С�� Startup News

С�� Boulder and Techstars announce partnership to accelerate Colorado’s entrepreneurial ecosystem

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:19:02 +0000

С�� Boulder and Techstars announce partnership to accelerate Colorado’s entrepreneurial ecosystem Daniel Corbin … Thu, 04/02/2026 - 13:19

Daniel Leonard

The University of Colorado Boulder and Techstars, the global startup accelerator and investor, have announced a strategic partnership to expand opportunities for founders and strengthen Colorado’s innovation economy.

The collaboration connects С�� Boulder’s entrepreneurship programs and startup pipeline with Techstars’ network of mentors, investors and partners—creating new pathways for innovators to build and scale companies that drive real-world impact.

“This partnership reflects С�� Boulder’s commitment to empowering people across our campus to turn ideas into impact,” said Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes. “Our students, faculty and researchers are developing technologies, launching companies and exploring solutions to real challenges. Working with Techstars connects that talent with a global community of entrepreneurs and investors who can help move those ideas from campus into the world.”

From discovery to startup

С�� Boulder has emerged as one of the most vibrant startup ecosystems on a university campus in the United States. Through research, entrepreneurial education and the campus-wide Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative, the university supports students and faculty pursuing new ventures based on breakthrough discoveries.

Venture Partners at С�� Boulder—the university’s commercialization arm—has played a central role in that momentum and in initiating the new partnership. Through Venture Partners, more than 220 companies based on С�� Boulder technologies have launched and collectively exited for over $11 billion. The campus was ranked first in the nation for the number of such startups launched in 2024, the second-most ever launched by a single university campus in one year.

The partnership with Techstars will connect С�� Boulder’s innovations and entrepreneurs with one of the world’s premier startup accelerators and investors.

Established in Boulder in 2006 by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown and Jared Polis, Techstars helped shape the city’s startup culture. What began as a single accelerator program has grown into a global platform supporting founders across industries and geographies.

“Techstars has operated continuously in Colorado for two decades. The re-launch of our Techstars Boulder accelerator here reflects our renewed commitment to Colorado and reinforces Boulder’s role as an important hub in our system,” said David Cohen, chief executive officer of Techstars and co-founder of the company. “С�� Boulder is a powerful source of new ideas and new companies. By building a deeper relationship with the university, we can help more founders turn breakthroughs into companies that scale.”

Today, Techstars has invested in thousands of startups worldwide, whose combined market value exceeds $220 billion.

С�� Boulder and Techstars count dozens of unicorns between them, including DigitalOcean, SendGrid, Salesloft, and Veho (Techstars), Infleqtion, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Solid Power and SomaLogic (С�� Boulder).

Expanding pathways for founders

Apply to the Techstars Boulder Accelerator

Join the 10,000+ founders who built their businesses with Techstars! Each company receives funding, access to the worldwide network of investors, hands-on mentorship, and over $4 million of perks.

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С�� Boulder’s students and faculty will engage with Techstars staff, mentors and alumni through university entrepreneurship programs such as the New Venture Challenge and Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator. The collaboration will also create opportunities for Techstars founders to work with С�� Boulder researchers and students while accessing specialized facilities and technical expertise.

For startups emerging from the university, the partnership opens a direct pathway to Techstars’ accelerator programs and investor network.

“This collaboration brings together two communities deeply committed to building great companies,” said Shay Har-Noy, managing director of Techstars Boulder. “С�� Boulder consistently produces exceptional research, founders and high-potential companies. By working closely, we can help even more of these teams scale into enduring, world-class businesses.”

“Techstars Boulder just opened applications for its first new cohort, kicking off in person this September,” said Har-Noy, “We’re passionate about backing the strongest founders and companies from С�� Boulder, across Colorado and from around the country.”

Strengthening Colorado’s innovation economy

The partnership strengthens the connection between С�� Boulder’s research and academic mission and the global startup community while expanding opportunities for founders emerging from the university.

“Boulder has long been a catalyst where research, entrepreneurship and community come together to improve people’s lives,” said Bryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at С�� Boulder. “This partnership with Techstars builds on that foundation. Together, we can help more great ideas become companies and more founders bring transformative ideas to the world.”

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Venture capitalists remain staunch believers that vaccines will pay off

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:31:56 +0000

Venture capitalists remain staunch believers that vaccines will pay off Daniel Corbin … Thu, 04/02/2026 - 09:31

Wall Street Journal—The second Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement targets vaccines, leading some investors to step back. In biotech investment circles, they are the ultimate contrarians: the venture capitalists who say now is the time to invest in vaccines. VitriVax, a С�� Boulder spinout, raised more than $17.2 million in Series B financing in October.

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Artimus Robotics is launching next-generation artificial muscles and seeking partners

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:37:40 +0000

Artimus Robotics is launching next-generation artificial muscles and seeking partners Daniel Corbin … Tue, 02/17/2026 - 10:37

PR Newswire—Artimus Robotics, a С�� Boulder spinout, has announced its newest generation of contracting HASEL actuators that deliver more than twice the mechanical output performance of the previous generation. Artimus, a С�� Boulder spinout, is now one step closer to commercializing artificial muscles that replicate the performance of mammalian skeletal muscle.

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The University of Colorado Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator announces 2026 cohort

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 18:35:39 +0000

The University of Colorado Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator announces 2026 cohort Daniel Corbin … Thu, 02/12/2026 - 11:35

Ascent Deep Tech Community Showcase

Attendees will have a chance to see pitches from each of the Ascent 2025 cohort startups, followed by a networking happy hour to learn more.

Wednesday, June 24, 2026, 4:30-7:30 p.m., Byron R. White Stadium Club, Folsom Field

The University of Colorado's Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator has announced its 2026 startup teams. The selected companies span a wide range of disciplines, reflecting the depth and breadth of innovation emerging from С��’s research enterprise.

Launched in 2021 by Venture Partners at С�� Boulder, the Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator addresses the unique challenges faced by deep tech startups (companies based on groundbreaking science or engineering) that often require substantial time, research and capital to reach the market. The five-month program builds upon prerequisite customer-discovery training through the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps^TM Hub West —also offered through Venture Partners—and provides tailored support in business formation, market strategy and fundraising.

Now in its fifth year, Ascent has announced its largest cohorts to date. The 2026 cohort includes startups tackling critical challenges in physical and life sciences, from hydrogen-powered energy systems and wildfire detection to regenerative medicine, advanced materials and next-generation robotics.

Since its inception, Ascent has graduated 47 companies, which collectively have raised more than $20 million in non-dilutive grants and $47 million in seed funding from venture capital investors. Alumni have gone on to secure spots in nationally recognized incubators such as NREL’s West Gate, Creative Destruction Lab, Techstars and Activate, further validating the program’s role in accelerating С�� startups toward commercial success.

2026 Ascent Cohort

Agami Zero

Agami Zero Inc. develops hydrogen-powered, off-grid EV fast charging and clean power systems for grid-constrained and remote locations. Leveraging С��-licensed electrolysis technology, Agami Zero enables reliable EV charging and energy access without requiring utility upgrades, using cost-effective green hydrogen. Visit the Agami Zero Website

Team Members: Jafar Makrani, Co-Founder, CEO, jafar.makrani@agamizero.com*; Lyle Antieau, Co-Founder, CTO

Industry Applications: Environment and Sustainability, Cleantech, Hardware and Instrumentation

Arkana Therapeutics

Arkana Therapeutics leverages animals with extreme physiology to discover novel therapeutic molecules and drug targets.

Team Members: Jack Gugel, Co-Founder, CEO, jack@arkanatx.com*; Thomas Martin, Co-Founder, CSO; Jonathan Long (Stanford Medicine), Co-Founder, Scientific Advisor; Leslie Leinwand (С�� Boulder Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, BioFrontiers Institute), Scientific Advisor

Industry Applications: Biotech

BioStamp

BioStamp synthesizes DNA barcodes for engineered microorganisms, enabling biological intellectual property protection, compliance and high-fidelity identification. BioStamp's technology reduces detection false positives and collision probability through deterministic sequences, improving upon core limitations of random barcoding.

Team Members: John Docter (С�� Boulder Environmental Engineering Program), Co-Founder, CEO, john.docter@colorado.edu*; Cresten Mansfeldt (С�� Boulder Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering), Co-Founder, CSO

Industry Applications: Environment and Sustainability, Biotech, Genomics, Research and Exploration

BoBoRobo

BoBoRobo (Boulder-Born Robotics) automates the design, validation and deployment of industrial robotic workcells from a simple English prompt, cutting integration costs by 50% and time-to-live from six months to 10 days. Visit the BoBoRobo Website

Team Members: Alessandro Roncone (С�� Boulder Computer Science), Co-Founder, CEO; Anuj Pasricha (Alum: С�� Boulder Computer Science), Co-Founder, CTO, anuj.pasricha@colorado.edu*

Industry Applications: Robotics

Enlixa Bio

Enlixa Bio helps biopharma precisely drug the “undruggable” world of transcription by turning complex transcriptional machinery into actionable, tractable targets.

Team Members: Nik Chopra (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, CEO, chopranik@gmail.com*; Elie Maksoud (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, CTO

Industry Applications: Biotech, Genomics, Diagnostics

Flari Tech

Flari Tech Inc. is building a breath analysis platform powered by the 2005 Nobel Prize-winning optical frequency comb technology, based on cutting-edge innovations from Jun Ye's lab at JILA. Flari Tech aims to provide affordable, accessible disease detection solutions by revolutionizing breath diagnostics with quantum sensing. Visit the Flari Tech Website

Team Member: Eva Yao, Founder, CEO, info@flaritech.com*

Industry Applications: Medical Devices, Diagnostics

FlowPoint Bio

FlowPoint Bio is redefining cell engineering with its high-viability, continuous-flow microfluidic platform that enables delivery of gene-editing payloads directly into the nucleus, regardless of cell type or payload size. Visit the FlowPoint Bio Website

Team Members: Vineet Erasala, Co-Founder, CEO, vineet@flowpoint.bio*; Xiaoyun Ding (С�� Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering), Co-Founder, Scientific Advisor

Industry Applications: Biotech, Manufacturing

iMembrane Therapeutics

iMembrane Therapeutics develops AI-designed miniproteins that overcome limitations of conventional biologics. The iMembrane Therapeutics platform enables stable, tunable and precisely dosed cytokine modulators for treating severe inflammatory diseases such as sepsis.

Team Members: Jingshi Shen, Co-Founder, CSO; Suzhao Li, sli@imembranetherapeutics.com*, Co-Founder, CEO; Charles Dinarello, Advisor

Industry Applications: Therapeutics

LeTau Robotics

LeTau Robotics develops AI foundation models to teach robots human-like dexterity with 100x less training data. LeTau Robotics enables rapid deployment (hours vs. months) for complex manipulation across manufacturing, logistics and labs—at a fraction of traditional costs.

Team Members: Zhengxiong Li (С�� Denver Computer Science and Engineering), CEO, Co-Founder, zhengxiong.li@ucdenver.edu*; Lingfeng Tao, Co-Founder, Advisor; Xinmin Fang (Student: С�� Denver Engineering, Design and Computing), Co-Founder, Advisor; Fenglong Ma, Co-Founder, CTO

Industry Applications: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, Robotics

PEGI LLC

Peroxide Enhanced Germicidal Irradiation (PEGI) rapidly inactivates microbes, allergens and volatile organic compounds in HVAC systems, keeping coils clean between seasonal maintenance. PEGI boosts energy efficiency, extends system life, improves indoor air quality, and is easily retrofitted into existing commercial and residential systems.

Team Members: Emma Biesiada (С�� Boulder Aerobiology and Disinfection Lab), Founder, CTO, emmalee.biesiada@gmail.com*; Mark Hernandez (С�� Boulder Environmental Engineering Program), Advisor

Industry Applications: Environment and Sustainability, Cleantech, Medical Devices

Renovare Therapeutics

Renovare Therapeutics Inc. is developing regenerative therapeutics for osteoarthritis (OA). The Renovare Therapeutics portfolio of products can be customized to meet OA patients where they are, enabled through technologies including innovative biomaterials, gene therapies and controlled delivery of drugs and biologics that regenerate joint tissues.

Team Members: Stephanie Bryant (С�� Boulder Chemical and Biological Engineering), Founder; Liz Scott, Fractional-CEO, elizabeth.scott-2@colorado.edu*; Karin Payne, Co-Principal Investigator (PI); Laurie Goodrich, Co-PI; Kelly Santagelo, Senior Investigator; Mike Zuscik, Co-PI

Industry Applications: Advanced Materials, Biotech, Therapeutics

RipaLith

RipaLith is based on the research by Mija Hubler (С�� Boulder Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering), an expert in concrete degradation and structural performance. RipaLith is developing a concrete preservation solution that can be applied to existing concrete infrastructure to repair cracks—extending lifespan without costly replacement.

Team Members: Mija Hubler (С�� Boulder Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering), Co-Founder, Engineering Advisor; Elena Forchielli (Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, CEO, elena.forchielli@colorado.edu*; Paolo Forchielli, Co-Founder, COO;

Industry Applications: Advanced Materials, Construction, Biotech

NITRO mBMAT

A collaboration between С�� Boulder, AMC and Colorado State University, developing therapeutics to regenerate cartilage and bone in osteoarthritis. Founded by Stephanie Bryant, principal investigator (PI), they have $40 million in non-dilutive funding from ARPA-H and are raising funds to support IND-enabling studies and commercial plans.

Team Members: Liz Scott, CEO, elizabeth.scott-2@colorado.edu*; Stephanie Bryant (С�� Boulder Chemical and Biological Engineering), Founder, CSO; Karin Payne, Co-Principal Investigator; Kelly Santangelo, Senior Investigator

Industry Applications: Biotech, Therapeutics

SureFire

SureFire employs breakthrough LLM and quantum information techniques to more quickly and accurately detect wildfire ignitions from existing thermal camera images. SureFire is launching solutions for fire detection and risk management for customers such as fire agencies, power utilities, insurance companies, and sensor vendors.

Team Members: Gary Robert Dolsen (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, CEO, garydolsen@gmail.com*; Longji Cui (С�� Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering), Co-Founder, CSO, Principal Investigator (PI); Kyle Kuczun, Co-Founder, CTO, CPO;

Industry Applications: Environment and Sustainability, Sensors, Software

Synteric Robotics

Synteric Robotics builds small, autonomous insect-inspired inspection robots designed to navigate tight, hazardous environments. Our technology combines novel micromechanics, sensing and autonomy to inspect infrastructure humans can’t easily reach.

Team Members: Rob Carpenter (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Founder, rob@frostrivercapital.com*

Industry Applications: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, Robotics

VeriLocal

VeriLocal Inc. is an AI platform that filters out non-local social media noise during fast-moving events. Using machine learning to identify geographically authentic content, it delivers real-time, high-signal local insight for crisis response, utilities, insurance, media and other decision-makers. Visit the VeriLocal Website

Team Members: Todd McGuire (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, CEO, todd@verilocal.ai*; Lise St. Denis (Earth Lab), Co-Founder, CSO

Industry Applications: Information Technology, Software, Smart Cities

VersaMesh

VersaMesh develops software-designed, 3D-printed impact-absorbing metamaterials that outperform traditional foams. Our precisely tuned materials protect against repetitive low-energy hits and high-impact forces, enabling safer, customizable protection for helmets and other impact-critical applications.

Team Members: Teri Ham (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, CEO, hamteri@gmail.com*; Renee Sanchez (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, COO; Sloan Le, CTO

Industry Applications: Advanced Materials, Software, Additive Manufacturing

YarraBio

Yarrabio develops technologies for cancer research, drug discovery and clinical oncology.

Team Members: Savanh Chantha-Phavong (С�� Boulder Embark Startup Founder), Co-Founder, CEO, CSO, savanh.c@yarrabio.com*; Corey Neu, Co-Founder, Scientific Advisor, Principal Investigator (PI)

Industry Applications: Biotech

*Team's primary point of contact for inquiries.

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Destination Startup announces startups across the region to present at annual showcase

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 23:33:20 +0000

Destination Startup announces startups across the region to present at annual showcase Daniel Corbin … Thu, 01/29/2026 - 16:33

Destination Startup brings groundbreaking startups built on novel discoveries from top national labs and universities together with investors from throughout North America to catalyze real-world impact. This showcase demonstrates a powerful way to invest in and get funding for innovative research and translate it into impactful business ventures.

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Thermonat makes nanoscale thermal prediction practical for real-world chip design

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 19:55:55 +0000

Thermonat makes nanoscale thermal prediction practical for real-world chip design Daniel Corbin … Tue, 01/20/2026 - 12:55

DARPA—One research team, led by the University of Colorado Boulder, formed a startup, AtomTCAD Inc., to bring its high-accuracy thermal modeling tools directly to semiconductor designers. The newly formed company has received funding from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade, and all four members of AtomTCAD’s research team received fellowships through С�� Boulder’s Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator.

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Think Bioscience raises $55M in oversubscribed Series A

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:55:27 +0000

Think Bioscience raises $55M in oversubscribed Series A Daniel Corbin … Tue, 01/20/2026 - 10:55

PR Newswire—Think Bioscience, a С�� Boulder biotechnology spinout focused on unlocking elusive drug targets, has raised $55M in an oversubscribed Series A. Returning investors include AV8 Ventures, С�� Innovations and Buff Gold Ventures.

The University of Colorado Connection

Think Bioscience is a Boulder-based synthetic biology company with strong roots at С�� Boulder. The company was spun out of Jerome Fox's lab (С�� Boulder Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and BioFrontiers Institute), where its foundational technology, leveraging microbial systems to discover small-molecule drugs for previously “undruggable” targets, was developed. Its lead programs, including inhibitors of PTP1B, emerged directly from this academic research.

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Tech company makes breakthrough discovery that could boost EV performance

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 17:26:36 +0000

Tech company makes breakthrough discovery that could boost EV performance Daniel Corbin … Sat, 01/10/2026 - 10:26

The Cool Down—Electric vehicles are getting closer to overcoming some of their biggest challenges, and a new battery breakthrough could play a major role in making EVs more practical and appealing for drivers. Porsche-backed Group14 Technologies and New York-based Sionic Energy, a С�� Boulder spinout, recently announced a major breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology that could significantly improve EV performance.

More at The Cool Down More from Sionic Energy

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С�� Boulder pre-seed investment fuels cancer ‘moonshot’ spinout Illumen Therapeutics

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 21:18:56 +0000

С�� Boulder pre-seed investment fuels cancer ‘moonshot’ spinout Illumen Therapeutics Daniel Corbin … Tue, 01/06/2026 - 14:18

Heather Hansen

In an ongoing effort to bridge a pervasive investment gap in innovation funding, the University of Colorado Boulder has awarded pre-seed funding to Illumen Therapeutics, developing cancer treatments based on discoveries from startup co-founder Roy Parker’s lab at С�� Boulder.

Venture Partners at С�� Boulder recently created a pre-seed investment mechanism to help bridge the so-called “valley of death” between research and commercialization, where even high-potential start-ups can sometimes get lost, said Bryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships. “When somebody creates an innovation with broad potential to be translated out into a new venture, there is now funding to support the earliest stages of that new company,” said Rees. “This was a missing piece.”

The point of the pre-seed funding is “to bridge that gap between promise and follow-on investments,” he said. “We are building upon the brilliance of our faculty; they’re the ones who are saying, ‘I am trying to solve the hardest problems in the world’.”

What we do for university innovators

Venture Partners helps researchers, inventors and creators at С�� take their groundbreaking discoveries every step from intellectual property (IP) management to market launch.

Learn More

Pre-seed investments are made in promising companies translating С�� Boulder innovations through С�� Boulder License Equity Holdings (С��BLEH), a nonprofit entity separate from the university but run in partnership with it. Recognizing that a compelling startup could spin out from particular research or innovation is good for the university, researchers and society at-large, said Rees. “This is where the university really is stepping into opportunity and even responsibility to ensure that the products of its research are having that real-world impact,” he said. “This is why the pre-seed investment is so critical.”

The fund is intended to help energized, high-potential startups as they prepare for outside investment, a critical moment on their path to commercialization, said Hannah Nelson, associate director of licensing at Venture Partners. “Pre-seed funding gets placed in companies where we see momentum, an exciting commercial opportunity and a motivated founder, and I think that Illumen Therapeutics has shown all three of those things,” she said. “Another piece of what prioritizes companies for the pre-seed funding is that they’re already at that stage of development where we feel like this funding can unlock follow-on funds to get them to their next big inflection point.”

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

Arming the ‘guardian of the genome’

Illumen Therapeutics is focused on a cancer treatment ‘moonshot’ that pursues the long-sought ‘holy grail’ of drug development—but with an entirely new approach. That elusive goal revolves around a tumor suppressor gene called p53, dubbed the ‘guardian of the genome’ because it prevents damaged cells from multiplying, which blocks the formation and growth of tumors linked to a wide range of cancers.

“P53 is a key protein mutated in 85 to 95 percent of human cancers, and its loss allows cells to grow in an uncontrolled way,” explained Roy Parker, company co-founder, director of the BioFrontiers Institute and Cech-Leinwand Endowed Chair of С�� Boulder Biochemistry. “If you could restore p53 function, the hope is that would actually cause the tumors to either die or grow less.”

For several decades, popular strategies to target p53 have focused on blocking gene-inhibiting proteins. “There has been literally billions of dollars spent on this idea trying to target these inhibitors of p53,” said Parker, but all attempts have failed due to unexpected consequences like increased toxicity and a feedback loop that further suppresses p53. “The overall goal of increasing functional p53 is still a really important idea, and we just need ways to do that,” he said.

The leading-edge science behind Illumen Therapeutics, which emerged from the Parker Lab several years ago (including the work of postdoc fellow Siddharth Shukla), is based on a novel strategy to target PARN, an enzyme that affects p53. Inhibiting PARN to enhance functional p53 could potentially treat nearly half of all human tumors in aggressive cancers with limited therapeutic options like colorectal, triple-negative breast, pancreatic and others.“ That seems to be working, so that’s kind of proof of principle that if you could help p53, it might be really useful,” said Parker.

Parker envisions that any new therapeutic developed by Illumen will be used in combination with others to improve their effectiveness and could target subclasses of tumors that function differently than their broader tumor type. “A drug which even treats one subtype of cancer is still really important,” he said. “I’d be thrilled if we could reach that far.”

“We think it’s the key”

Despite the originality of the approach, the work was shelved until 2023, when Nelson connected with Bob Blomquist, a Boulder-based serial entrepreneur with biosciences expertise, who was looking for ideas with solid commercialization potential. One of the technologies Nelson thought might be a good fit was the PARN-p53 research from Parker’s lab.

Right away, Blomquist knew he wanted to learn more.

“When I met Roy and saw his data, it was like lights and sirens were going off,” he said. “That phenomenal discovery made by Roy’s lab may mean we can restore functional p53–that holy grail of cancer drug development. We think it’s the key.”

Blomquist, a trained geneticist, has spent decades of his business career working in oncology drug discovery, development and commercialization, and the more he dug into the technology, talking with experts, the more promising the innovation seemed. “I reached out to experts at MD Anderson [Cancer Center] and С�� Anschutz, and asked, ‘What do you think about this therapeutic strategy?’ And their eyes popped open, and their response was, ‘This could be the breakthrough we’ve been dreaming of’.”

Investor and Partnership Opportunities

Venture Partners seeks entrepreneurs to start new companies, connects investors with high-potential ventures and facilitates collaborations with companies seeking to invest in research or license technologies from the university.

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Blomquist co-founded Illumen in 2024 and credits both Venture Partners and Parker for helping build the strong team that’s now moving Illumen’s work forward. “The key role Venture Partners plays is so different than other institutions,” said Blomquist. “They really, truly work as a partner, helping to understand the science, how to connect with potential investors, and on and on. It’s a unique, strong and valuable partnership.”

The pre-seed funding is critical to helping Illumen reach its next inflection point, said Blomquist. “Having that investment got us started to de-risk the project, to show that this is a valid target and to duplicate the data, while we work on the rest of the financial raise,” he said

Rees also believes the investment is a solid one. “We have worked closely with the Parker Lab and with Bob for over a year, so we have a certain level of insight into the magnitude of the clinical impact, the strength of the underlying research and the compelling business case here in order to make the investment,” he said. “At the same time, that investment is absolutely necessary to hit those milestones and generate follow-on investor and partner interest.”

The passion behind Illumen is also personal for Blomquist, who lost his wife to triple-negative breast cancer in 2008. “This is why I get up in the morning, to make a difference in people’s lives. I can’t help my late wife, but what if we can help others? What if by developing a treatment with Roy’s technology we could turn treating cancer into a chronic illness? So that’s why I’m motivated to do something,” he said. “We’re all trying to make a difference.”

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In an ongoing effort to bridge a pervasive investment gap in innovation funding, the University of Colorado Boulder has awarded pre-seed funding to Illumen Therapeutics, developing cancer treatments based on discoveries from startup co-founder Roy Parker’s lab at С�� Boulder.

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Ventures putting people first at С�� Boulder

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 19:20:14 +0000

Ventures putting people first at С�� Boulder Daniel Corbin … Tue, 12/16/2025 - 12:20

Heather Hansen

The University of Colorado Boulder actively incubates and supports nonprofit and for-profit ventures with broad societal impact, from far-reaching educational and wellness tools to vaccine accessibility and water security.

Are you faculty in the arts, humanities or social sciences?

С�� Boulder's Creative Futures Fellowship supports faculty in the arts, humanities and social sciences with grants up to $25,000 to turn new ideas and creative work into impact.

Learn More

Kathy Perkins (С�� Boulder Physics Education Research) and colleagues have been successfully broadening the reach of С�� Boulder’s PhET Interactive Simulations for over two decades. In that time, she’s fielded accolades from around the world on the game-changing impacts the simulations have had on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students and teachers.

But one note stands out, from a teacher in an under-resourced school in Texas. She couldn’t buy the items she wanted to teach a course on electrical circuits and was grateful for PhET’s free and stimulating online simulations. “We can’t buy the batteries, lightbulbs and wires to bring these lessons to life for students, so you don’t know how much [PhET] means to us,” she said. Reflecting on the note, PhET director Perkins said, “It’s really energizing and touching to know our work has that level of impact.”

PhET, which originally stood for “Physics Education Technology,” continues to grow and now boasts over 170 open-access simulations in math, science and statistics. It has what Perkins calls “the largest global footprint of any outreach project at С�� Boulder.”

Since Nobel laureate Carl Wieman (С�� Boulder Physics) launched the project in 2002 with the hope of boosting scientific exploration at all levels, users have run over 1.7 billion online simulations, and many more offline.

When using simulations in his lectures, Wieman noticed how engaged his audience was and how memorable the lessons were. “I was struck by the fact they were quite effective for very different audiences. I could use the same simulations talking to a bunch of physics professors as I could talking to middle schoolers,” he said. “I knew enough about education to know that was just unheard of, that it was unprecedented to have something that could reach so widely.”

The influential project has expanded and been updated within the university to maximize its impact—an unusual setup, according to Bryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships. “If the university was solely focused on monetizing that tool, there’s no doubt the accessibility wouldn’t be what it is today,” he said. “When you think about what PhET’s done for K-12 education and STEM, the impact has been broad-reaching, lining up with a core value and educational goal of the university.” Despite knowing how impactful simulations can be, said Wieman, “[PhET’s] gone so far beyond my expectations.”

“Ensuring maximum social impact”

VitriVax Inc.

Engineering innovative solutions to maximize global accessibility and utility of human vaccines—vaccines that save lives and protect our world from preventable disease.

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PhET is just one example of many innovations emerging from С�� Boulder that prioritize social good. With its supportive innovation ecosystem, the university fosters nonprofit and for-profit ventures across multiple departments and programs with a focus on positively influencing society. Other socially conscious ventures the university has incubated and supported in recent years include several focused on vaccine technology, mental health, clean water and carbon credits, and planetary science. “Economic development impacts are important, but we also can and do prioritize social impact,” said Rees, who also leads Venture Partners at С�� Boulder, the campus' commercialization arm.

VitriVax, co-founded a decade ago by Robert Garcea (С�� Boulder Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) and Ted Randolph (С�� Boulder Chemical and Biological Engineering), is a mission-driven biotechnology company that developed a new way to stabilize and deliver vaccines.

The one-shot, thermo-stable (resistant to heat and not requiring refrigeration) system maximizes effectiveness and global accessibility to critical vaccines, preventing disease and saving lives.

That technology was born of a chance conversation in the corridor of С�� Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute, according to Garcea, whose interest in developing innovative vaccines came from years devoted to studying viruses and caring for patients. From there, Garcea, Randolph and colleagues worked tirelessly to improve the vaccine delivery system. “One of the aims of BioFrontiers is to get the technology out of the laboratories and into use,” he said. “This is a good example of how that can happen. We’ve gone basically from the bench to somebody’s arm.”

Garcea credits the university with supporting both their research and spinout efforts. Helping the specially designed vaccines reach those most in need required an atypical licensing model, according to Rees. “The university came up with a creative licensing structure where we’re essentially waiving our royalties that we would normally charge the company for distribution of the product in countries below a certain wealth index,” he said.

Evan Thomas and doctoral student Whitney Knopp work together in the Mortenson Center lab with Virridy's "Lume" device for detecting water contamination (photo courtesy of the Mortenson Center).

With a similar desire to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people, Evan Thomas (С�� Boulder Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering) founded Virridy, a company focused on water security and environmental resilience. The company invented and deploys satellite-linked sensors on water pumps in East Africa to monitor them remotely—greatly improving access to clean drinking water. That’s also critical to the region’s crops and livestock, and it reduces the carbon-intensive process of burning wood or fossil fuels to purify drinking water.

“Our most important accomplishment is that over five million people have received clean water for over 10 years. So about 50-million-person years of clean water because of the methodologies that our team developed starting over 15 years ago,” said Thomas, now director of the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience.

“We’re very proud of that.” Virridy and the Mortensen Center are currently on track to support another five million people with clean water in East Africa by 2030, he said.

That clean water also comes with a carbon-reduction twist, which is critical as climate change intensifies pressure on water systems worldwide. In addition to commercializing some of its water monitoring technologies, Virridy is also bringing to market some of the Mortensen Center’s carbon credit business models, which generate revenue to fund clean water projects by reducing emissions from boiling water. “About 45 million carbon credits have been issued since 2010, using our methodology,” said Thomas.

Impactful programs, built on science and expertise

Students hear a presentation at an installation of Science on a Sphere® (SOS) developed at NOAA and CIRES (photo courtesy of SOS).

Other university efforts prioritizing social good include Science on a Sphere® (SOS), a six-foot diameter globe onto which planetary data is projected. The crowd-pleasing educational tool for all ages was developed at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in collaboration with CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences) nearly two decades ago. “It was originally created by a scientist for scientists, and they quickly realized that it was great for outreach, and so that shifted our focus,” said Beth Russell, SOS senior program coordinator at CIRES’ Center for Education, Engagement and Evaluation.

Since its debut at С�� Boulder's Fiske Planetarium, SOS is now installed in over 200 museums, universities, government facilities and private companies with an annual audience of over 67 million people. SOS brings to life over 600 data sets with animations of often-complex environmental processes, including climate change.

“Climate can be a really hard topic to engage the public in, but being able to show climate models and how things are changing, and looking at different scenarios playing out over time has been really useful,” said Russell. “Our climate models are really impactful.”

When people first see SOS in action, said Russell, “Awe is the main reaction. We find that with a captivated audience, we really can teach someone more than with just a PowerPoint presentation on the same data sets.” In addition to its room-sized display, which can’t fit in the average classroom, researchers have developed a flat screen version called SOS Explorer, available as a desktop application and a free mobile app, which has already been downloaded over 25,000 times.

When Russell joined the SOS team 18 years ago, the project seemed like a fun, short-term one. “I never thought that it was going to go and go, and it’s still expanding and growing,” she said. “We’re always pushing to inform more people. We just want everyone to be showing this scientifically accurate content out in the world.”

That mission is also critical to the impactful programs being developed at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, according to its director, Sona Dimidjian. “A key part of the Crown Institute research commitment is to collaboratively design and study programs that have a strong scientific evidence base and have the potential for real-world impact in people’s lives,” she said.

The Crown Institute’s work is built on multiple collaborations, both with the deep expertise of С�� Boulder researchers and with the communities for whom the research is designed, said Dimidjian, who is also a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

“It’s a different way of doing research, and we think that’s a big part of the impact that we’ve had in the first five years, reaching many thousands of kids and young people, educators and schools and families.” According to Dimidjian, institute programming so far has reached over 30,000 kids and young people, 2,000 educators and 5,000 parents and family members.

An interactive exhibit of InsideU (photo courtesy of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute).

Three of its major initiatives revolve around emotional learning and regulation. InsideU is a learning tool aimed at improving mental and emotional wellness, inspired by Disney/Pixar’s characters from the animated film Inside Out and developed with their digital design experts. The Crown Institute officially launched their collaboration with Pixar Animation Studios in 2020 alongside child and clinical psychologists, the mental health team at Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, and youth participants in its clubs. On the benefits of InsideU, one child remarked, “When you’re sad, you can express your feelings…and it’s better to express your feelings because then people know what’s happening and then when you say it, they can help you every day and to go through it together.”

Another online program, Mindful Mood Balance for Moms, is based on learning and employing mindfulness to reduce prenatal and postpartum depression, which occurs in 20 percent of women. It was adapted from the Mindful Mood Balance program, where Dimidjian and colleagues studied several hundred adults in partnership with Kaiser Permanente. "We found that people who participated in this mindful mood balance program online relative to usual care had significant reductions in their residual depression symptoms,” said Dimidjian. The Crown Institute is now adapting that program for college students with histories of depression and suicidal ideation.

A third initiative, “Compassion and Dignity for Educators,” has focused successfully on how developing the skills of compassion for self and others can protect the passion that brought K-12 educators to their profession while reducing stress and burnout. Dimidjian said the response to the program has been extremely positive. After taking the course, one elementary school teacher commented, “…I am less reactive, I have strategies to help bring me back to the present moment, there is more time spent reflecting on and considering the perspective of others, I am more patient… I reflect on gratitude each day, my heart feels more open to the world and the beauty that is within it.” The institute now hopes to expand that model to K-12 educators in Colorado and higher education.

The Crown Institute has worked with Venture Partners to make their programs free, scalable and widely accessible, said Dimidjian. “Part of what we can do together is expand the boundary of what it means to be a researcher at С�� Boulder, which means that one’s work doesn't have to stop at publishing papers or speaking to one's academic colleagues,” she said. “Part of the research enterprise is also working collaboratively, envisioning how the kinds of innovations that are discovered within one’s academic research can live more fully and more stably in the world.”

She added, “С�� Boulder brings a strong spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, which motivates us. We can powerfully enact those principles to build a future that is brighter than our current reality. And that ambition has always been at the heart of the scientific and scholarly enterprise.”

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Students gathered around an installation of Science on a Sphere® (SOS) developed at NOAA and CIRES (photo courtesy of SOS).

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