Vie Diagnostics with Michael Bauer, President of the Herbert B. Jones Foundation. Team members Mark Borysiak, Babak Modhadam, Charlie Corredor, Congratulations to Charlie Corredor and Renuka Ramanathan for their success in the 2015 UW Business Plan Competition . Each was a member of a team that won a seed money for their start-up businesses. Both Charlie and Renuka are Ph.D. candidates in the dual title degree in Nanotechnology & Molecular Engineering offer through the MolES Institute.
Charlie is a member of Vie Diagnostics which took home top honors and a $25,000 grand prize at the competition. The company focuses on a significant portion of patients attending STD clinics that fail to follow up for treatment, even when tests are positive and the risk for transmission and complication is highest. Phoresa’s (formerly Vie Diagnostics) disruptive molecular diagnostic technology will reduce the spread and pain of STD infections by allowing patients to be tested and treated in a single clinical visit. Its tests will provide better patient management, lower costs for clinics, and improve overall public health. Vie Diagnostics also won the “Best Innovation” prize at the competition.
Renuka is a member of Empreva , with aims to empower and engage women across the world to take their health into their own hands by providing a safe, convenient, and comfortable method for birth control and STI prevention.Empreva is developing birth control and combination birth control/anti-HIV products to benefit the health of women in high-HIV burden areas of the developing world who lack options for protection. Empreva also won the “Best Health/Healthcare Prize” at the competition.
About the UW Business Plan Competition: The UW Business Plan Competition, run by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the Foster School of Business, offers innovative and entrepreneurial students an opportunity to turn their ideas into compelling and viable startups. In the past 18 years 1,278 student teams from 16 colleges and universities around Washington state have participated in the competition, and the Buerk Center has awarded over $1.3 million in prize money/seed funding to 140 winning teams"”over half of which are still in business.