As we reflect on 2021, our Innovate Carolina team feels inspired by the many UNC innovators and entrepreneurs with whom we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate this year. Over the past 12 months, our faculty, students, alumni and community partners have found countless ways of using their ingenuity to move the world forward during some of the most challenging scientific, social and economic times. And with each step forward, they’ve brought us closer to the human progress we aspire to achieve: helping our communities and the people who live in them work smarter and live better. Many ideas and inventions advanced by Carolina innovators this year are already making a positive difference. Others are poised to make their mark as we step into 2022.
As this year concludes, members of our Innovate Carolina team share reflections on a few of the many projects and initiatives pursued by Carolina innovators that captured our imaginations in 2021. Such bold endeavors give us immense hope for the innovative possibilities that lie ahead.
Want to help faculty and student innovators make a social and economic impact? Consider making a gift to the Innovate Carolina General Fund or Carolina Startup Connect Program (formerly Dreamers-Who-Do).
In 2021, four teams competed in the UNC-Chapel Hill campus finals of the global Map the System Competition. The Rising Waters team, which explore inequalities in community resiliency to flooding in eastern North Carolina, was selected to represent the University in the Map the System Global Finals.
Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline is preparing to start human trials of an HIV cure in a groundbreaking leap which could finally rid millions of the virus. The British drugs titan hopes to start human trials on a potential cure for the disease as soon as next summer. A GSK spokesman said: “One of the other exciting partnerships is the unique industry/academic partnership we have with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the creation of a biotech called QURA. Our scientists work side by side with UNC scientists at the HIV Cure Center, in the same lab, combining their early science expertise with our drug development expertise to find a cure for HIV.” (The Mail)
How are a new group of UNC graduate students and postdoctoral fellows accelerating the pace of progress for faculty inventors-turned-entrepreneurs? These new startup problem solvers are working through the Venture Catalyst Program to move breakthrough therapies, disruptive treatments and novel technologies from lab to real life.
The recent return of students to Chapel Hill — and the added buzz of activity that they bring to downtown — aren’t the only changes you’re likely to notice around town. Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz and Town of Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger announced a series of steps that the University and town are taking to increase the economic vibrancy of downtown Chapel Hill.
The Office of Technology Commercialization works to accelerate the translation of important ideas into meaningful products and services for the benefit of North Carolina, the world and the University. Working to realize the full potential of UNC-Chapel Hill innovations, the OTC team helps manage the identification, evaluation, protection, translation and commercialization of impactful inventions and technologies. The team also helps find resources, identify partners in industry and business, as well as provides services, training and mentorship to promote entrepreneurship and startup company formation.
More than 30 startup companies visited the UNC-Chapel Hill campus for Carolina Startup Connect 2021 (formerly Dreamers-Who-Do) to meet with Carolina students. This experience included multiple meet-and-greet events that gave both students and local startup companies the chance to network, share mutual professional goals, and explore internship and skill-building opportunities together. Here’s a preview of just a few of the fast-growing ventures that participated.
The National Science Foundation named UNC Chapel Hill an I-Corps site, part of a larger effort to scale the national innovation network to rapidly advance solutions that benefit society. The prestigious designation positions Carolina to deliver focused entrepreneurship training and customer discovery research as part of a larger national effort.
Patients with genetic lysosomal storage diseases are living longer because of better treatments. But with promising advances and longer lives comes complications, like the loss of eyesight, as these rare diseases take their toll over time. UNC-affiliated startup RainBio is changing the landscape of ocular gene therapy with its novel treatment to reverse and prevent blindness in children with rare genetic disease.
With five years down and countless investments to go, the Carolina Angel Network continues to help early-stage startups grow and flourish by providing advice, networks and capital that startups need to be well positioned for success. In CAN’s brief five-year history, it has supported more than 20 startups, with members investing more than $20 million and generating more than $108 million in revenue for the startups.
Magnifying. Adaptive. Powerful. These are just a few of the words students in the first cohort of the Carolina Graduate Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good use to describe their experiences in the program, which teaches students about modern changemaking and helps them hone the skills they need to collaborate with others, partner with government, nonprofits, businesses and communities to tackle challenges in new ways.
The economic impact of startups connected with UNC Chapel Hill continues to grow across North Carolina. A recent analysis conducted by Innovate Carolina, reported the positive effect of UNC-affiliated startups during the past fiscal year as the COVID-19 pandemic dampened local and global economies. The analysis demonstrates how Carolina-based startups work as engines for economic growth, creating jobs and strengthening local economies and communities.
No matter what might trigger a patient’s fears, everyone understands that the faster dental problems can be found, the better. Novel 3D x-ray technology developed through a collaboration between UNC Chapel Hill scientists in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Adams School of Dentistry is looking to do just that: identify dental issues earlier with more detail – and less radiation.
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