Past Sponsors Areas of Interest

Many of the Challenge Sponsors have specific areas of need, which we've outlined below. Historically, entries that effectively answer these areas of need increase their chances of being chosen as Finalists.

Look below to see the sponsors areas of interest from the 2024 200K Challenge

- Drug delivery and manufacturing technologies that enable multiple new therapeutics and optimizes the patient experience (ex. advanced assembly of multi-specifics)
- Artificial intelligence and/or automated technologies to support life science operations:
- Automation, miniaturization, & high-throughput
- Data collection, utilization, & management

Endovascular
- Cardiology
- Neurosurgery
- Drug/Device Combination (precision delivery of targeted therapeutics/biologics)
- Peripheral Interventions
- Electrophysiology/Mapping/Ablation (various energy sources)
- Any smart guidewire or catheter-related technologies

Medical Robotics
- Endovascular technologies in Robotics
- Interventional robotics
- Endoscopic robotics
- Flexible Endoscopy
- Endoscopic accessories/surgical equipment (through 3mm workchannel)
- ERCP devices
- Single Use Endoscopes

- ReDirect – Repurposing existing therapeutics as countermeasures
- Lab at Home – Novel platform technologies and instrumentation for on-demand detection of multiple health markers
- Digital MCM’s – Diagnostic tools to augment existing MCM’s
- Host-Directed Therapeutics – Therapies aimed at fortifying and restoring balance to the body’s natural defense mechanisms
- Healing Lungs – Addressing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients
- Vaccines on Demand – Manufacturing technologies / systems for vaccine production/distribution at or near point of service
- RePair – repurposing existing FDA-approved and late-stage development therapeutics as potential MCMs for radiological and nuclear events

Bayer

- Oncology: Targeted Radionuclide Therapies (TRT), Precision Molecular Oncology (PMO), Next Generation Immuno-Oncology (IO)
- Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases:
- Novel treatments and therapies in Chronic Kidney Disease, Heart Failure, and Rare Disease

UMass CAPCat

Point of Care Technologies specific to the following disorders:
- Heart
- Lung
- Blood
- Sleep

Devices intended to simplify and improve therapeutic procedures, especially in minimally invasive surgery, filling treatment gaps and advancing patient care

Surgical spaces of interest include:
- Uterine (e.g. Hysterectomy, Myomectomy, Endometriosis, Hysteroscopy)
- Pelvic (Stress incontinence, Overactive bladder, Pelvic organ prolapse)
- Breast (Lumpectomy, Mastectomy)
- Urologic (Cystoscopy, BPH, Stone management, resection)
- ENT (Thyroidectomy, neck dissections)
- Pediatric (Appendectomy, Hernia)
- General (Bariatric, Bowel, colon) 

J&J Medtech

- Cardiovascular
- Neurovascular
- Obesity
- Osteoarthritis
- Osteoporosis
- Interventional oncology
- Surgical ophthalmology
- Orthopedic Repair – soft tissue and infection prevention
- Robotic Surgery & Digital Solutions
- Tissue Regeneration & Repair
- Advanced Imaging & Visualization
- Biomaterials & Biologics
- Digital Technology using AI/ML

UMass M2D2

Novel innovations / solutions in the following therapeutic areas:
- Critical care
- Emergency medicine
- Cardiac arrest
- Respiratory arrest
- Sepsis
- Trauma
- Post-myocardial infarction

Novel innovations / solutions in the following technology areas:

- Non-invasive patient monitoring
- Real-time quantification of coronary and peripheral microvascular function in a clinical setting using variables (or surrogates) such as flow, velocity, pressure, and/or resistance. 

2024 $200K Challenge Sponsors