National Science Foundation

Auctus Biologics is a pre-clinical biotechnology company focused on developing antibody mimetics for therapeutic and diagnostic uses. By engineering a ribose-binding protein, the company aims to create a scaffold that binds clinical targets with an affinity comparable to monoclonal antibodies while addressing the limitations associated with traditional antibodies. These limitations include instability and the need for costly cold-chain logistics, which can hinder their effectiveness in extreme environments such as the gastrointestinal tract. Auctus Biologics' innovative approach allows for treatments that are not only more resilient, capable of withstanding conditions like repeated boiling cycles, but also more accessible and cost-effective for patients. This advancement may significantly enhance the delivery of advanced medical therapies.

ARIX Technologies, Inc. is a robotics and data analytics company that specializes in developing crawling robots for pipeline inspection in the oil and gas sector. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Jackson, Louisiana, with an engineering office in Houston, Texas, the company’s technology combines robotics with advanced data analytics to enhance the detection and analysis of corrosion in pipeline assets. This innovative approach not only improves safety and sustainability for petrochemical facilities but also offers significant cost savings in manufacturing operations. Through its solutions, ARIX Technologies aims to transform pipeline monitoring practices, enabling companies to better manage their infrastructure.

Phoenix Waste Solutions, founded in 2019 and based in Chauvin, Louisiana, specializes in innovative waste disposal technology that is both pollution-free and fuel-free. The company's patented ion generator operates at a molecular level to mitigate pollution, offering effective solutions for waste disposal and plastic pollution. By providing a decentralized waste management system, Phoenix Waste Solutions aims to reduce costs and lower the carbon footprint for the waste management industry, addressing critical environmental challenges with advanced technological approaches.

Instapath Inc. specializes in designing and developing a microscopy system that enhances the evaluation of cancer biopsies. The company’s technology allows for imaging biopsy samples at subcellular resolution immediately after removal, while also preserving the tissue for future analysis. This innovation aims to address a critical need, as over 7 million Americans undergo biopsy procedures annually, with a significant portion failing to provide accurate diagnoses, leading to costly repeat procedures. By improving rapid on-site evaluation of biopsies, Instapath’s system reduces the necessity for these repeat procedures, thereby increasing operating room efficiency and potentially boosting hospital revenue. Founded in 2017, Instapath is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

BioAesthetics Corporation, founded in 2015 as a spin-out from Tulane University, specializes in developing innovative reconstruction solutions for breast cancer patients who have undergone mastectomies. The company's primary product is a tissue-engineered nipple-areolar complex (NAC), designed to facilitate the regeneration of the nipple and areola during the breast reconstruction phase. This biologically derived graft serves as an acellular, off-the-shelf option for plastic and reconstructive surgeons, allowing the patient's own cells to integrate and restore the NAC. Currently in the pre-clinical phase, this patent-pending technology aims to improve surgical outcomes and enhance the quality of life for patients with incomplete or removed NACs due to disease, surgery, or birth defects. BioAesthetics is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Cloud services have become ubiquitous to all major 21st century economic activities. However, cloud services and technologies can be significantly more powerful than they are now. A persistent barrier to further advancement has been the lack of a large-scale and open cloud research platforms. With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Chameleon project will provide such a large-scale platform to the open research community allowing them explore transformative concepts in deeply programmable cloud services, design, and core technologies. Chameleon will allow users to explore problems ranging from the creation of Software as a Service to kernel support for virtualization. This broad range of supported research includes many other areas such as developing Platforms as a Service, creating new and optimizing existing Infrastructure as a Service components, investigating software-defined networking, and optimizing virtualization technologies. The Chameleon testbed, will be deployed at the University of Chicago and the Texas Advanced Computing Center and will consist of 650 multi-core cloud nodes, 5PB of total disk space, and leverage 100 Gbps connection between the sites. While a large part of the testbed will consist of homogenous hardware to support large-scale experiments, a portion of it will support heterogeneous units allowing experimentation with high-memory, large-disk, low-power, GPU, and co-processor units. The project will also leverage existing FutureGrid hardware at the University of Chicago and the Texas Advanced Computing Center in its first year to provide a transition period for the existing FutureGrid community of experimental users. To support the broad range of experiments experiments described above, the project will support a graduated configuration system allowing full user configurability of the software stack, from provisioning of bare metal and network interconnects to delivery of fully functioning cloud environments. A special feature of Chameleon is that it provides for an exceptionally close integration of clouds and networks, which substantially enhances the capabilities of both. In addition, to facilitate experiments, Chameleon will support a set of services designed to meet researchers needs, including support for experimental management, reproducibility, and repositories of trace and workload data of production cloud workloads. The project is led by the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago and partners from the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the International Center for Advanced Internet Research at Northwestern University, the Ohio State University, and University of Texas at San Antonio, comprising a highly qualified and experienced team. The team includes members from the NSF supported FutureGrid project and from the GENI community, both forerunners of the NSFCloud solicitation under which this project is funded. Chameleon will also form a set of partnerships with commercial and academic clouds, such as Rackspace, CERN and Open Science Data Cloud (OSDC), and will partner with other testbeds, notably GENI and INRIA's Grid'5000 testbed.

Chosen Diagnostics specializes in developing innovative biomarker diagnostic kits aimed at enhancing healthcare delivery for neonates. The company’s primary product is a test designed to diagnose a serious and potentially life-threatening bowel disease in preterm infants. This diagnostic kit provides more accurate results compared to existing methods, facilitating earlier medical intervention. By enabling timely detection of critical health issues, Chosen Diagnostics aims to improve treatment outcomes for thousands of low birth weight preterm infants, ultimately leading to better healthcare results in this vulnerable population.

Provider of end-to-end molecular surveillance services intended to treat infectious disease dynamics and molecular surveillance of pathogens. The company's services include ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction, genomic sequencing, data analytics, and cloud-based data visualizations., enabling clients to research and develop various tests and avail of proper lab services.

Levisonics is focused on creating innovative blood coagulation devices that employ a non-contact technique for analyzing blood coagulation and fluid quality control testing. The company's platform is designed to achieve high accuracy while requiring only small sample volumes. By utilizing this advanced technology, Levisonics enables users to assess bleeding and thrombosis risks effectively, enhancing the capability for haemostatic assays and fluid rheological measurements.

Developer of an interferometry technology platform designed to generate images. The company's platform specializes in microfabrication, X-ray, and neutron grating interferometry which can generate information through the interaction of electromagnetic waves, enabling industries to improve the performance of gratings with support structures.

Provider of end-to-end molecular surveillance services intended to treat infectious disease dynamics and molecular surveillance of pathogens. The company's services include ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction, genomic sequencing, data analytics, and cloud-based data visualizations., enabling clients to research and develop various tests and avail of proper lab services.

Instapath Inc. specializes in designing and developing a microscopy system that enhances the evaluation of cancer biopsies. The company’s technology allows for imaging biopsy samples at subcellular resolution immediately after removal, while also preserving the tissue for future analysis. This innovation aims to address a critical need, as over 7 million Americans undergo biopsy procedures annually, with a significant portion failing to provide accurate diagnoses, leading to costly repeat procedures. By improving rapid on-site evaluation of biopsies, Instapath’s system reduces the necessity for these repeat procedures, thereby increasing operating room efficiency and potentially boosting hospital revenue. Founded in 2017, Instapath is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Louisiana Multi-Functional-Materials Group, established in 2016 and located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, specializes in the manufacture of innovative sealants designed for transportation infrastructure. The company produces a two-way shape memory polymer-based smart material that effectively seals joints and cracks. This advanced material exhibits unique thermal properties, expanding when cooled and contracting when heated, which contrasts with the behavior of traditional construction materials such as cement and asphalt. This capability allows clients to address thermal damage by sealing cracks and filling joints, thereby enhancing the durability and longevity of transportation infrastructure.

PatentDive builds tools for assisted invention disclosure and rapid patent drafting. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the company's visual interface for patent drafting enables users to break down their big ideas and transform them into patent applications. The application delivers gamified patent education which enables users to make smart decisions as they use the application. The software is for use by patent professionals (lawyers and patent agents), inventors, entrepreneurs, corporate innovation departments, in house patent counsel, technology transfer offices, schools, and others.

Provider of end-to-end molecular surveillance services intended to treat infectious disease dynamics and molecular surveillance of pathogens. The company's services include ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction, genomic sequencing, data analytics, and cloud-based data visualizations., enabling clients to research and develop various tests and avail of proper lab services.

Bascom Hunter specializes in providing advanced technical services tailored for the aerospace and defense sectors. The company offers a range of services, including technical consulting, engineering, design, installation, and technology development. Its expertise encompasses thermal management systems, liquid cooling systems, air management and ventilation, as well as quick-turn circuit board manufacturing and RF testing. By focusing on these areas, Bascom Hunter aims to deliver solutions that meet the high performance specifications required in challenging environments, thereby addressing the pressing technological needs of the 21st century.

AxoSim, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in New Orleans, Louisiana, that specializes in developing innovative platforms for drug discovery in neuroscience. The company offers Nerve-on-a-Chip, a platform designed to predict clinical neurotoxicity and model human neurodegenerative diseases, thereby streamlining the drug development process for biopharmaceutical companies. AxoSim's technologies include NerveSim, which provides an in vitro model featuring Schwann cell myelination and essential metrics for human translation, and BrainSim, which focuses on human-relevant oligodendrocyte myelination. Additionally, AxoSim grows living human cells in a three-dimensional environment that mimics nerve tissue, enhancing the relevance of its models for testing neurotoxicity and related diseases. Founded in 2014, AxoSim aims to advance neuroscience and improve the efficiency of developing effective therapies.

Developer of a portable work surface for wheelchairs designed to offer assistive technology integrated with human factor design to give individuals access to advanced and available technology in market. The company's portable work surface is designed for power wheelchair and can be used fr storing, deploying and charging mobile devices as well as eating, reading, writing and transporting items, enabling people with limited hand or arm function to increase their independence and productivity on a power wheelchair.

PatentDive builds tools for assisted invention disclosure and rapid patent drafting. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the company's visual interface for patent drafting enables users to break down their big ideas and transform them into patent applications. The application delivers gamified patent education which enables users to make smart decisions as they use the application. The software is for use by patent professionals (lawyers and patent agents), inventors, entrepreneurs, corporate innovation departments, in house patent counsel, technology transfer offices, schools, and others.

Bascom Hunter specializes in providing advanced technical services tailored for the aerospace and defense sectors. The company offers a range of services, including technical consulting, engineering, design, installation, and technology development. Its expertise encompasses thermal management systems, liquid cooling systems, air management and ventilation, as well as quick-turn circuit board manufacturing and RF testing. By focusing on these areas, Bascom Hunter aims to deliver solutions that meet the high performance specifications required in challenging environments, thereby addressing the pressing technological needs of the 21st century.

Fluence Analytics, Inc. specializes in manufacturing monitoring solutions for industrial and laboratory settings, focusing on the measurement and analysis of polymer production processes. The company provides a system that analyzes polymers during production and a light scattering instrument designed to assess the stability of therapeutic proteins and the quality of both natural and synthetic polymers. By generating continuous data streams and employing proprietary analytical tools, Fluence Analytics enables real-time optimization of process control and accelerates research and development for its clients in the polymer and biopharmaceutical sectors. Founded in 2012 and based in New Orleans, Louisiana, the company was previously known as Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies, Inc. before rebranding in April 2017.

Bascom Hunter specializes in providing advanced technical services tailored for the aerospace and defense sectors. The company offers a range of services, including technical consulting, engineering, design, installation, and technology development. Its expertise encompasses thermal management systems, liquid cooling systems, air management and ventilation, as well as quick-turn circuit board manufacturing and RF testing. By focusing on these areas, Bascom Hunter aims to deliver solutions that meet the high performance specifications required in challenging environments, thereby addressing the pressing technological needs of the 21st century.

InnoGenomics Technologies provides genetic testing solutions. That provides DNA quantification, STR genotyping, genotyping and gene expression assays, and other DNA services. They also provide biological sample research and development, validations, and training services.