies demonstrates how academic discoveries can advance through both industry partnerships and startup creation.

The report also explores several areas shaping Cornell’s innovation ecosystem, including:

  • Startup and commercialization highlights from across the university
  • Programs supporting early-stage technologies through gap funding
  • New initiatives that strengthen connections between researchers, industry, and investors
  • Outreach and engagement programs that help inventors navigate the path from research to market

Together, these efforts reflect Cornell’s commitment to translating research into solutions that improve lives, strengthen industry partnerships, and support continued investment in innovation.

Read the full FY25 Technology Commercialization Report to learn more about the discoveries, inventors and ventures shaping Cornell’s innovation ecosystem.

Inso Biosciences Developing Rapid Microfluidic Sample-to-Library Workflow for Nanopore Sequencing

Researchers from Cornell-licensed startup Inso Biosciences and the University of Washington have developed a technology for isolating high-molecular-weight DNA and preparing libraries for nanopore sequencing directly from samples in a single microfluidic cartridge.

Described in a MedRxiv preprint last month, the method uses Inso’s yet-to-be commercialized microfluidic micropillar platform to generate sequencing-ready libraries from various sample types in as little as 30 minutes with input amounts as low as a single drop of blood.

While the proof-of-concept study demonstrates the platform’s potential to enable rapid nanopore sequencing in clinical and point-of-care settings, the technology’s real-world performance still remains to be shown.

Originally invented and developed by professor emeritus Harold Craighead’s group at Cornell University, the technology isolates and purifies high-molecular-weight DNA by entangling the molecules onto micropillars in a microfluidic channel.

“We think about it like hair on a comb,” said Inso Cofounder and CEO Harvey Tian, a coauthor of the preprint study. Previously a graduate student in Craighead’s lab, Tian coinvented the technology with Adam Bisogni, another company cofounder and its CSO. Inso exclusively licensed the technology from Cornell and raised $2.2 million in pre-seed financing in 2022 to commercialize the platform.

More information here (press release behind paywall).

The Winding Road from Bench to FDA Approval for First Mitochondria-Targeting Drug

In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally approved elamipretide as a treatment for Barth syndrome under an expedited process for rare diseases. The achievement is the realization of a two-decade-long drug discovery journey that began with a groundbreaking discovery by pharmacologist Dr. Hazel Szeto, M.D., Ph.D. ’77, at Weill Cornell Medicine, who discovered the compound that became elamipretide and was the scientific founder of a biotechnology company to commercialize it.

Elamipretide is the first compound discovered at Weill Cornell Medicine to attain FDA approval; it will be available on the market starting this month under the brand name Forzinity to improve muscle strength in adults and children weighing at least 30kg with Barth syndrome.

“This is a monumental accomplishment for Dr. Szeto and Weill Cornell Medicine,” said Dr. Lisa Placanica, senior managing director of the Center for Technology Licensing at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Navigating the long journey through the drug discovery pathway and reaching this incredible milestone required the commitment of numerous institutional, investor, patient advocate and commercial stakeholders. We extend our profound congratulations to Dr. Szeto for her tireless efforts.”

“I went to medical school, but I chose not to practice,” Dr. Szeto said. “And I figured, one day, I would invent a drug that would then be able to reach far more patients than I would be able to singlehandedly treat in an office. So, this is my dream come true.”

Read the story here.

Cornell startups find growth paths through acquisition

Startup stories move differently from the lab to real-world impact. Some grow with a public launch, others by building a strong customer base for their innovative product or service. And a few reach a stage where joining a strategic partner allows their ideas to go farther than a small startup could alone. 

In 2025, four companies with Cornell-originated technologies — SafetyStratus, Bactana Corporation, Guard Medical and Halo Labs — were acquired by global corporate partners, allowing Cornell technologies to reach broader markets. While different disciplines, these companies’ journeys share familiar roots: innovations born inside Cornell labs, and inventors and founders who believed their ideas could solve real-world problems. Licensed from the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL), the underlying technologies broadened their reach beyond the labs and into the market.  

“Each of these companies reflects Cornell’s commitment to advancing and translating research that improves lives,” said Alice Li, executive director of CTL. “When Cornell innovation matures into solutions that industry partners want to grow at scale, it indicates scientific merit as well as real-world need and meaningful impact.” 

Read the story here.

Cornell startup REEgen wins 2025 FuzeHub commercialization competition

REEgen, a company with technology licensed from Cornell, has won the $150,000 grand prize at the 2025 FuzeHub Commercialization Competition. The company competed against eleven other innovative New York State startups and was selected by expert judges for demonstrating exceptional commercial viability and national security significance.

REEgen’s BioREEcover technology uses genetically engineered bacteria to recover rare earth elements and other critical minerals from industrial waste. The platform addresses a critical infrastructure gap: the U.S. currently recovers less than 1% of rare earth elements domestically and depends heavily on China for materials essential to defense, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing.

This award reflects the strength of Cornell-originated research reaching commercial scale. REEgen’s technology builds on foundational ARPA-E-funded research and represents the kind of deep-tech innovation emerging from Cornell’s entrepreneurship pipeline. With this funding, the company is accelerating toward commercial production, targeting revenue generation as early as mid-2026.

This follows CTL’s track record of successful FuzeHub placements, continuing to demonstrate the value of Cornell’s commercialization support in bringing university research to market.

Please review REEgen’s press release and FuzeHub’s announcement for additional details. You can also visit www.reegen.tech to learn more about the company.

Cornell startup aims to monitor heart and lung health without touch

Wearable devices and hospital monitors may dominate conversations about remote health care, but a new Cornell-affiliated startup is betting its future on something almost invisible: radio waves.

SensVita, a company with technology licensed from Cornell, is developing a clinical-grade sensing platform that can track heart and lung health at home – without wires, without electrodes and without ever touching the skin.

The fledgling company has been admitted this fall to Cornell’s Praxis Center for Venture Development, an on-campus incubator that helps engineering, digital and physical science startups from Cornell become self-sufficient. 

“SensVita has a noncontact, passive way of monitoring cardiac activity and breath activity,” said Bob Scharf, academic administrative director at Praxis. “The first human application would be for patients who are difficult to monitor – memory care patients or neonatal patients.”

Read the story here.

New Cornell startup targets faster, cheaper, greener testing

In high-tech science, breakthroughs often hinge on the smallest details – like the step before the experiment even begins.

Before a lab can detect a contaminant in drinking water, find performance-enhancing drugs in an athlete’s blood or measure volatile compounds in food, scientists must first extract the target chemicals from a tangle of other substances. It’s a step called sample preparation – and it’s one of the most frustrating bottlenecks in analytical science.

Now, a Cornell-born startup called Quantera Analytical thinks it has a fix.

Quantera’s technology is deceptively simple: a modular, cartridge-based system that replaces slow and solvent-heavy workflows with rigid, reusable sample collectors. These cartridges can either absorb vapors above a sample or dip directly into liquids such as blood, juice or plant extracts.

With intellectual property developed in Cornell University’s labs, Quantera Analytical received early guidance and patent protection support from the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL). Through CTL’s Ignite funding programs, the startup secured critical proof-of-concept support to refine its modular extraction technology and validate its market potential. Building on this foundation, Quantera has continued to advance from a Cornell innovation to a promising commercial venture, now positioned to make sample preparation faster, more affordable, and more sustainable across research and industry applications.

Read the story here.

Startups founded on Cornell innovations secure state matching grants for commercialization 

With support from Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR), three startups with roots in Cornell innovations are advancing technologies that aim to improve cardiovascular care, cancer treatment and patient well-being. The companies — Anova Biomedical, ARMA BIO and VoiceLove — were among 25 New York-based businesses receiving support in Round Three of the Innovation Matching Grants program. 

“We are proud to see these startups thriving as they advance Cornell innovations toward the greatest good,” said Alice Li, executive director of Cornell’s Center for Technology Licensing (CTL). “These awards recognize not only the strength of the science behind each company, but also the dedication of our innovators and founders who are committed to bringing transformative solutions from the lab to society.” 

The program supplements federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards with up to $200,000 in additional funding, helping early-stage technology development and accelerating the path from research to market. 

“These startups are a testament to how Cornell’s innovation ecosystem can move medical breakthroughs from discovery to patient care,” said Lisa Placanica, senior managing director of CTL at Weill Cornell Medicine. “From protecting intellectual property and supporting licensing strategies to guiding startup formation, we provide the foundation that allows faculty and clinicians to translate their ideas into therapies and tools that improve health outcomes.” 

Anova Biomedical: A new class of vascular grafts 

Co-founded by postdoctoral fellow Anthony D’Amato, Ph.D., and Yadong Wang, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, Anova Biomedical is transforming the materials used in vascular grafts for patients undergoing dialysis and cardiovascular procedures. 

Current synthetic graft materials, largely unchanged since the 1960s, have high rates of complications and failures that increase patient suffering and healthcare costs. Anova’s novel biocompatible elastomers are designed to integrate with patient tissue, improving outcomes and reducing long-term risks. 

The company, whose foundational technology was licensed through CTL, has received gap funding support from the Ignite programs, including the Fellow for New Ventures and Startup Projects, to launch the new venture. It has also benefited from educational entrepreneurship programs within Cornell’s broader innovation ecosystem, such as the Life Sciences Technology Innovation Fellowship, and is a member of the Center for Life Science Ventures in Ithaca, NY.  

Currently in preclinical testing in large animal models, the company is scaling production to develop human-sized grafts with funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the NYSTAR matching grant. 

ARMA BIO: Advancing breakthrough therapies for treatment-resistant prostate cancer 

Weill Cornell Medicine faculty Paraskevi (Evi) Giannakakou, Ph.D., and Cheuk Man Cherie Au, Ph.D., founded ARMA BIO to develop a first-in-class small molecule degrader drug to treat prostate cancer that has become resistant to standard therapies.  

Prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States, and patients whose cancer no longer responds to hormonal therapies have limited treatment options. The ARMA BIO team has discovered compounds that can degrade both the full-length androgen receptor and its splice variant AR-V7, a key mechanism of therapy resistance. By overcoming this resistance, the company’s approach could provide a novel therapeutic pathway for patients with advanced, treatment-resistant disease. 

Through CTL at Weill Cornell, the inventors received support for intellectual property protection, technology development, and gap funding through the Catalyst Fund (formerly the Daedalus Fund for Innovation), as well as for external funding applications supporting early-stage company development. They also participated in the BioVenture eLab’s Biomedical Innovation Challenge, awarded first place, which helped the company’s formation. A Fast Track STTR/SBIR award from the National Cancer Institute has propelled the research, with the NYSTAR matching grant enabling the team to advance their drug toward clinical development.  

VoiceLove: Connecting patients in critical condition with their families  

Developed by Tamatha Fenster, M.S. MD., and Marc Schiffman, M.D., both of Weill Cornell Medicine, VoiceLove is a HIPAA-compliant app that allows critically ill patients to exchange voice and video messages with their families, supporting emotional well-being and clinical outcomes. 

The concept for their future technology was born from clinical insights during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of ICU delirium, a serious condition linked to isolation, on patient wellbeing. Unlike video calls that require staff facilitation, VoiceLove developed a solution that provides a simple, secure, and patient-driven platform that allows family engagement while reducing the burden on clinical teams.  

With guidance from Weill Cornell’s innovation ecosystem in the early stages and concept development and backed by federal Fast-Track funding from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Mental Health, the founders transformed their idea into a company now engaged in clinical trials. The NYSTAR matching grant will further strengthen its pathway to wider adoption. 

As part of Cornell’s broader innovation ecosystem, Neuralenz, a Cornell Tech Runway startup, also received a NYSTAR Innovation Matching Grant for its non-invasive platform to measure cerebral blood flow and improve stroke diagnosis and treatment.  

These startups exemplify the diversity of technologies emerging from Cornell labs, across campuses and disciplines, translating academic discoveries into market-ready solutions. With additional support from federal and state partners, these companies and their inventors are advancing technologies that promise to improve lives in New York and beyond. 

Media Contact
Veronica Buezo Talavera
Manager, Communications
vbt6@cornell.edu

Ithaca startup aims to free diabetes patients from daily burden

The Center for Life Science Ventures (CLSV) has admitted a promising biotech startup company with deep roots at Cornell.

Persista Bio is pushing toward a goal that has tantalized scientists for decades: treating Type 1 diabetes – which affects 9 million people worldwide – without daily injections, pumps or immune-suppressing medicines.

Founded by Cornell alumna Linda Tempelman, Ph.D. ’93, and Professor Minglin Ma, the company’s core technology — developed in Ma’s lab and licensed through the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) — encapsulates insulin-producing cells within a nanofibrous membrane that shields them from immune rejection while allowing nutrients and insulin to pass freely. The system integrates an electrochemical oxygen generator, ensuring long-term cell survival and function without the need for immunosuppression.

Read the story here.