Growing volume of UB research is finding its way into startup companies

At UB, more than 30 faculty-founded startups have collectively raised more than $213 million in grants, investment and licensing revenue in the last two decades — evidence that a growing share of UB research is making the leap from discovery to company.

Since the start of 2025, nine spinouts built on UB research have collectively secured nearly $16 million in new grants, private investment and licensing. The awards have come from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Army, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and New York State innovation programs — including Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR).

A sampling of the work underway gives a sense of the range: low-cost blood tests for unruptured brain aneurysms, surgical artificial intelligence trained on operating-room images, smartphone hearing assessments for older adults at risk of cognitive decline, catalysts that convert nitrogen oxides into ammonia and battery technologies built for defense applications.

Their founders teach across the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Connecting these efforts is UB’s Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships (BEP), the university’s central commercialization team and a key driver of Buffalo’s startup ecosystem. BEP has made faculty-founded spinouts a core focus — building programs and partnerships around the particular demands of research-based “deep tech” companies.

“A lot of what’s happening in UB labs is exactly the kind of foundational science that deep tech companies are built on,” says Per Stromhaug, senior associate vice president for economic development. “Our job is to make sure the faculty who want to build those companies have the right people and resources alongside them to position them to succeed.”

The momentum reflects a larger research enterprise at UB, which reports $571 million in annual research spending, making it the No. 1 public university in New York State for research activity — context that helps explain why more faculty discoveries are moving from lab research into startup companies.

BEP sits at the point where that research base begins to move toward commercial application and real-world impact. It also helps de-risk early-stage technologies by managing UB’s technology transfer to protect intellectual property and by helping researchers test market need and commercial potential through programs such as NSF I-Corps.

From there, BEP helps faculty founders move promising work toward commercialization. That can mean pairing them with experienced business partners, routing new spinouts into BEP’s incubators at Baird Research Park and the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences (CBLS) and providing critical research and development funding. BEP-supported funding opportunities include grants from the Buffalo Innovation Accelerator Fund (BIAF), CBLS, Center for Advanced Technology in Big Data and Health Sciences (UB CAT) and Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics (CMI).

In some cases, these programs provide proof-of-concept and validation funding that helps turn modest local support into a much larger federal grant.

“A faculty founder begins with a critical finding in the form of the breakthrough science,” says Olga Petrova, director of innovation initiatives at BEP. “What they need is someone alongside them who can help with everything the science does not teach you: finding customers, structuring the company, navigating fundraising. That commercialization expertise needs to be in place early, when the first decisions can shape the company for years.”

In many cases, support begins well before a company is legally incorporated. Many faculty entrepreneurs work directly with Petrova or her colleagues on grant strategy, commercialization planning or translational research.

Either way, BEP is engaged earlier and more deliberately with faculty and spinouts than in years past — at the stage when decisions about licensing, funding strategy and team building can shape a spinout’s trajectory for years.

A significant cluster of UB spinouts sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence and health, reflecting the university’s strengths in data science, engineering and medicine.

QAS.AI, co-founded by Ciprian Ionita, associate professor of biomedical engineering and co-director of the Engineering Division at the Canon Stroke & Vascular Research Center, is developing AI for surgical optimization — software designed to help neurosurgeons make better intraoperative decisions.

Last year, QAS.AI was one of just two international winners — alongside the Mayo Clinic — of the first-ever $100,000 Johnson & Johnson Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery QuickFire Challenge. The company also completed a nearly $1 million NSF SBIR Phase II award in fall 2025 to advance its AI platform for real-time decision support during image-guided neurovascular procedures. The startup won another $10,000 in services at the NY BIO Mini Pitch. 

QAS.AI is also supported by BEP’s UB CAT, with awards in five consecutive funding cycles, starting in 2021. Michael Cournyea, CEO of UBNS, the neurosurgery practice plan of UBMD Physicians’ Group, is also CEO of QAS.AI.

Auspex Medix, founded by Wenyao Xu, Carl V. Granger Endowed Chair Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and director of the UB Center on Translational AI and Digital Health, focuses on AI-powered digital health tools spanning home care and clinical settings, with application areas including rehabilitation, audiology, pediatrics, and oral health. Among them are assistive devices for at-home stroke rehabilitation and a smartphone-based instrument designed to assess hearing in older adults with Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive decline, patients who might otherwise never make it to an audiologist.

The company secured $352,550 in 2025, including a $252,550 NIH award and match funding through BEP’s UB CAT and CBLS. In 2026, the company was awarded an NIH-funded SBIR Phase I award of $305,923. It operates out of BEP’s Baird incubator.

Empath Medical Innovations, led by Andrew Talal, professor of medicine in the Jacobs School, is commercializing a digital health-based intervention to diagnose and treat hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection through facilitated telemedicine in people receiving opioid use disorder treatment. The study builds on seven years of clinical validation involving more than 600 patients across 12 sites; it found a 90% HCV cure rate in the facilitated telemedicine arm, compared with 39% in usual care. In the past year, the company received a $100,000 BIAF grant and $10,000 as a first-place winner through the NY BIO Mini Pitch. It is also a portfolio company in BEP’s Cultivator — an accelerator supporting early-stage startups — that is investing $100,000 in the company in 2026.

Another group of spinouts is focused on drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tools that come out of UB research labs and are now moving toward clinical use.

The largest is POP Biotechnologies (POP BIO), a life sciences company led by Jonathan Lovell, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor of biomedical engineering, a joint department of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Jacobs School. The company is built around a novel platform with applications across infectious disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Since its inception, POP BIO has brought in nearly $25 million in total grant and investment funding. That includes two CEPI awards — a $9.7 million grant and a $1.5 million grant announced since summer 2025 — as well as a $2.5 million NIH National Institute on Aging STTR Phase II award last fall. The company is a tenant at BEP’s Baird incubator and has been supported by UB CAT since 2019, with nearly $460,000 in research and development funding that has helped position the company for larger grants and vaccine-development partnerships.

Neurovascular Diagnostics is developing a low-cost blood test to catch unruptured brain aneurysms before they burst. In 2025, the company secured more than $870,000 in new funding, including a $700,000 NSF SBIR Phase I award and a $35,000 grant from the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. In addition, two UB CAT projects totaling $136,000 were awarded last year. The startup is also in the third year of a $2.9 million NIH SBIR Phase II award.

Its founders are tied to UB: CEO Vincent Tutino, a research assistant professor in neurosurgery and pathology; Hui Meng, a SUNY Distinguished Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; and Kenneth Snyder, an associate professor of neurosurgery, radiology and neurology. Chief Scientific Officer Kerry Poppenberg is a UB alum and neurosurgery research assistant.

Ferric Contrast is advancing a new class of medical imaging contrast agents developed in the lab of Janet Morrow, a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry. In mid-2025, the company was awarded $305,253 through an NIH grant, which will support preclinical work through a partnership with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Ferric Contrast, led by CEO Bradford La Salle out of BEP’s Baird incubator, also received a $45,000 CMI FIAR award to advance applied research with commercial potential for New York manufacturers. UB CAT and CBLS also supported the startup with a combined $61,000 in 2025.

A third cluster of spinouts is working outside the health space — in areas such as energy, robotics and industrial technologies that align with state and federal investments in advanced manufacturing and semiconductors.

Aerammonia Inc. (formerly PlasmaChem Solutions), led by Y. Chris Li, an assistant professor of chemistry, is developing a plasma-based reactor to convert atmospheric nitrogen and water into ammonia, an essential fertilizer for global food security and a key chemical in industrial manufacturing, mining, chemical production and defense. Over the past year, the company secured more than $450,000: a $305,000 NSF STTR Phase I award and a $100,000 NYSTAR Innovation Matching Grant.

The startup was also awarded a $50,000 CMI FIAR project in 2025 and received a $50,000 Buffalo Seed Accelerator Fund investment in 2026. The company is a tenant at BEP’s Baird incubator.

IBEX Materials, co-founded by Mark Swihart, SUNY Distinguished Professor of chemical and biological engineering, his former PhD student Parham Rohani, and current PhD student Adam Raszewski, is advancing battery materials innovation. In 2025, the company received a $250,000 U.S. Army SBIR Phase I award. In 2026, IBEX was awarded a $50,000 voucher through the NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub’s Commercialization and Collaboration Center (C3) Tech Hub Resources & Innovation Vouchers for Enterprises (NY THRIVE) program.

TouchTronix Robotics, led by Jun Liu, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is advancing sensing technologies for robotic actions and human-robot interaction. Over the past year, the company secured $600,000 in pre-seed investments and is currently a tenant at BEP’s Baird incubator.

Taken together, the portfolio reveals some clear patterns. Most are tenants at Baird or CBLS, and programs such as BEP’s UB CAT, CMI FIAR and Tech Hub vouchers have repeatedly served as bridges to federal grant eligibility — non-dilutive capital that helps deep tech spinouts reach their next milestone without giving up equity prematurely.

Repeat backing from NIH, NSF and New York State points to the caliber of the underlying research.

Faculty inventors at UB are also disclosing new technologies at a notable pace. One sign of growing commercial interest across campus is the increasing number of faculty inventors who are also expressing interest in startup formation alongside more traditional licensing paths.

“The goal is for more of those ideas to find the path that fits them best,” says McKenna Geiger, technology assessment specialist with BEP’s IP Management and Licensing group. “For some, that will be licensing. For others, it will be startup formation. But the larger aim is the same: to give strong research a better chance to reach people beyond the university.”