From Discovery to Impact

When the University at Buffalo launched the Innovation Hub in 2019, it set out to boost the number of research innovations generated in its labs and classrooms that move to the market—translating ideas into real-world applications that improve lives and help shape the future. 

Funded through a $32 million commitment from New York State, the initiative was designed to support faculty, students, researchers and entrepreneurs by providing early-stage seed funding, startup expertise, incubation and lab space, and specialized equipment. It also brought together UB and leading regional research partners—including Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Jacobs Institute and Kaleida Health—around a shared goal of transforming research breakthroughs into new companies headquartered in Western New York, which generates significant economic benefit for the region.

Since its launch, the Innovation Hub has supported more than 200 startups (including 30 UB spinouts based on university technologies) that have collectively raised more than $350 million in follow-on funding, demonstrating the impact of connecting innovative technologies with the resources and expertise needed to bring them to market.

Innovation Hub-supported companies span biotechnology, AI-enabled health care, advanced materials, energy and robotics. Among the Hub’s most notable successes is Abceutics, a UB spinout co-founded by Associate Vice President for Biotechnology Innovation Joseph Balthasar to commercialize technology that improves the safety and efficacy of antibody-drug conjugates. The company was acquired by Merck in 2024 in a deal worth up to $208 million. 

Other notable Hub-supported companies are advancing innovations at the intersection of artificial intelligence and health. QAS.AI is developing AI for surgical optimization—software designed to help neurosurgeons make better intraoperative decisions. Auspex Medix focuses on AI-powered digital health tools spanning home care and clinical settings, with application areas including rehabilitation, audiology, pediatrics and oral health. Empath Medical Innovations is commercializing a digital health-based intervention to diagnose and treat hepatitis C infection through facilitated telemedicine in people receiving opioid use disorder treatment.

Companies are making advancements outside the health sector, too: IBEX Materials is advancing next-generation battery technologies, Aerammonia is developing new approaches to ammonia production, and TouchTronix Robotics is commercializing technologies that improve human-robot interaction.

Through the Buffalo Innovation Accelerator Fund, the Innovation Hub has invested more than $2.3 million across 40 R&D awards, helping UB inventors and startup founders de-risk and validate promising technologies, attract follow-on funding and grow their companies.

Since the beginning of 2025 alone, nine UB spinouts have secured nearly $16 million in new funding from federal agencies, private investors and state innovation programs. But financial backing is only part of the story. What makes the Innovation Hub unique is the breadth and depth of professional support available, from legal services to mentor networks to market viability training. 

“From early-stage funding through the Buffalo Innovation Accelerator Fund to expert guidance, industry connections and incubation, we provide comprehensive lab-to-market support to help promising discoveries become successful companies,” says Per Stromhaug, senior associate vice president for economic development at UB.

Another part of the Innovation Hub’s success is its incubator facilities. The Incubator @ CBLS, located within the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and the Incubator @ Baird, adjacent to UB's North Campus, provide office, coworking and laboratory space, and equipment for emerging ventures. 

One UB spinout that has benefited greatly from headquartering at the Incubator @ Baird is POP BIO, developer of a novel vaccine adjuvant used to make vaccines and drug treatments more effective. With support from UB’s Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships (BEP), the company has doubled its staff and secured more than $20 million in funding.

“UB faculty are making groundbreaking scientific discoveries, particularly in medicine, with life-changing potential,” says Venu Govindaraju, senior vice president for research, innovation and economic development at UB. “The establishment of BEP and the Innovation Hub created more strategic ways to bring these technologies to market, filling a critical role in the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by creating a commercialization pathway for these innovations to fuel new companies, achieve their broadest societal impact and drive economic growth.”