A Stony Brook Medicine Department of Surgery research team, led by Associate Professor Gurtej Singh, PhD, has won Long Island High Tech Incubator's (LIHTI) Venture Champions (VC) Challenge in the Life Sciences category. The team's award-winning entry is a high-tech wound-care solution and advanced healing patch.
"Winning the VC Challenge feels like a launchpad for our vision," said Singh. "It’s not just a win—it’s a step closer to revolutionizing wound care with cutting-edge innovation." He further commented that this win will greatly enhance their credentials in future applications for grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), etc.
"It’s not just a win—it’s a step closer to revolutionizing wound care with cutting-edge innovation," - Gurtej Singh
LIHTI's Stony Brook VC Challenge seeks to identify cutting-edge ventures and serve as a launching point at the beginning of their development phase. They look to Long Island research labs and universities working on hard-tech ventures that will benefit the local community and ecosystem. The VC Challenge aims to assist diverse teams as they work their way through the commercialization process.
VC Challenge winners receive funds for Innovation Corps (I-Corps) support, which assists with customer discovery, tech development, infrastructure, advice, networking opportunities, training and other resources. I-Corps, a National Science Foundation (NSF) supported program, aims to nurture and support winners as they move their ideas, products, etc. into the marketplace to benefit society.
Singh and graduate student Shi Fu, BS, delivered the team's presentation, "Transforming Wound Care through Vascular Innovation." The team's product, which is currently in development, is an innovative solution for wound care and regenerative medicine, with burn centers, wound care clinics and plastic and reconstructive surgeons as the main customers and the end users as patients with severe skin injuries, burns and chronic wounds. Having shown promising results in healing skin in mouse models, the product has moved to the next stage where the team will use these preclinical studies to refine the technology for future clinical use.
Singh's team includes:
- Gurtej Singh, PhD – Faculty, Department of Surgery
- Alexander Dagum, MD – Clinical Advisor (Former Faculty)
- Duc Bui, MD - Faculty, Clinical Advisor
- Miriam Rafailovich, PhD – Professor, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering
- Marcia Simon, PhD – Professor, Department of Oral Biology and Pathology
- Shi Fu, BS – Graduate Student
- Huiting Luo, BS – Graduate Student
Singh celebrated the win by emphasizing the strength and collaboration of the team as a whole. He also highlighted Fu's dedication and technical expertise as being pivotal to the project's success.
For more information about the VC Challenge, please visit the Stony Brook Venture Champions Challenge page on the Long Island High Tech Incubator Website.
For more information about the Department of Surgery and Gurtej Singh, please visit their respective Web pages.