The October newsletter highlights how the Christensen Family Center for Innovation's interconnected programs—including GoBIG, Product Lab, Founders Fridays, Business Leadership, and the Research Accelerator—help Duke students and faculty develop ideas, build products, launch ventures, and pursue meaningful innovation.
Congratulations to Duke alumni Tri Vu, Chenhang Li, and Luca Menozzi on their startup's acceptance into Y Combinator and currently raising their seed round. YC is one of the world's most competitive startup accelerators - birthplace of OpenAI, Airbnb, Dropbox, and many more.
Student-led startup pursues award-winning treatment for patients with disruptions to their autonomic body processes.
"Joining the Christensen Family Center for Innovation’s Accelerator Program was one of the most exciting parts of my PhD journey. I’ve always loved research, but I’ve also felt a little frustrated that so much great work ends up confined to journal articles instead of being put to use in the real world. That’s actually why I joined the Chilkoti Lab at Duke—because their translational research has a strong track record of spinning out real startups. By the time I reached the final year of my PhD, I was eager to see if my own research could take that path too. The Accelerator seemed like the perfect way to learn how to bridge the gap between the lab and the marketplace."
One of the Christensen Center's program companies, inSoma Bio (Durham, NC) has been selected as a finalist for the 2025 MedTech Innovator Value Award. Being recognized among such strong global peers is a testament to InSoma Bio’s mission of “We Make Fat Amazing”, their innovative approach in the med-tech space, and the hard work of the founding team and everyone supporting them. The Value Award recognizes outstanding value propositions in healthcare—a spotlight they are more than ready for.
The Christensen Family Center for Innovation had a huge success showcasing twelve Duke Engineering start-ups for our 2025 Spring Showcase!