Innovating to transform health

Gillings Innovation Labs (GILs), the flagship program of the $50M Gillings Gift, have invested almost $8M and returned over $154M in follow-on funding and over 230 peer reviewed journal articles. GILs that closed in FY2023 established the preeminent causal inference research lab, promoted the science of causal inference for the improvement of public health and deepened the understanding around COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in rural South Africa in order to increase uptake and access. Proposals are now being solicited for the next GIL round: “Harnessing Generative Artificial Intelligence in Public Health.”

Offered every other year, the Gillings School Pitch Competition is a competition and learning experience rolled into one that allows student venture teams to pitch to a live panel of judges a service or product which addresses a public health issue with a viable solution. Teams are paired with entrepreneurial coaches to help them refine their pitches in the weeks leading up to the competition. The 2022 competition featured 12 interdisciplinary teams each led by a Gillings student. The first-place award went to “HIV/AIDS Network for Disaster Survivors (HANDS)” which ensures continuity of care for people with HIV (PWH) who evacuate during hurricanes.

The 2020 Pitch Competition second place winner, LiRA, has also been refining their technology and securing funding.

Budding student entrepreneurs of color were paired with entrepreneurial mentors in the three-month long 2023 Entrepreneurs of Color Mentorship Program. All students were welcome! Mentors and mentees met at least once per month to discuss their entrepreneurial goals and broaden their networks. Interest in the program nearly quadrupled over 2022 with 44 student applicants from eight departments, including six degree programs. Ten mentees were matched with six Gillings-affiliated mentors. Dyads identified goals and met together monthly for three months.

The Gillings School has a robust pipeline of faculty innovators working to translate their work out into the real world for impact. Five teams completed the NSF Regional I-Corps Program, an experiential learning program using customer discovery and allowing teams to quickly assess their inventions’ market potential. Four teams completed the UNC Venture Catalyst Fellows program which pairs budding faculty innovators with professional students developing entrepreneurial skills to advance translational goals.

New venture updates:

• SNP Therapeutics, with founder Steve Ziesel, MD, PhD, is poised to be a leader in the precision nutrition market segment thanks to the unique way they develop their genetic tests and algorithms to identify the genes/variants contributing to various health issues and disease, including fatty liver disease, male infertility, prenatal nutrition and sarcopenia. Expecting revenues in Q4 2023.
• The Couplet Care team — with Kristin Tully, PhD, and co-inventors Catherine Sullivan, MPH, Alison Stuebe, PhD, and Carl Seashore, MD -— is scaling their patented medical infant bassinet to improve patient safety and clinical efficiency while promoting positive mother and infant health outcomes. They have raised $1.05 million in investor capital and were recently awarded a $2 million SBIR Phase II grant. They are currently in the process of raising an additional $3 million in Series A funds for product completion, testing and market entry.
• The Sorbenta team, led by Orlando Coronell, PhD, and Frank Leibfarth, PhD, continues to further de-risk and scale up their patented technology that removes PFAS (forever chemicals) from drinking water.
• The CollectiveGood team, led by Sean Sylvia, PhD, and Joe Tucker, MD, PhD, developed a working prototype of their platform which harnesses collective clinical intelligence to power medical AI testing and validation and is now seeking pre-seed investment.