UNeMed's annual Research Innovation Awards is the culmination of a week of activities that celebrate research and innovation at UNMC and UNO. The awards recognize faculty, students and staff that invented a new technology, licensed an invention or secured intellectual property rights during the previous fiscal year. UNeMed also presents Emerging Inventor, Lifetime Achievement, and Innovator of the Year awards as circumstances dictate. A “Most Promising New Invention” is also presented as an annual award. In 2018, the first Startup of the Year award was presented by UNeTech, the University’s incubator and accelerator program. Finally, in 2024, UNeMed added two new awards—Faculty Entrepreneur and Innovation Champion—that recognize innovators building successful startups and community members that help University inventions move forward.
The 2025 Research Innovation Awards ceremony was held at the Scott Conference Center on UNO's Aksarben campus on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. Ashok Puri, MBBS, MS, was named the Emerging Inventor for his work in using AI to develop better diagnostics; Edward O'Leary, MD, won the Most Promising New Invention award for the “Cardiac Cath Lab Mentor;” Thanh Nguyen, PhD, was named the Faculty Entrepreneur of the year; Dan Hoffman accepted the Innovation Champion award on behalf of Invest Nebraska; and RespirAI, took home the Startup of the Year award.
UNeMed also announced the first cohort of of Innovation Ambassadors: Hamid Band, MD, PhD; Beth Beam, PhD, RN; Gregory Bennett, DMD; Benson Edagawa, PhD; Robin Gandhi, PhD; Jason Johanning, MD, MS, FACS; Brian Knarr, PhD; Bethany Lowndes, PhD; Thanh Nguyen, PhD, MSN, FNP-C; Ryan Riskowski, PhD; Ka-Chun (Joseph) Siu, PhD; Paul Trippier, PhD; and Justin Weeks, PhD.
Download the 2025 Innovation Awards Program here.
Innovation Awards Demo Day Past Events
Emerging Inventor
Ashok Puri, MBBS, MS, for his growing number of inventions in his portfolio and his entrepreneurial passion to commercialize them.
His research focuses on using artificial intelligence to develop tools that can enhance and improve several medical practices. Already, his work is showing promise for more accurately measuring and identifying diseases and biomarkers from medical images to create better diagnostics. In addition, his AI approaches are also helping build better designs for digital surgical planning tools and other applications.
Dr. Puri hit the ground running after joining UNMC in 2024, submitting four inventions in less than a year, resulting in four U.S. Patent applications.
Most Promising New Invention
The Most Promising New Invention of 2025 is the Cardiac Cath Lab Mentor, an innovative medical education software program developed by Edward O’Leary, MD, MBA.
His interactive software program is designed to shorten the learning curve and help students learn how to interpret coronary angiograms, understand hemodynamics and better grasp general cardiac catheterization laboratory material.
Using real-time X-ray imaging, angiography shows physicians the best path to guide a wire or thin tube through a patient’s blood vessels. The procedure can be used to diagnose things like coronary artery disease or to install a stent that opens a narrowed or blocked blood vessel.
But learning to navigate the three-dimensional twists and turns of normal human anatomy from a flat, two-dimensional video screen can take years to master. Dr. O’Leary’s training platform, Aprendo Cardiovascular Solutions, promises to shorten that learning process while also making access to the training more widely available.
Startup of the Year
The 2025 Startup of the Year, RespirAI, has secured more than $4.5 million in funding, including an award from the prestigious BIRD Foundation Grant, along with collaborator, Right at Home, which is headquartered in Omaha.
An eHealth Ventures portfolio company, RespirAI is currently raising a $5 million Series A round to complete FDA clinical trials and launch their first product.
RespirAI is tackling the critical problem of detecting COPD exacerbations, which is the sudden and potentially fatal flareup of symptoms.
Faculty Entrepreneur
The most prolific inventor in UNeMed history—and most recent awardee of the University of Nebraska’s prestigious President’s Excellence Award for Faculty Intellectual Property Innovation and Commercialization—is UNeMed’s newest Faculty Entrepreneur Award winner.
Since disclosing his first invention in October 2011, it seems Thanh Nguyen has done little else. At last count, the former emergency medicine nurse had 91 total invention submissions through the close of the last fiscal year. He holds two U.S. Patents and has another five pending.
His knack for finding clever solutions to interesting problems has led to the successful formation of two startup companies: University Medical Devices and HemaGlobal.
UNeMed’s 2023 Startup of the Year, University Medical Devices is under the leadership of Nicholas Lorenzo, MD, who commercialized MicroWash, the first-ever nasal lavage specimen collection device for upper respiratory infection testing.
Dr. Nguyen and co-inventor, Michael Wadman, MD, created MicroWash in direct response to the uncomfortable and sometimes painful nasal swabs that gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic. MicroWash is currently on the market, available for purchase and in clinical use today.
HemaGlobal, under the leadership of John Neubaum, is commercializing RapidSmear, the world’s first truly portable blood smear preparation system. It is a portable device that allows clinical staff to quickly and easily prepare blood and bone marrow samples for microscopic examination.
Innovation Champion
The 2025 selection of Invest Nebraska as UNeMed’s Innovation Champion was an obvious choice for their tireless efforts in supporting and building the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem over the last quarter-century.
Established in 2001 and led by CEO Dan Hoffman, Invest Nebraska was born from a collaboration of the University of Nebraska, the state’s Department of Economic Development and members of the private sector. The mission then was as it is today: Give a much-needed boost to all Nebraska entrepreneurs, collaborate with investors and help grow the state’s economy.
As recently as 2011 Nebraska had ranked dead last for venture capital activity with zero dollars raised, but that began to change after Invest Nebraska championed the creation of the Business Innovation Act in 2011.
Since then, Invest Nebraska has deployed more than $63 million in to more than 225 Nebraska startups. Those investments were matched with an additional $235 million in private investment and those companies have gone on to raise more than a half-a-BILLION dollars of follow-on funding, lifting Nebraska from dead last to 29th place in less than a dozen years.
All told, Invest Nebraska portfolio companies have had a significant economic impact as they have helped create more than 1,330 jobs and $712 million in revenue.
2025 Innovation Awards Program
Award Winners
Special Awards
| 2025 | Invest Nebraska | Innovation Champion |
| 2025 | Thanh Nguyen, PhD | Faculty Entrepreneur |
| 2025 | Ashok Puri, MBBS, MS | Emerging Inventor |
| 2025 | RespirAI | Startup of the Year | 2024 | Maverick Technology Venture Alliance | Innovation Champion |
| 2024 | Breanna Hetland, PhD, RN | Faculty Entrepreneur |
| 2024 | Jingwei Xie, PhD | Innovator of the Year |
| 2024 | Carecubes, Inc. | Startup of the Year |
| 2023 | University Medical Devices | Startup of the Year |
| 2023 | Rebekah Gundry, PhD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2022 | Exavir Therapeutics | Startup of the Year |
| 2022 | Bin Duan, PhD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2021 | Ensign Pharmaceutical | Startup of the Year |
| 2021 | Hanjun Wang, MD | Innovator of the Year |
| 2020 | BreezMed | Startup of the Year |
| 2020 | COVID-19 Inventors | Innovators of the Year |
| 2019 | FutureAssure | Startup of the Year |
| 2019 | Benson Edagwa, PhD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2019 | FutureAssure | Startup of the Year |
| 2018 | UNO Biomechanics Department | Innovator of the Year |
| 2018 | Centese, Inc. | Startup of the Year |
| 2017 | Donny Suh, MD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2016 | Irving Zucker, PhD | Innovator of the Year |
| 2015 | Tammy Kielian, PhD | Innovator of the Year |
| 2014 | Marius Florescu, MD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2013 | Howard Gendelman, MD | Innovator of the Year |
| 2012 | Tammy Kielian, PhD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2011 | Jonathan Vennerstrom, PhD | Lifetime Achievement |
| 2010 | Amarnath Natarajan, PhD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2009 | Rodney Markin, MD, PhD | Lifetime Achievement |
| 2008 | Dong Wang, PhD | Emerging Inventor |
| 2007 | Robert LeVeen, MD | Lifetime Achievement |
Most Promising New Invention
| 2025 | Edward O'Leary, MD | Cardiac Cath Lab Mentor |
| 2024 | Sarah Dunsmore, PhD; Brianna Parr; Elizabeth Beam, PhD, RN; Bethany Lowndes, PhD; Brian Knarr, PhD; Andrew Walski | Ruggedized Beam Helmet |
| 2023 | Alexey Kamenskiy, PhD; Anastasia Desyatova, PhD; Ali Akbar Ahmadi; Jason MacTaggart, MD | Optimized Vascular Stent |
| 2022 | Cody Anderson and Song-young Park, PhD | System for Measuring Blood Pressure in Wearable Electronic Devices |
| 2021 | Brian Knarr, PhD; Travis Vanderheyden; Russell Buffum | Improved Self-Pacing Treadmill |
| 2020 | Joseph McMordie, MD, and Daniel Sturdell, MD | Anterior Cervical Space Spreader |
| 2019 | Corey Hopkins, PhD | PDE4B Selective Inhibitors |
| 2018 | Catherine Gebhart, PhD, and Varun Kehsarwani, PhD | Multiplex assay for rapid detection of HSV1, HSV2, EBV and CNV by qPCR |
| 2017 | Jingwei Xie, PhD; Mark Carlson, MD; Shixuan Chen, PhD | Nanofiber Sponges for Hemostasis |
| 2016 | Joyce Solheim, PhD, and Tatiana Bronich, PhD | Compositions for Modulated Release of Proteins and Methods of Use Thereof |
| 2015 | Michael Wadman, MD, FASEP, and Thang Nguyen, MSN, APRN, FNP-C |
Emergency Medicine Care Portfolio: Wound Irrigation System & Oral Airway Management |
| 2014 | Jason MacTaggart, MD | Orthagonal AquaBlade |
| 2013 | Keshore Bidasee, PhD | Targeted Glyoxalase-1 Gene Transfer to Prevent Cardiovascular and End- Organ Complications in Diabetes |
| 2012 | Gregory Oakley, PhD | Small Molecule in Vivo Inhibitors of the N-Terminal Protein Interacting Domain of RPA1 |
| 2011 | Babu Padanilam, PhD | Novel Target for the Treatment of Renal Fibrosis |
| 2010 | Stephen Bonasera, MD, PhD | Noninvasive Monitoring of Functional Behaviors in Ambulatory Human Populations |
| 2009 | Paul Dunman, PhD | Novel Antibiotic Compounds |
| 2008 | Guangshun (Gus) Wang, PhD | Anti-HIV Peptides and Methods of Use Thereof |
| 2008 | Janina Baranowska-Kortylewicz, PhD | Sex Hormone Binding Globulin: New Target for Cancer Therapy |
