Winners of UC San Diego 5th Annual $100k Business Plan Competition Announced

Winners of UC San Diego 5^th Annual $100k Business Plan Competition Announced

Imagine personalized medicine, detection of lethal diseases with a hand held device and the vision of a self-sustaining cycle of clean energy. These are the dreams being realized today by the top 3 winning start-ups at the 5^th Annual UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge Business Plan Competition.

On June 1^st, 2011, over 300 students, faculty, investors, professionals and entrepreneurs witnessed five teams pitch live at the Neuroscience Institute in La Jolla, California, to a judging panel of a veritable who’s who of San Diego science, technology and business.

The Prize: over $100,000 in cash and entrepreneurial startup services.

1^st Prize-$57,000 in cash and services

NeuroMap, led by Dr. Alexey Terskikh of the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute, Dr. Dmitri Sivtsov of the UCSD Medical School, Dr. Andrew Rabinovich and Daniel Norton of the Rady School of Management, took first prize with the goal of making depression therapeutics personal. Using both induced pluripotent stem cells and full genome sequencing approaches, NeuroMap is developing a technology that will accurately determine the right antidepressant medication for each individual patient suffering from depression. The estimated market for this technology is over $5 billion annually, and will save patients and their insurance providers $2500 annually.
Contact: Daniel Norton -- danielnorton25@gmail.com

2^nd Prize-$28,000 in cash and services

2nd prize was awarded to DevaCell, a venture out of the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD that is developing technology to put the technically demanding techniques of molecular biology into the palm of your hand for rapid diagnostics. Led by Electrical Engineering Ph.D. candidate Inanc Ortac, and recently minted Ph.D.s Ahmet Erten and Corbin Clawson in Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering, respectively, DevaCell has the mission of eradicating the hospital-acquired infections (HAI) from hospitals around the world. Their platform technology allows early detection potentially reducing 50% of infections and saving hospitals an estimated $10 billion annually in HAI related costs alone.
Contact: Inanc Ortac -- iortac@ucsd.edu

3^rd Prize-$15,500 in cash and services

Graduate of the Rady School of Management and president of Interra Energy, Thomas Del Monte invented a technology that will bring new meaning to the term “renewable energy”. Through the development of a unique thermodynamic process, Interra has created a system which turns biomass into renewable natural gas and a valuable soil enhancer called biochar. Biochar can be utilized in agriculture to substantially increase yields. The application of this technology represents a leap forward in the development of biochar and electricity production. Interra was also awarded $2,000 cash for winning the Clean Track Division of the competition.
Contact: Thomas Del Monte -- thomas@interraenergy.us

About the UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge

The UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge is a wholly student founded and operated non-profit organization with the mission of educating, connecting and funding aspiring student entrepreneurs at UCSD and surrounding research institutes. For more information: http://challenge.ucsd.edu

UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge
Kenan Azam, CEO
1-619-888-4576
kenan.azam@challenge.ucsd.edu