Professor Venture Fair

About the the Professor Venture Fair

Sponsored by the UM Office of Technology Commercialization.

The Professor Venture Fair began at Bioscience Day 2008 and has become an annual event that gives faculty inventors the opportunity to pitch their new technologies to a team of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from the region. Presenters are judged based upon clarity of pitch and commercial viability.

Previous Winners

2008: Fischell Department of Bioengineering doctoral student Matthew Dowling and chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Srinivasa Raghavan won for “nano-velcro,” a new, patent-pending bio-material capable of stopping bleeding, particularly in situations where surgical help is not immediately available. Matt Dowling, had already started Remedium Technologies in 2007, and the company, now in the Mtech VentureAccelerator Program, continues to develop its Velcro-like biomaterial bandages. Read the news release: Bio-bandage that Stops Bleeding Wins Professor Venture Fair

2007: Lawrence Sita, professer of chemistry and biochemistry, won for inventing a technology that can create an infinite variety of safe, pure plastics. He started Precision Polyolefins, a company that could revolutionize the plastics industry by introducing a clean alternative to existing methods of plastics production.Read the news release: Revolutionary Plastics Prove Perfect Pitch

Bioreactor for Bone Tissue Engineering Wins Professor Venture Fair

John Fisher, associate professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering, won the Best Inventor Pitch at the 2009 Bioscience Research and Technology Review Day with a tissue engineering bioreactor system that grows bone and other types of tissue for implantation. Fisher's technology was one of six innovations presented in an eight minute pitch by faculty members and graduate students at the Professor Venture Fair, held November 12 at the University of Maryland.

Fisher's technology was one of six innovations presented in an eight minute pitch by faculty members and graduate students at the Professor Venture Fair, held November 12 as part of the Tenth Annual Bioscience Day the University of Maryland.

"Dr. Fisher impressed the judges with his clearly defined product-the bioreactor system itself-and his ability to position himself within an already vibrant tissue engineering marketplace," says Gayatri Varma, executive director of the university's Office of Technology Commercialization.

Read the complete news release Bioreactor for Bone Tissue Engineering Wins Professor Venture Fair

Watch a video about this new technology, Tech: Engineering Tissue on Discovery News 

Other technologies presented included: 

  • "Nanolithography with Nanowire Arrays," John Fourkas, Millard Alexander Professor and Associate Chair in the department of chemistry and biochemistry;
  • "Sense-HER: A Low-Cost, Electronic Breast Cancer Gene Detection System," R.D. Gomez and Konrad Aschenbach, both of the department of electrical and computer engineering;
  • "Manipulation of Guard Cells: Drought-Tolerant Plants for Feeding the World's Hungry," June Kwak, assistant professor in the department of cell biology amd molecular genetics;
  • "Cold Adapted/Temperature Sensitive Live Attenuated Avian Influenza Vaccines for Poultry, Livestock, and Humans," Daniel Perez, associate professor in the department of veterinary medicine; and
  • "Super Fiber for Human Health," Lucy Yu, professor in the department of nutrition and food science.