Thanks to a recent generous grant to the University of Utah Center for Medical Innovation from the Sorenson Foundation, U students like Nate Rhodes and his colleagues at Veritas Medical LLC will be able to continue to follow through on their ideas to make the world a better place. The Sorenson grant—$975,000, amounting to $325,000 a year over three years—will allow the center to build on its existing programs and create a basic prototype facility, form a United States Federal Drug Administration regulatory advisory program, and provide additional seed grant funding to students like Nate.
As a bioengineering student, Nate seized an opportunity to improve medicine by developing a new type of catheter that would be less prone to infections. Inspired by his aunt, a primary care nurse who often told him stories about catheters that clogged and subsequently caused infections, he was determined to find a way to solve the problem.
With the help of student colleagues, Nate created a catheter that emits visible light, which kills bacteria and prevents infections. From there, the students created a startup company, Veritas Medical LLC, to develop the LIGHT LINE Catheter™. The team has filed a utility patent on their technology and is in the process of completing laboratory testing and clinical trials.
Along the way, the Veritas team has garnered national attention, including a first place finish and a $75,000 prize at the International Business Model Competition, hosted by Brigham Young University last spring, and more recently, last November, second place and a $12,500 prize at the 2014 Graduate Winner Collegiate Inventors Competition held in Washington, D.C. The group also won impressive honors at the University of Utah Bench-2-Bedside competition last spring—exposure that brought top-level chief operating officers knocking to invest in the students’ product, helping them to secure jobs after graduation.
The LIGHT LINE Catheter™ and the creation of Veritas Medical LLC is just one of the great projects coming from the Center for Medical Innovation, a collaborative effort between the U’s Health Sciences Center, David Eccles School of Business, College of Engineering, and the Technology Venture Development Program. The different entities work together in a one-stop-shop environment to combine formal education programs and faculty-student project development with support, facilitation of device development, and commercialization.
“The Sorensen grant is indicative of the success the University has had in merging disciplines such as engineering, medicine, and business into a unique entrepreneurship program for students,” says John Langell, the center’s executive director. “We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, but we know that it’s only the beginning of what we will accomplish in the future with our students, faculty, and other disciplines working together to achieve new ideas.”
