The Ignite Fellow for New Ventures program is a transformative power of innovation that converges with the spirit of entrepreneurship. This dynamic initiative brings together an exceptional group of Fellows, each selected for their remarkable expertise and passion in diverse disciplines. The fellows have been paired with Cornell faculty inventors, forming dynamic collaborations that merge cutting-edge research with practical implementation. Through this pairing, a bridge is built between academia and industry, fostering a fertile ground for ideas to flourish.
Introducing the Bright Minds Shaping the Future of Cornell Innovation
2025 Cohort
Wenjing Tang
New Venture Project: Middle Ear Immune Therapy
Faculty-inventor: Rong Yang
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Ventures
Status: Active Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: OTO Bio
Victor Giannakouris Salalidis
New Venture Project: SwellDB
Faculty-inventor: Immanuel Trummer
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Active Fellow
College: Cornell Bowers
Robert Wingo
New Venture Project: RNA-Guided Transposons
Faculty-inventor: Joseph Peters
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Ventures
Status: Active Fellow
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)
2024 Cohort
Steven Yang
New Venture Project: AI-Driven Material Models for Engineering Simulations
Faculty-inventor: Nikoulas Bouklas
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: Neural Solid
Conor Loy
New Venture Project: Characterizing and Diagnosing Inflammation using Cell-Free RNA
Faculty Inventor: Iwijn De Vlaminck
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Ventures
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: Romix Biosciences
Hayford Agbanu Perry Fordson
New Venture Project: An AI-Based Pain Biomarker
Faculty-inventors: Adam Anderson and Eve De Rosa
Incubator Supervision: Runway Startup Postdocs
Status: Active Fellow
College: Human Ecology
Incorporated Startup: Objective pAIn, Inc.
Azmain Alamgir
New Venture Project: Anionic Cloaking Reagents for Intracellular Protein Delivery with Cationic Lipids
Faculty-inventors: Chris Alabi and Matthew DeLisa
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Ventures
Status: Active Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: Cloaked Bio
2023 Cohort
Amir Mokhtare
New Venture Project: Ultrasound-Assisted Reproductive Technology
Faculty-inventor: Alireza Abbasspourrad
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Ventures
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)
Incorporated Startup: IVSonance, Inc.
Devansh Agarwal
New Venture Project: Augmented Reality Face Tracking
Faculty-inventor: Cheng Zhang
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Alumni
College: Information Science
Jonathan McCandless
New Venture Project: Gallium Oxide Vertical Transistors
Faculty-inventor: Debdeep Jena
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: Gallox Semiconductors, Inc.
Marshall Colville
New Venture Project: Lubricin for Osteoarthritis Applications
Faculty-inventor: Matthew Paszek
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Venture
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Veterinary Medicine
Incorporated Startup: Calyxsis, Inc.
Olalekan Afuye
New Venture Project: Tunable Wireless Radio
Faculty-inventor: Alyssa Apsel
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: EchoICs, Inc.
Yang Yang
New Venture Project: Urban Design Software
Faculty-inventor: Timur Dogan
Incubator Supervision: Runway Startup Postdocs
Status: Active Fellow
College: Architecture, Art and Planning
2022 cohort
Anthony D’Amato
New Venture Project: The Next Generation of Synthetic Vascular Grafts
Faculty-inventor: Yadong Wang
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Ventures
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: Anova Biomedical, Inc.
Brandon Regensburger
New Venture Project: Battery Charging for Mobile Robots with In-Motion Wireless Charging
Faculty-inventor: Khurram Khan Afridi
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: ExoPower, Inc.
David Buchholz
New Venture Project: Next-Generation, Broad-Spectrum, Distribution-Enabled Vaccines
Faculty-inventor: Hector Aguilar-Carreno
Incubator Supervision: Center for Life Science Ventures
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Veterinary Medicine
Incorporated Startup: VIVA Viral Vaccines, Inc.
Hassnain Asgar
New Venture Project: Adaptive Methods for CO2 Capture and H2 Production
Faculty-inventor: Greeshma Gadikota
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Graduated Fellow
College: Engineering
Incorporated Startup: Carbon to Stone, Inc.
June Hwang
New Venture Project: Meta-Materials for Optical and Infrared Lenses
Faculty-inventor: Amit Lal
Incubator Supervision: Praxis Center for Venture Development
Status: Alumni
College: Engineering
Carbon to Stone
Description: Carbon mineralization is a natural process. Carbon to Stone perfected a reactive crystallization process that matches the scale and speed of climate crisis demands.
Cohort: 2022
Industry: Cleantech
Graduated Fellow: Hassnain Asgar, PhD
ExoPower, Inc.
Description: ExoPower uses novel wireless power transfer technologies to charge electric vehicles in the materials handling industry. They focus on vehicles in warehouses, airports, and seaports to eliminate excessive downtime currently experienced while batteries are recharged or swapped.
Cohort: 2022
Industry: Hardware & Instrumentation
Graduated Fellow: Brandon Regensburger, PhD
Anova Biomedical
Description: By leveraging decades of tissue-engineering research, Anova has re-designed vascular graft materials from first principles to create vascular prosthetics that match the mechanics of the vascular system, and transform over time into fully autologous conduits. Their first product, the deNovo1 AVG, will mark the first step on their path towards pushing inferior materials out of the clinic.
Cohort: 2022
Industry: MedTech
Graduated Fellow: Anthony D’Amato, PhD
EchoICs
Description: EchoICs is developing a reconfigurable radio platform with extended battery life, enhanced dynamic range, reduced size and system cost that allows improvement in output power, system efficiency, and receiver linearity.
Cohort: 2023
Industry: Hardware
Graduated Fellow: Olalekan Afuye, PhD
Gallox Semiconductors
Description: Gallox produces ultrawide bandgap gallium oxide (Ga203) semiconductor devices that eliminate that inefficiency, enable more powerful electronics circuitry, and reduce a system’s size, weight and engineering complexity.
Cohort: 2023
Industry: Semiconductors
Graduated Fellow: Jon MacCandless, PhD
VIVA Viral Vaccines
Description: VIVA Viral Vaccines is developing a new vaccine platform that could provide more robust, longer-lasting protection from both COVID-19 and influenza, and broader immunity to different flu strains.
Cohort: 2022
Industry: Vaccine
Graduated Fellow: David Buhholz, PhD
Calyxis Biosciences
Description: Calyxisis Biosciences develops naturally-inspired biolubricants for joint disease treatment. The company leverages a natural lubricating glycoprotein called lubricin, present in joint fluid. When enhanced, lubricin offers a biocompatible and manufacturer-friendly solution that preserves the natural protective properties found in lubricin while providing joint protection.
Cohort: 2023
Industry: MedTech
Graduated Fellow: Marshall Colville, PhD
Romix Biosciences
Description: Romix Biosciences is an early-stage biotech developing a platform to transform how disease is understood and treated. By combining cutting-edge molecular measurements with advanced AI/ML, Romix provides new ways to profile human health, improve precision medicine, and accelerate drug development.
Cohort: 2024
Industry: Drug Discovery
Graduated Fellow: Conor Loy, PhD
IVSonance
Description: IVSonance is developing an ultrasound-based ova handling technology used in IVF treatment. This technology has the potential to make ova manipulation less skill-dependent, more user-friendly, and less error-prone, leading to reduced costs and potentially increasing the number of IVF procedures doctors can perform.
Cohort: 2023
Industry: MedTech
Graduated Fellow: Amir Mokharte, PhD
