Discovery Days: Three FSU-affiliated startups awarded $110,000 for innovative, cutting-edge ideas at FSU Discovery Challenge

Presenters each had seven minutes to pitch their project for a chance at funding, followed by questions from judges. The judges for the event were Kathy Chiu, Louis Foreman, Cristina Larkin and Keevin Williams. All four have years of experience in the venture capital funding and entrepreneurial spaces.

The three presentations featured a range of topics: a solution to seafood mislabeling and substitution; new technologies for wideband radio frequency semiconductor products and tools; and life-saving therapies for deadly brain tumors.

Kyle Parella with Cypris Therapeutics took the first prize of $50,000 as well as the crowd favorite award of $10,000; Dave Williams with SeaD Consulting took home the second prize of $25,000; and runner-up Qianli Mu with AMRF Technologies also received $25,000.

Kyle Parella: Cypris Therapeutics

Parella won first place and crowd favorite for his company’s development of a promising potential treatment option for patients with glioblastoma, a fast-growing and deadly brain tumor that will affect more than 200,000 people this year.

Currently with the best treatments available, patients can look at extending their life expectancy by about 12 to 18 months. Cypris, in partnership with FSU associate professor James (Jim) Frederich, has seen that their new treatment development could be 60% more effective than others on the market while showing minimal toxicity toward healthy brain tissue.

“We’re really grateful to FSU for putting this event on and for being able to reach more people about the urgent issue that we’re addressing,” Parella said. “We’re not just doing glioblastoma; we’re also going after pancreatic and colon cancer, which currently don’t have any drugs to address these two biggest killers.”

Dave Williams: SeaD Consulting

Williams took home second prize for his company SeaD Consulting’s development of RIGHTTest, a rapid ID genetics high-accuracy test to help identify seafood mislabeling and substitution.

He says that seventy percent of seafood is mislabeled causing many to pay for one product when in actuality they are getting an entirely different product altogether. RIGHTTest enhances transparency and authenticity, providing test results in two hours.

Qianli Mu: AMRF Technologies

Mu was named a runner-up for his company’s pitch proposing new technologies for wideband radio frequency semiconductor products and tools. Alongside Bayaner Arigong from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, the company is working to further the technology around antennas used for detection and communication that would have implications for civilian and government use.

Specifically, the company is proposing wideband standard radio frequency solutions surrounding signal conditioning and amplification through modularization and integration.

Discovery Challenge was supported by FSU’s IGNITE initiative, a program designed to grow new technology ventures through business development expertise, an expansive community network, top-of-the-line facilities and access to funding sources.

FSU Discovery Days events continue through Saturday, Oct. 12. For the full calendar of events, visit discoverydays.fsu.edu