First Steel Works Health Accelerator cohort announced

March 6, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

The first cohort of the 2026 Steel Works Health Accelerator are (front, left to right) Steve Salzbrenner, Tim Crane, Ronald Krueger, (back) Kirk Zeller, Ashok Puri, Shiela Fields, Beth Beam, Marcia Shade, Ed O’Leary. Not Pictured: Chris Henkenius.

OMAHA, Nebraska (March 4, 2026)—Six Nebraska-based startup companies and their founders have been selected to join the Steel Works Health Accelerator in its first cohort, officials announced today.

Members of the first cohort are:

Tim Crane & Beth Beam, RedSentrix
Ronald Krueger & Ashok Puri, Deep Health Diagnostics, LLC
Ed O’Leary, Aprendo Cardiovascular Solutions
Steve Salzbrenner & Chris Henkenius, BreezMed
Marcia Shade, Voice-IT, Inc.
Shiela Fields, RxNex Solutions, Inc.

A new position, Resident Mentor, was also created within the accelerator. That role that will be filled by Kirk Zeller, founder of GapZero NEURO Inc.

“It’s incredible to reflect on how fast this came together,” said Tyler Scherr, PhD, Program Director and UNeMed’s Business Development Manager. “Just a few short months ago, the Steel Works Health Accelerator was only an idea on paper.”

UNeMed secured the grant funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration and built Steel Works in partnership with UNeTech Institute, the University’s startup incubator program, and CQuence Health, a local venture organization focused on healthcare-related startups.

“There’s absolutely no way we could have moved this quickly from vision to reality without the exceptional partnership and unwavering commitment from our collaborators at UNeTech Institute and CQuence Health,” Dr. Scherr said. “Their expertise, shared vision, and tireless teamwork turned what could have taken years into a matter of months.”

Steel Works is a three-month, hands-on mentoring program for early stage healthtech and medical startup companies built around emerging University of Nebraska innovations. The curriculum, developed and led by CQuence Health, will include workshops, coaching and mentoring.

Founders who complete the program are expected to emerge with a completed SBIR/STTR Grant application; a refined pitch deck and one-pager; a sound advisory and go-to-market strategy; and deeper connections within Nebraska’s entrepreneurial network.

Learn more about the Steel Works Health Accelerator at https://www.unemed.com/steel-works-health-accelerator.

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Lenagh leads Idea Pub talk on industry engagement office

March 2, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

Agnes Lenagh, PhD, UNMC’s Director of Strategic Partnerships in the Office of Industry Engagement, chats with a guest following her remarks during the Feb. 26, 2026, Idea Pub: Morning Edition networking event at Catalyst Omaha in the Edge District.

OMAHA, Nebraska (February 27, 2026)—Thursday’s featured speaker at Idea Pub: Morning Edition talked about her leadership role within the Office of Industry Engagement: A new UNMC department so fresh it still hasn’t released an official website.

That hasn’t stopped the Director of Strategic Partnerships, Agnes Lenagh, PhD, from a whirlwind start, already laying groundwork on growing relationships with no less than 23 companies in two months on the job.

“Think of our office as the front door that bridges the university with industry,” she told the gathering during a 15-minute presentation. “And that goes both ways.”

She added that the new department wasn’t looking to build simple collaborations, which she viewed as temporary or project-based. “I’m trying to build something deeper,” she said.

UNeMed president at CEO Michael Dixon, PhD, introduced Dr. Lenagh to Morning Edition’s mixed crowd of university researchers and members of the local entrepreneurial community.

“I’m really excited about this,” he said, “because this is the blind spot we’ve been needing to fill to help build great partnerships with the university.”

Dr. Lenagh highlighted the value that UNMC holds in scientific realms, and how all the resources of experience, expertise and equipment can be leveraged to the greater good. Deeper collaborations could mean more profound discoveries and breakthroughs in research, improved clinical outcomes and even greater success in building local startup companies and products.

“I was in industry for nine years,” she said, “and I now see we can be doing so much more than what was advertised.”

Before “coming home” to UNMC, Dr. Lenagh was in business development at Streck in 2017-2025. The 2011 UNMC grad was also part of UNeMed’s licensing team in 2012-2016.

Morning Edition is UNeMed’s and UNeTech Institute’s networking event for university innovators, entrepreneurs and startup community members. Catalyst Omaha co-sponsors the event and provides free tours of the spacious facility.

Morning Editions will continue to be a fixture in the Forge Event Hall, located on the north end of Catalyst Omaha in the Edge District. Guided tours will also continue as an added feature.

The next Morning Edition is planned for Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 9-11 a.m.

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UNMC startup featured at Bio Nebraska

February 26, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

John Neubaum (center), co-founder of Omaha startup HemaGlobal, and Michael Wadman, MD (right)—Chair of UNMC’s emergency medicine department and co-inventor of RapidSmear, the startup’s foundational technology—chat with Rob Owen (far left), Executive Director of Bio Nebraska, during the March 27, 2025, Morning Edition networking event at Catalyst.

OMAHA, Nebraska (February 26, 2026)—HemaGlobal, a startup company built around an innovation developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was recently tabbed as the top feature on the Bio Nebraska website.

Bio Nebraska is the state’s non-profit trade organization for the bioscience industry, helping promote and connect organizations and opportunities within the sector.

The spotlight on HemaGlobal shines on the company’s robust growth for its “flagship device,” RapidSmear. Little more than an idea in 2024, RapidSmear is now available in 21 U.S. states.

Invented by HemaGlobal co-founders and Thanh Nguyen, PhD, and Michael Wadman, MD, the RapidSmear device helps simplify a critically importance step in many diagnostic tests: Preparing a blood smear sample for microscopic examination. Done improperly, it can create bottlenecks or even life-threatening delays.

HemaGlobal reports that RapidSmear improved efficiency for already-proficient personnel by 36 percent and gave non-experts a “massive” boost of an incredible 75 percent. Dr. Wadman, Chair of the Emergency Medicine department, and Dr. Thanh—a nurse by training and recipient of numerous innovation awards, including the 2025 President’s Excellence Award—worked with the Nebraska Medicine National Quarantine Unit to develop the RapidSmear device.

Bio Nebraska’s feature also notes:

“HemaGlobal’s rapid growth was made possible by the vital support of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED). Through the Business Innovation Act, Ben Kupsa and the dedicated DED team infused HemaGlobal with the early financial support necessary to accelerate our technology and develop a sustainable manufacturing infrastructure.”

Read the entire feature at: https://www.bionebraska.org/member-spotlight-hemaglobal/.

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Impower lands new CEO, signs Boomerang to lead pre-seed round

February 23, 2026 Comments (1) News Like

OMAHA, Nebraska (February 23, 2026)—Impower Health, Inc., a startup company built on an innovation developed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, recently secured an undisclosed investment from Boomerang Ventures while adding a new CEO.

Boomerang Ventures, an Indiana-based investment group aimed at Midwestern companies, is a top digital and tech health fund and now leads Impower’s current pre-seed round, according to a press release issued last week.

The announcement also included the addition of Trent McCracken as the new CEO.

“Bringing on the right CEO at this stage is about preparing the company for growth,” Impower’s founder and Chief Product Officer, Doug Miller, said in the release. “Trent brings the operational leadership and decisive discipline needed to translate our technology into real-world impact, while staying true to the vision that inspired our founding.”

Miller founded Impower in 2021on the back of an innovative research project in UNO’s biomechanics department that eventually created the world’s first truly self-pacing motorized treadmill. The device, a long-sought innovation in the fitness industry, is a treadmill that matches speed with the user without any inputs other than the users rate of stride or gait. A jogger using an Impower treadmill can slow to a walk or speed to a sprint without touching any controls. Yet the treadmill will automatically match pace, making the device much safer and ideal for rehabilitation and other clinical uses.

“Impower Health represents exactly the type of category-defining innovation we look to support,” Boomerang Ventures Chief Medical Officer Eric Beier, MD, said. “Their technology sits at the intersection of rehab, fitness, and long-term mobility health, turning everyday treadmills into clinical-grade diagnostic tools.”

The release also noted that the cornerstone technology will enable clinicians to chart and track patient progress while giving them real-time feedback into their mobility and possible decline, before it can lead to injury or loss of independence.

“One of the most compelling aspects of Impower Health is the opportunity to make a tangible difference in people’s lives by restoring and preserving mobility, a core component of health and independence,” McCracken said. “The healthcare market is demanding integrated, data-driven solutions, and we are uniquely positioned to accelerate growth and convert these gait metrics into clinical intelligence.”

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New proposal would tax, stifle US innovation

February 18, 2026 Comments (0) Blog Like

by Michael Dixon, UNeMed | February 18, 2026

There are deeply troubling discussions reportedly underway within the Department of Commerce that could upend the U.S. innovation ecosystem.

The idea would impose a direct tax on academic innovation, requiring universities to surrender up to half of all licensing revenue from technologies derived from federally funded research.

That level of government take is extraordinary.

Even without a formal proposal, the concept reveals a basic misunderstanding of how academic technology commercialization works—and why it has powered American innovation for more than 40 years. In a worst-case scenario, such a policy would drain resources from university labs and startups, undermine innovation, and weaken the nation’s long-term economic and technological competitiveness.

Before passage of the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980, federally funded inventions largely sat unused. A 1998 Government Accountability Office report found that fewer than 5 percent of the 28,000 federal patents that arose from funded research were ever licensed. Virtually none were developed into products that benefited the public. The federal system lacked the infrastructure, incentives, and flexibility needed to protect intellectual property and license it effectively.

Bayh–Dole corrected this failure by shifting responsibility for intellectual property protection, early-stage development, and commercialization to institutions closer to the research and better positioned to work nimbly with industry—universities, small businesses, and nonprofits. While comprehensive national licensing rates are not reported, the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s experience illustrates the impact of this shift: In recent years, approximately 65 percent to 80 percent of our issued U.S. patents have been licensed, translating publicly funded research into real-world investment and use. That is a 10-fold increase in new products and treatments and cures than in the days before Bayh–Dole.

Since 1980, the Bayh–Dole framework has transformed federally funded research from a warehouse of underused patents into a powerful engine of economic growth. Licensing university and nonprofit discoveries has generated trillions in U.S. economic output and added millions of jobs. This impact reflects thousands of products and startups built on federal research—clear evidence that the current system is delivering sustained, broad-based returns to taxpayers. That success is why The Economist famously described Bayh–Dole in its 2002 Technology Quarterly essay, “Innovation’s Golden Goose,” as “possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half century.”

The Bayh–Dole Act granted universities the ability to license inventions and retain revenue primarily to offset the substantial costs of patent prosecution, not to create a profit center.

A single U.S. patent can cost up to $30,000 to obtain and maintain. Major research universities typically generate approximately 10–15 patentable inventions for every $100 million in research funding, translating to over $2 million in patent-related costs for an institution such as the University of Nebraska. Peer institutions with billon-dollar research portfolios, face patent expenses that scale accordingly, often reaching into the tens of millions of dollars–money that is already going to the Government through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Adding additional taxes on innovation would be devastating.

Fewer than one in five technology transfer offices operate at a net surplus, according to the Association of University Technology Managers’ annual licensing survey. Most universities spend more on intellectual property protection, technology transfer, and gap funding than they ever recover in licensing income.

They do so because universities are mission-driven institutions committed to translating discoveries into real-world solutions.

Those solutions improve lives.

They strengthen the economy.

Imposing an “innovation tax” on licensing revenue would significantly undermine this model. It would add costs to an already expensive and risky process, much like a tariff or excise tax increases the cost of goods as they move through a supply chain. Universities would be forced to charge more for licenses simply to break even, making technologies less attractive to industry partners and startups.

Those added costs would not disappear. They would pass from universities to companies, and ultimately to consumers—slowing adoption and raising prices across the economy.

The Bayh–Dole system stands as one of the most successful public-private partnerships in U.S. history. By enabling thousands of products, countless startups, and more than 200 Bayh–Dole–enabled drugs and vaccines, it has delivered taxpayer returns that vastly exceed the pre-1980 system of dormant federal patents.

Weakening this framework through new federal revenue grabs would reduce innovation, discourage private investment, and ultimately undermine the very public interests such proposals claim to advance.

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Four UNMC innovations land in Pipeline programs

February 16, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

UNMC surgeon, Jason Johanning, MD, inventor and founder of Automated Assessments and VITAL-IT, presents his innovative approach for determining patient frailty before surgical procedures. Dr. Johanning was recently selected for the 2026 Pipeline fellowship cohort.

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (February 16, 2026)—Eight Nebraska startups and entrepreneurs, including four related to innovations developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, were among Pipeline’s most recent cohorts of Fellows and Pathfinders.

“Pipeline is the premier entrepreneur support organization in the Midwest,” UNeMed President and CEO Michael Dixon, PhD, said. “The fact that our startup entrepreneurs are developing to a point where they are able to successfully compete and obtain spots in both the Pathfinder and full fellowship program is a testament to how far they have come and the quality of the entrepreneurs that we have leading our startups.”

Pipeline, an entrepreneurial support organization for nearly two decades, provides resources, mentoring and other programs for Midwestern startups and their founders. Most notable among Pipeline’s programs is the year-long Fellowship, which included UNeMed startups VITAL-IT and VisionSync among the 14 selected for the 2026 cohort.

VITAL-IT is built on an innovation created by UNMC surgeon Jason Johanning, MD. The innovation improves the process for determining the safety of surgical procedures for frail patients.

VisionSync is a strategic planning software tool that helps large, matrixed organizations set and define goals, milestones and other important success metrics. It was first developed and implemented at UNMC.

Two additional entrepreneurs working with UNMC innovations were added to Pipeline’s Pathfinders program: Go 360 Live and Rheam Medical.

Go 360 Live is a new company working with a UNMC innovation that allows for more robust consultations in healthcare settings. Rheam Medical uses a device that could improve surgical options in battlefield conditions.

The Fellowship program includes four, three-day modules about things like business modeling, financial guidance, and customer discovery. The program aims to help entrepreneurs grow their companies with the added help of expert advice from a stable of national advisers and mentors.

Pipeline’s Pathfinder program, entering its fourth year, is aimed at entrepreneurs from underserved communities, such as women, minorities or rural entrepreneurs.

Additional Nebraska startups in the 2026 Pipeline Fellowship are Docology, Empower Independence Company (Showerability), and Mission Accomplished.

Another Nebraska startup in the 2026 Pathfinder program is SheMate.

Pipeline member companies have generated more than $2.9 billion in revenue and raised more than $900 million in investments. In addition, member companies continue to create valuable companies with significant exits. In November, a Pipeline medtech founder exited their startup in a deal valued at more than $700 million.

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Ware wins national tech transfer award

February 9, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

UNeMed paralegal Mindy Ware (right) might be most recognizable as the person handing out free T-shirts to guests during the annual Innovation Week Kick-Off event. Behind the scenes, however, she’s a tech transfer industry leader and was recognized as such by TechPipeline’s most recent Excellence in Office Operations Award.

OMAHA, Nebraska (February 9, 2026)—Mindy Ware, a paralegal at UNeMed since 2010, was selected among a national pool of nominees for the Excellence in Office Operations Award by TechPipeline.

“Mindy is a tremendous asset to UNeMed,” said Jason Nickla, JD, Vice President and Director of Intellectual Property at UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO. “I admire her ability to transform potential bureaucratic messes into streamlined processes. Her straight-to-the-issue questions during meetings are always insightful.”

The honor was part of the TechPipeline Impact Awards, which recognizes the “exceptional individuals who elevate the field of technology transfer through their dedication, innovation, and expertise.” TechPipeline is one of the leading technology transfer industry organizations in the United States, providing guidance, training and best practices standards.

In presenting her the Office Operations award, Tech Pipeline correctly noted that Ware is the “lynchpin for the smooth and successful operation” of UNeMed.

“Mindy’s been at the core of many, many burdensome projects over the years that required great effort to achieve their success,” Nickla said, “and amazingly she still volunteers for new ones.”

In addition to managing and coordinating UNMC’s and UNO’s intellectual property docket, Ware also led UNeMed’s move from paper to digital records, helped develop UNeMed’s innovative data tracking system, and helped tech transfer offices everywhere with her improvements to a federal reporting program.

While the bulk of Ware’s work relates to the intellectual property that UNeMed seeks to protect University research and innovation, she might be most recognized for her volunteer roles during UNeMed’s annual Innovation Week: Handing out T-shirts during the Kick-Off event or greeting guests to the Innovation Awards.

“I immediately feel better about any project Mindy is involved in,” said UNeMed President and CEO, Michael Dixon, PhD, “because I know that’s something that will get done and done right. Honestly, it’s about time she’s getting recognition for her efforts. No one deserves this more than she does.”

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Strategic partnerships at UNMC targeted for next Idea Pub: Morning Edition

February 6, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

OMAHA, Nebraska (February 6, 2026)—The next Idea Pub: Morning Edition will be held on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 9 a.m. in the Forge Event Hall of the Edge District’s Catalyst building.

UNMC’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, Agnes Lenagh, PhD, will lead a presentation that discusses opportunities and strategies for building and maintaining academic-commercial collaborations. She will discuss her new role in the Office of Industry Engagement and ways to engage with UNMC researchers and innovators.

Free coffee will be provided, and Catalyst, a co-sponsor of the event, will offer complimentary facility tours on a first-come, first-served basis.

Park Omaha manages metered parking in a structure just north of the main entrance and along 46th and 48th Streets. See map for directions and more details.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff, co-sponsor UNeTech Institute and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed and UNeTech professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

UNeTech is the University of Nebraska’s startup incubator, supporting entrepreneurial efforts built on innovations created by University personnel.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition is typically held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the University’s stable of successful and budding startup companies and from Omaha’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

A tentative list of upcoming Morning Editions include:

March 26: Howard Gendelman, MD, Chair, UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience
April 30: TBD but shifting from 9AM to the afternoon to lead into the Investor Summit (Scott Henderson & Greater Omaha Chamber Two Day Event)
May 28: Adrian Blake, CEO Precision Syringe
June 25: Andrew Rogers, CEO Docology
July 30: Jon Rhoades, CEO Valid
Aug 27: Jonell Tempero, Managing Dir, US Operations RespirAI
Sept 24: Jenilee Woltman, MS Ed, CEO Mission Accomplished
Oct 29: Riley Reynolds, MS, CEO Rheam Medical
Nov 19: Stephen Gliske, PhD, Co-Founder NeuroServ
Dec 17: Jessica Queen, RN, CEO Omedus

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee will be provided as long as supplies last.

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

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Napkin contest helps small ideas become big solutions

February 5, 2026 Comments (0) Blog, News Like

An innovative new healthcare device, the Beam Helmet, was on display—along with the technology it replaces—during the Feb. 27, 2025, Idea Pub: Morning Edition. The helmet was invented by UNMC Associate Professor of nursing, Elizabeth Beam, PhD, RN, who also spoke at the event.

by Amanda Hawley, PhD, UNeMed | February 9, 2026

Beth Beam had the spark of an idea but was uncertain if it was worth catching fire. Certainly not worth being the winning entry in a silly invention contest, whose entry form looked like a forgotten, dirty napkin stuffed in your car cupholder. And certainly not worth the thousands of dollars for prototyping and engineering consultation earned as the top prize.

UNMC nursing professor Beth Beam (left) is inducted into UNeMed’s Innovation Ambassadors program in a “Grey Coat Ceremony” with licensing associate Nathan Hatch during UNeMed’s 2025 Innovation Awards ceremony on Oct. 22 at the Scott Conference Center in Omaha.

Even as she scrawled her idea for a better respirator inspired by the traumatic, grueling shifts of the pandemic, she certainly didn’t think it would be revered as a literal poster child for healthcare innovation at UNMC.

Too many inventors feel this way. Surely, someone has already thought of this. Surely my idea, can’t be something that changes, well, everything.

If the Back-o-the-Napkin Contest has taught us anything after four years, it’s that there are no bad ideas, and yes, your idea can make a difference.

Don’t believe me, just ask Beth Beam, PhD, Associate Professor at UNMC in the College of Nursing who wore those bulky breakouts suits and respirators for hours at a time

“I was just annoyed because (respirators) were horrible and clunky. I guess I thought the idea might have a shot at being innovative given the time we were in,” she said. “The application was so simple it seemed like it was worth at least telling people my ideas.”

Her idea, the BEAM Helmet, was a new powered air purifying respirator (PAPR) that doctors and nurses could wear during a pandemic for extended periods. Her design is light weight, easy to sanitize, more comfortable, offers better visibility, requires less training.

Despite her initial low expectations, Beam was UNeMed’s inaugural Napkin contest winner. UNeMed and UNeTech Institute connected her to the Machine and Prototyping (MAPRO) Core at UNO to design and prototype her invention.

“Their support in conception and willingness to help me with research versions of the helmet… Nothing short of extraordinary. Their motives are solely to help the idea fly,” she said when describing her collaboration with the MAPRO group to build out the prototype.

After prototyping, Beam was awarded additional grant support from the Great Plains IDeA-CTR, Nebraska Research Initiative and $20,000 from Nebraska Tobacco Settlement Biomedical Research Development Fund to further evolve the helmet design. A more advanced version of the helmet was later named UNeMed’s 2024 Most Promising New Invention and is currently patent pending.

Dr. Beam, one of UNeMed’s elite cohort of 13 Innovation Ambassadors, recommends anyone with an idea that addresses a problem to take a few minutes to enter the contest.

“I know I am not alone, everybody knows it’s a problem, but it’s having that motivation to ‘Let’s see if we can fix it.’ It needs to be done,” she said about what drives her and her innovative pursuits. “I’m always happy to chat with anyone who is innovation-curious, especially nurses and those nurse-adjacent. We have a lot to offer the world.”

— — —

Contest submission forms can be found here. Completed forms can be returned to UNeMed at unemed@unmc.edu or via campus mail (6099). Contest entries will be accepted until March 6, 2026. See contest announcement for details. Contest support is sponsored by the Great Plains IDeA-CTR group along with resources from UNeMed.

— — —

Associate Professor Beth Beam, PhD, RN, joined UNMC in 2004. She has worked on an emergency preparedness grant at the College of Nursing since 2005. In that role, she became involved in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and was the educator for the unit in 2014 when the Ebola virus disease was treated in the United States. Dr. Beam has gone on to do further research on healthcare worker behaviors and respiratory protection for situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. She also co-leads a group at UNMC called the Nebraska Virtual Reality Network for Education and Research. In October 2025, Dr. Beam was recognized with the UNMC Distinguished Scientist award.

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Idea Pub: Morning Edition set for Jan. 22

January 10, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

OMAHA, Nebraska (January 10, 2026)—The next Idea Pub: Morning Edition will be held on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 9 a.m. in the Forge Event Hall of the Edge District’s Catalyst building.

This month’s event will feature a presentation from a local venture organization focused on healthcare-related startups.

Free coffee will be provided, and Catalyst, a co-sponsor of the event, will offer complimentary facility tours on a first-come, first-served basis.

Park Omaha manages metered parking in a structure just north of the main entrance and along 46th and 48th Streets. See map for directions and more details.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition is typically held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the University’s stable of successful and budding startup companies and from Omaha’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee will be provided as long as supplies last.

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

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Napkin contest returns, entries due in March

January 5, 2026 Comments (0) News Like

OMAHA, Nebraska (January 5, 2025)—UNeMed will again sponsor a “Back-o-the-Napkin” contest, calling for inventive UNMC and UNO faculty, staff and students to submit ideas for new inventions and better ways.

Eligible entries will be limited to medical devices and innovations related to artificial intelligence programs or systems, software tools and applications, and research tools.

The deadline for entries is March 6, 2026.

All eligible entries will be judged by UNeMed’s internal Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC). Submissions will be evaluated for their novelty, market potential and possible intellectual property protection. Top entries with the most viable path to a business or product will be awarded additional development and financial support, which may include prototyping, feasibility testing, other developmental guidance and support as deemed most appropriate by STAC.

Designed to resemble actual napkins, entry forms ask that inventors draw and describe their ideas. Physical forms can be found at various locations around campus, including the McGoogan Library and the Innovation Design Unit. A digital version can also be downloaded here. Submit completed entries to UNeMed at unemed@unmc.edu or via campus mail (6099).

Any of UNeMed’s Innovation Ambassadors will also have access to the entry forms and can provide assistance and guidance.

Previous winners include:

Wearable Pinch Ligation Device—Quan Ly, MD, & Meghana Kashyap, MD, UNMC College of Medicine, Department of Surgery
Single Laser Measurement Device for Jump Testing—Michael Rosenthal, DSc, Elizabeth Wellsandt, DPT, PhD, and Michael Wellsandt, DPT, UNMC, College of Allied Health
Beam Helmet—Elizabeth Beam, PhD, assistant professor, UNMC College of Nursing
Light Pipe Retinal Viewer—Pukraj Rishi, UNMC College of Medicine, Ophthalmology
Energy-harvesting Exoskeleton—Sara Myers, UNO Biomechanics
Retrograde cerebral protection (RCP) central catheter—Aleem Siddique, MBBS, FACS, FACC, UNMC, College of Medicine, Department of Surgery

Funding and additional support for the contest is provided by the Great Plains IDeA-CTR.

In addition to a detailed description and as many details about the invention as possible, the form also requires the inventors provide contact information, and requires all inventors sign and date the form. The fine print (“Important Legal Stuff”) on the form reads:

ALL POTENTIAL INVENTORS AFFILIATED WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA DURING THE CONCEPTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THIS INVENTION MUST SIGN BELOW. BY SIGNING THIS NEW INVENTION NOTIFICATION FORM YOU HEREBY ASSIGN YOUR RIGHTS IN THIS INVENTION TO THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.

To the best of my knowledge all statements and information provided in this New Invention Notification (NIN) form are true and complete. I understand and agree that all rights, obligations, and financial interests pertaining to or derived from the invention are as determined under the University of Nebraska Board of Regents Bylaws and Policies, including, but not limited to Bylaw 3.10, Policy 4.4.1, Policy 4.4.2, and all applicable campus policies. I also understand and acknowledge that the University has the right to change the Policy from time to time, including the percentage of net royalties paid to me. Further, I acknowledge that the percentage of net royalties paid to inventors is derived only from consideration in the form of money or equity received under a license, option, or material transfer agreement for licensed rights. Per Policy 3.2.8, any conflict of interest will be handled according to specific campus policies which may require disclosure of a personal interest in the form of potential revenue through commercialization of an invention described in a publication or presentation. I agree to assist the University of Nebraska and UNeMed in the evaluation, possible protection and commercialization of the invention as described in this NIN.

UNeMed, in its sole right and discretion, may change or alter any terms and conditions of this contest at any time, without notice, to the contest entrants.

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Year in Review: 2025

December 22, 2025 Comments (0) Blog, News, Success Stories Like

by Charles Litton, UNeMed | December 22, 2025

It’s that time again when we keep with tradition and look back at 2025 to reflect on some of the more popular and important stories, events and developments.

1. Innovation Week

When I looked at our traffic numbers form the previous year, no single Innovation Week element led the site in views or clicks or whatever metric you choose. But four of our top 10 most visited pages, and eight of our top 20—a full 34 percent of all traffic to those pages—were dedicated to Innovation Week and its pinnacle event, the Innovation Awards. And no singular element seemed to shine above the others: news stories covering the Awards ceremony itself; announcements detailing schedule of events, PDFs of the Awards programs from multiple years, and static pages detailing the history and purpose of the event were all popular stops. And that is as it should be. We produce and celebrate Innovation Week with one, over-arching goal: To celebrate University of Nebraska innovations and the people who create them. This website aspires to many purposes, and adding volume to the efforts and accomplishments of our innovators is chief among them.

2. Idea Pub: Morning Edition

It’s clear that the Idea Pub: Morning Edition coverage is a fixture, and we should all get used to seeing more of it. Our top overall news story of 2025 announced the first-ever meeting for this group in the new Omaha Catalyst building in the EDGE District. The monthly showcase and networking event for University of Nebraska innovators, entrepreneurs and the local startup community has drawn steady numbers online and in person at the events. A quick count showed at least 20 Morning Edition-related stories pulling down high traffic numbers, including the story announcing Catalyst’s grand opening, which clocked in at our eighth-most read news story of the year.

3. UNeMed releases 2025 Annual Report

To the shock of no one, UNeMed’s annual report is another regular feature in these annual reviews, but not usually in such rarefied air as the top three. The 2025 annual report did break from custom in size, orientation and design style, even if its reporting of core metrics and recent success stories remained constant.

4. UNeMed launches startup incubator ‘The Furnace’

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise was a recently published story announcing UNeMed’s startup incubator program. With the help of our friends at UNeTech Institute, The Furnace will nurture a handful of very early-stage faculty startups to prepare themselves to navigate the treacherous road of raising capital and building a strong foundation for a new biomedical business. We hope to announce the first of several cohorts this coming spring.

5. Design Thinking workshop tackles patient falls

In November we coordinated a two-day workshop that uses an interesting approach to developing new ideas to persistent problems. The Design Thinking method gathers a group of people together who are challenged to solve a specific problem. In this case, it was patient falls, a potentially fatal problem for elderly and other ailing people in hospitals everywhere. The story details how Design Thinking works and hints at what might become of ideas that were developed during the workshop.

6. Boot Camp

For the first time we hosted the annual Technology Transfer Boot Camp in our new digs in the Omaha Catalyst building in the EDGE District. Our new classroom setting proved to be the perfect location for us, which had sometimes been a struggle on a very busy and crowded campus. With our own dedicated learning facility, we expect to move more quickly forward with our plans to expand the program.

7. VIC featured in Fast Company

Our startup Virtual Incision continues to land among the top stories. The Lincoln-based surgical robotics company, built on a UNMC-UNL collaboration, followed up its FDA approval headlines from 2024 with more news in 2025. The most well-read among them was its No. 8 listing on Fast Company Magazine’s annual list of most innovative medical device makers in the world.

8. Nebraska ranks No. 82 in world for U.S. patents

A cornered technology transfer professional, upon threat of torture, will likely tell you that patents aren’t a great measure for success in the industry. However, they are a great tool, and a decent indicator to the level of innovative ideas we see from faculty, staff and students at the University of Nebraska. It’s no small feat to be listed No. 82 among the thousands of global academic institutions that were issued a U.S. Patent in the previous year.

9. SPN: MicroWash product launches nationwide

It was a great year for our startups with yet another grabbing headlines. This time it was University Medical Devices landing in the pages of regional news outlet, Silicon Prairie News, for successfully launching its first product, MicroWash.

10. BIRD Grant

Another success story about one of our startups, this one built on a UNO-UNMC collaboration that intends to make COPD a lot less deadly. RespirAI, who we named our Startup of the Year at our most recent Innovation Awards, landed a coveted BIRD grant early last year, and will use the additional funding to expand its Omaha presence and further develop an AI-powered home monitoring platform for managing chronic pulmonary conditions, starting with COPD.

Classics:

Several posts from previous years remain popular and relevant, particularly those that focus on day-to-day operations and legal issues associated with intellectual property.

Most popular features:

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Next Idea Pub to feature latest in surgical simulation

December 10, 2025 Comments (0) News Like

OMAHA, Nebraska (December 10, 2025)—The next Idea Pub: Morning Edition will be held on Thursday, Dec. 18, at 9 a.m. in the Catalyst building’s Forge Event Hall.

This month’s event will feature innovations in surgical simulation and medical education.

UNMC’s Joseph Siu, PhD, and engineering professor Carl Nelson, PhD, will lead a presentation that discusses their collaborative work in developing next-generation surgical tools.

Dr. Siu is professor and Chair of Global Health Opportunities in the Physical Therapy program at the College of Allied Health Professionals. He has developed a number of innovations related to simplifying and making surgical training devices more accessible and affordable.

Dr. Nelson, Associate Dean for the Undergraduate Programs in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has advanced several innovative improvements in surgical robotics.

Their presentation is expected to cover surgical simulation, smartphone-based instrument tracking, and custom joystick design. There are also tentative plans for a practical demonstration of a surgical simulator with haptic controllers or smartphone-based surgical instrument tracking.

Idea Pub: Morning Edition will be held in Catalyst Omaha on the western edge of the UNMC campus, on Saddle Creek Road. Free coffee will be provided. Catalyst, a co-sponsor of the event, will also offer complimentary facility tours on a first-come, first-served basis.

Park Omaha manages metered parking in a structure just north of the main entrance and along 46th and 48th Streets. See map for directions and more details.

The event is set for 9-11 a.m. in the Forge Event Hall on the north end of the building.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, created Morning Edition to help University innovators and entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts from the venture capital and startup communities.

Morning Edition will also regularly feature “Office Hours” with UNeMed staff and Charlie Cuddy, who co-founded the Nebraska Startup Academy and MOVE Venture Capital. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.

MOVE is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. The Nebraska Startup Academy is a mentoring program for startup founders, investors and the local entrepreneurial community with the aim of building Nebraska into “an innovation hub in the Midwest.”

Morning Edition will be held on the final Thursday of every month and will continue to feature guest speakers from the University’s stable of successful and budding startup companies and from Omaha’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.

The event is free and open to all, and complimentary coffee will be provided as long as supplies last.

Morning Edition will continue in 2026, beginning on Jan. 22. CQuence Health will be the featured speaker, along with elevator pitches from the first cohort of UNeMed’s and UNeTech’s startup accelerator, Steel Works.

Morning Edition is part of UNeMed’s “Idea Pub,” a suite of entrepreneurial networking events that includes “Innovations & Libations” and “Startup Showcase.”

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UNeMed launches startup accelerator ‘Steel Works’

December 9, 2025 Comments (1) News Like

CORRECTIVE AMENDED, Jan. 20, 2026: Story corrected to reflect name change to Steel Works Health Accelerator and clarify UNeTech Institute as a foundational partner.

OMAHA, Nebraska (December 9, 2025)—A new accelerator program for innovative University startups is now accepting applications to join its first cohort.

A product of a winning grant application through the Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, the program—called the Steel Works Health Accelerator—will be housed in the Omaha Catalyst building, formerly Omaha Steel Castings. The $75,000 Capital formation grant will help establish The Furnace for the first year.

“Too many of our startups have promising technologies and services but don’t have any capital, so they have to fight an uphill battle in just getting going,” UNeMed’s Business Development Manager, Tyler Scherr, PhD, said. “The whole goal of The Furnace is to help them build a compelling business plan around their technology to effectively communicate the opportunity for capital to find them.”

Steel Works will accept three or four fledgling startups in each of three planned cohorts.

In partnership with UNeTech Institute, the Nebraska Business Development Center and CQuence Health, Steel Works will train and mentor each startup on how to build successful small business grant applications while refining their approach and pitches to private investors and venture capital groups.

Each cohort will run about three months, with NBDC leading the weekly grant-writing workshops. CQuence Health, a company built on providing strategic advice and investment capital for innovative startups in healthcare, will add regular training modules to help inventor-entrepreneurs refine their business plans, presentation skills and other important elements for raising funds.

In the end, each graduate of Steel Works is expected to have completed an SBIR/STTR grant application, created a sound “go-to-market” strategy, refined their “pitch deck,” and assembled a strong team of advisers.

Participants in Steel Works will also have access to the membership of the state’s bioscience trade association, Bio Nebraska; the industry relations and customer discovery services of UNeTech Institute; and the educational programming and extensive entrepreneurial network of the Nebraska Startup Academy.

“One of the more valuable things, in my mind,” Dr. Scherr said, “is every entrepreneurial team in The Furnace will officially become part of the startup ecosystem here in Nebraska. That means they get plugged into all the meetings, all the groups, all the entrepreneurial support organizations, all of it. That alone should help open a lot of doors for these companies.”

To apply for the Steel Work Health Accelerator program, use the embedded form below or direct your browser here: https://forms.gle/3gP8sDYRTkgMN9aq8.

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Nebraska startup brings remote consulting into the room

November 25, 2025 Comments (0) News Like

OMAHA, Nebraska (November 20, 2025)—The featured Nebraska startup at the most recent Idea Pub: Morning Edition is improving remote consulting operations.

“GO 360 LIVE” uses a 360-degree, 4K camera for more effective remote consulting that allows viewers to see and evaluate in real-time. Originally developed to help healthcare facilities evaluate and improve their infectious disease control procedures, the system allows multiple users to change their view as needed without impacting anyone else’s view of the remote location.

The innovative technology could lead to consultants and advisers to catch previously hidden or unseen flaws or gaps in the systems or procedures they’re evaluating.

“A two-way consultation shows you what they want you to see,” said co-inventor and co-founder Angie Vasa, “or they don’t know what you need to see.”

Vasa, Nebraska Medicine’s Director of Biopreparedness and Special Pathogen Programs, collaborated with Tess McKinney, former faculty at UNMC and current President and CEO at XRenegades.

GO 360 LIVE shows potential in a wide range of applications that include providing expertise to rural areas for animal and human health, educational consulting and industrial advising.

Morning Edition is UNeMed’s networking event for university innovators, entrepreneurs and startup community members. Catalyst Omaha co-sponsors the event and provides free tours of the spacious facility.

Morning Editions will continue to be a fixture in the Catalyst’s Forge Event Hall, located on the north end of the building. Guided tours will also continue as an added feature.

The next Morning Edition is planned for Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in the Forge Event Hall at 9-11 a.m.

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Workshop kicks off Ambassador program

November 24, 2025 Comments (0) News Like

OMAHA, Nebraska (November 7, 2025)—UNeMed completed the first round of training for its new Innovation Ambassadors program, wrapping up an all-day workshop today that gave the 13-person cohort a deep dive into intellectual property, technology transfer and commercialization.

Officially announced and launched during the Innovation Awards ceremony last month, the Innovation Ambassadors program was created to help innovative faculty, staff and students who might have new inventions, discoveries or other ideas and don’t know where to turn or what to expect.

The 13 Ambassadors are an elite group of experienced faculty inventors empowered to act as mentors, advisers and advocates for colleagues who are unfamiliar or even skeptical of the innovation or technology transfer process.

UNeMed launched the Innovation Ambassador program to expand the visibility of technology commercialization and deepen the connections between researchers and UNeMed, said President and CEO Michael Dixon, PhD.

“Our first cohort of Ambassadors brings remarkable experience translating discoveries into real-world solutions. By activating this network of knowledgeable and engaged researchers, we aim to make the commercialization process more approachable, more connected, and ultimately more impactful for the entire research community.”

As a group, the Innovation Ambassadors have disclosed 249 inventions, applied for 199 patents—44 of which have issued—built five startup companies and have had 20 technologies licensed. They have also amassed more than $4 million in additional grants, sponsored research and funding.

With so much experience in the room, the Ambassadors workshop was expected to run as a short lecture program. The main goal was to provide a base understanding of all UNeMed actives and perhaps demystify some processes and decisions that come up along the path toward commercialization.

“The ambassadors were actually far more engaged than we expected,” said Nathan Hatch, PhD, the program director and a licensing specialist at UNeMed. “The second slide of a 50-slide presentation elicited 30-minutes of really good questions.”

UNeMed only covered about half of the intended program, so further training and additional workshops are planned, but the program has already yielded positive results, Dr. Hatch said.

“We had some great discussions that directed us toward some potential changes we can make to improve our operations,” he said. “This is just getting started and they’ve already demonstrated just how impactful we expect this program to be over the next few years.”

UNeMed’s Innovation Ambassadors are:

	Hamid Band, MD, PhD Elizabeth Bruce Professor of Cancer Research Director of the Center for Breast Cancer Research Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer & Allied Diseases University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-8572 hband@unmc.edu		Bethany Lowndes, PhD, MPH Associate Professor, Human Factors Department of Neurological Sciences College of Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-6202 bethany.lowndes@unmc.edu
	Beth Beam, PhD, RN Director of Global Health HEROES Program Director Associate Professor, College of Nursing University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-6547 ebeam@unmc.edu		Thanh Nguyen, PhD, MSN, FNP-C Assistant Professor & Research Scientist, Department of Emergency Medicine College of Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-5413 thang.nguyen@unmc.edu
	Gregory Bennett, DMD Chair & Associate Professor, Department of Adult Restorative Dentistry College of Dentistry University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry (402) 472-1272 greg.bennett@unmc.edu		Ryan Riskowski, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Physics College of Arts & Sciences University of Nebraska at Omaha (402) 554-2511 rriskowski@unomaha.edu
	Benson Edagwa, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience College of Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-0856 benson.edagwa@unmc.edu		Ka-Chun (Joseph) Siu, PhD Chair & Professor, Global Health Opportunities, Physical Therapy Program College of Allied Health Professions University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-8464 kcsiu@unmc.edu
	Robin Gandhi, PhD Associate Dean for Research, Technology, and Facilities Charles W. & Margre H. Durham Distinguished Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Informatics College of Information Science & Technology University of Nebraska at Omaha (402) 554.3363 rgandhi@unomaha.edu		Paul Trippier, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Co-Director, T32 Training Program in Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias Drug Discovery Co-Leader Translational Cancer Research Program, Buffett Cancer Center College of Pharmacy University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 836-9763 paul.trippier@unmc.edu
	Jason Johanning, MD, MS, FACS Professor, Department of Surgery Division of Vascular Surgery College of Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-4395 jjohanning@unmc.edu		Justin Weeks, PhD Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychology Psychotherapy Director, Anxiety Subspecialty Treatment program Nebraska Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center (402) 559-5031 juweeks@nebraskamed.com
	Brian Knarr, PhD Associate Professor, Biomechanics Core Director, Center for Research in Human Movement Variability College of Education, Health, & Human Sciences University of Nebraska at Omaha (402) 554-3228 bknarr@unomaha.edu