First ever UMSOM "Shark Tank" competition for biomedical research awards $120,000 for innovative faculty projects

The members of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Board of Visitors (BOV) regularly serve as advisors to the school on strategic planning, fundraising, and philanthropy. But on December 17, the Board members took on a new role for the very first time — they became “sharks.”

Modeled after the popular reality television show “Shark Tank”, where a panel of venture capitalist investors dubbed “sharks” listen to business pitches from entrepreneurs and decide which pitch to invest in, the Board members judged a friendly competition among faculty researchers to award funding to those with the most innovative and feasible research ideas. The Discovery Fund Challenge Innovation Pitch event offered $120,000 in funding, with $50,000 going to the first place winner selected by the Board, $25,000 each going to the second and third place pitches, and the remaining $20,000 split among the two runners-up.

The idea for the event came from conversations  between new Board member Dana Martin, the founder and CEO of Bridstowe Capital, LLC, and Mark T. Gladwin, MD, who is the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of UMSOM, and Vice President for Medical Affairs at University of Maryland, Baltimore. Martin and Dean Gladwin had been discussing ways for the Board to help stimulate new faculty ventures. Martin donated an initial $100,000 toward the event. 

“I was inspired by seeing the diverse group of physicians and entrepreneurs throughout the UMSOM and UMMC system,” Martin said. “And working in venture capital, I know how seed money can blossom into something incredible when people have an opportunity to pursue their passions.”

After the researcher pitches, Board members Alfred Berkeley, Michael Greenebaum, and Maurice Reid, MD, were so impressed with the proposals that they came together to provide additional support. Dean Gladwin, seeing an opportunity to highlight and advance innovative UMSOM faculty projects intended to revolutionize clinical diagnostics, enhance patient care, and ultimately save lives, also contributed funding from his unrestricted resources.

The event showcased the deep well of innovative talent and entrepreneurial spirit among UMSOM researchers and clinicians, according to Dean Gladwin, who selected the five participants for the event from an initial 16 researcher project submissions.

“This Innovation Pitch event is part of our School of Medicine’s larger effort to foster a new cohort of biotech entrepreneurs who will advance, sustain, and elevate new healthcare technologies in Maryland and beyond,” Dean Gladwin said. “Baltimore is rapidly emerging as a global hub for med/tech innovation, and we need continue to find creative ways to unlock the full potential of this region to drive advancements in healthcare, to attract top talent, and to generate economic growth.”

The winner of the “Shark Tank” style competition: Elizabeth Powell, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Surgery and a reservist Major in the U.S. Air Force. She received $50,000 in funding for a plan to pilot a cellphone-based application, developed by the U.S. military, for directly streaming de-identified patient data from first responders to a receiving resuscitation unit. Michael Kallen, MD, Associate Professor of Pathology, and Khanjan Nagarsheth, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, earned the two runners-up awards of $25,000 each for their projects developing machine learning alternatives to existing tissue sample biopsy techniques and smart dressings that would oxygenate chronic wounds, respectively.

“I don't know how I'm going to go back to normal pitches after this,” Dr. Kallen said. “They asked great questions and everyone was very supportive.”

Helen Dooley, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Seth Ament, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, also presented their research in the “Shark Tank” format, which gave each participant three minutes to pitch their project and three minutes of Q&A. Dr. Dooley presented on her ongoing project developing temperature-stable snake antivenoms, while Dr. Ament proposed research using advanced super-resolution light microscopy to map nanoscale structural differences at nerve cell connections in patients with and without schizophrenia. Drs. Dooley and Ament each received $10,000 toward their projects. 

The winning proposal, led by Dr. Powell and a team from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), focuses on an AFRL-developed emergency medicine tool, supported by UMB researchers through a cooperative agreement for en route care research. The Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Operation Kit-Joint, or BATDOK-J, is a mobile app that allows first responders to stream data from patient monitoring to the BATDOK-J app without requiring manual entry. The app then relays patient vitals and descriptions of first responder interventions in the field to the staff and physicians at the receiving emergency medical facility, enabling a seamless hand off when the patient arrives.

University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty and members of the school's Board of Visitors gathered after the first ever Discovery Fund Challenge Innovation Pitch event on December 17. From left to right: Helen Dooley, PhD; Michael I. Greenebaum, Chair of the Board of Visitors; Seth Ament, PhD; Mark T. Gladwin, MD; Elizabeth Powell; Khanjan Nagarsheth, MD; and Michael Kallen, MD.

“Sometimes important information can get lost simply because everyone is working hard to save the patient’s life,” Dr. Powell said. “BATDOK-J ensures all the important information gathered in the pre-hospital environment makes it to the trauma team and allows them to mobilize resources before the patient’s arrival.”

Michael I. Greenebaum, and Mark T. Gladwin, MD, present funding awards to faculty members at the first ever Discovery Fund Challenge Innovation Pitch event on December 17.

Dr. Powell’s project will install a civilian version of BATDOK-J on Maryland State Police helicopters for a 12-month pilot program, testing BATDOK-J’s use in civilian medical centers for the first time.

“The project will launch as soon as we obtain the funding and hardware, sometime in the first quarter of 2025,” Dr. Powell said. “While we’re starting with MSP helicopters, the hope is to develop this resource so it is available to every patient, whether they are airlifted or transported by ambulance.”

Dr. Kallen’s runner-up winning proposal will extend his collaboration with Los Angeles-based biotechnology company Pictor Labs to develop computer imaging techniques that could eventually replace existing histology processes for diagnosing diseases. Current approaches to tissue biopsy require removing sample tissue and preparing microscope slides using chemical stains to make cellular changes visible to pathologists.

But chemical stains also destroy the limited tissue samples. So Dr. Kallen and Pictor Labs have developed AI technology that could replicate histology stains in a digital format using a single tissue sample, with a significant reduction in processing time and costs. 

”By using this technology, we can deliver a full phenotype, an accurate diagnosis, and a molecular signature nearly instantaneously for patients in our cancer center. That's the goal,” Dr. Kallen said. “And this technology has implications beyond just our little corner of the world in Baltimore.”

The “Shark Tank” format event allowed UMSOM researchers to hone their skills in pitching their projects to professionals without biomedical research backgrounds, according to Dr. Powell, who prepared for her presentation by watching YouTube videos of successful Shark Tank pitches.

“I’m not selling anything to people in a traditional sense, but if you think about it, you’re always selling your ideas to people,” she said. “All of us who presented got to highlight all of the incredible things happening at this institution and think about them differently. I hope we can do this again.”