Visible Healing
Wei He and Mike Golebiowski
Ages: 27, 29
Idea: Tracking cancer cells in a patient's body
Prize: Purdue University's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship ($30,000)
Wei He, a doctoral candidate in chemistry at Purdue University, came up with a promising technique for tracking cancer cells in a patient's body. So he reached across campus to find a fellow student with entrepreneurial training to help develop a product. He found Mike Golebiowski, in his second year at Purdue's Krannert School of Management.
The idea? Fluorescent dye injected into a patient's bloodstream makes cancerous cells more visible when they're hit with a laser. The procedure can help doctors tell whether treatments are working or need to be modified, or if cancer is spreading. After conducting successful tests on animals, they're developing a prototype for testing on humans. The pair, with fellow grad student Yuehui Ouyang, who is working on software, formed IV Flow LLC. They're on the hunt for more funding, and scouting office space near campus.