Students plan to market breath test for lung cancer
NULL February 5, 2013LOUISVILLE, Ky.—A breath test for lung cancer being developed at the University of Louisville could save more than 130,000 lives and $2 billion in medical costs a year, say four UofL business students who want to bring the test to market.
Entrepreneurship MBA students Justus Zils, Bayard Donaldson, Nick Muscato and J.D. Edington have formed a company, VOC Diagnostics, to market the test. They will unveil their venture at the Brown-Forman Cardinal Challenge Feb. 15-16 at the Marriott Downtown Louisville.
The UofL team is one of 12 business school teams pitching ideas for start-up ventures at the regional contest sponsored by UofL’s business school.
A Johns Hopkins University team will present their plan for EchoSure, a technology designed to help surgeons detect blood flow loss in transplant patients, while a University of California Los Angeles team will promote Neural Analytics, a product that measures pressure inside the skull to help diagnose brain injuries.
The first-place team in the contest will claim $15,000, a bid to the national 2013 Venture Labs Investment Competition and the “Launch in Louisville” package for start-up businesses, a collection of more than $100,000 in cash and services.
Teams finishing second, third and fourth will receive $5,000, $3,000 and $1,500. Lower-finishing teams will vie in a “fast pitch” contest requiring them to sell their business idea to judges in less than a minute—an event with first and second prizes of $1,500 and $1,000.
UofL’s team plans to market VitaLung, a device that uses biomarkers to detect volatile organic compounds in a patient’s breath. The test could replace CT scans as the best way to screen high-risk patients for lung cancer, the students said.
For more information, see business.louisville.edu/cardinalchallenge or call Van Clouse at 502-724-7320.