Category: Entrepreneurship Page 1 of 2

Like many students, those enrolled in the Design Climate two-course sequence recently held final presentations. However, their pitches on April 18 reflected not just one semester of work, but rather an entire year’s worth of planning, experimenting, and revising creative environmental solutions.

These courses are a tinkering space, so it shouldn’t have surprised me how much some of the projects had transformed in concept since they were pitched at the Energy Week Innovation Showcase in November. The team Connexus, which recently become incorporated, aims to bring more people into solar installation and weatherization jobs via an unlikely tool: virtual reality.

An earlier version of this project focused more narrowly on bringing jobs and energy security to Enfield, North Carolina via microloans and financial literacy. In this rural town, many live below the poverty line and suffer from high energy rates. When the team began exploring the concept of building solar infrastructure in Enfield, they found this had been tried before to little avail.

So instead, they focused on how to bridge people to the jobs needed in the field.

Duke students Samson Bienstock, Karimah Preston, and Tyler Rahe–all graduate students with engineering backgrounds–emphasized that with the increased number of people entering college, there’s a growing gap to be filled in the trades.

“There’s students who are looking to get into jobs that don’t require college, and there’s also companies that are looking to hire them, but they’re not exactly sure where they meet in the middle,” said Preston. Connexus essentially plans to be middle man, accelerating job placement by training graduating high school students.

*Tyler Rahe demonstrates what a user sees while completing the VR training modules*

They differentiate themselves from other recruiting companies with VR. Through virtual training modules, high schoolers that might otherwise not consider these careers can experience what it might be like to work as a solar installer or in another trade. This training is “gamified to help engage them and…interact with what they’d be doing on the real job site,” said Rahe. “We would then assess them and screen them based on their job readiness, to see where they would be a great fit and place them directly into these companies…”

Beyond prompting interest, the benefit of using VR is that potential employees can receive training before ever stepping foot on the actual job. Connexus believes that because of this, businesses that utilize their services would likely see better retention rates in workers.

At the UNC Cleantech Summit, Rahe said they surveyed people on “how compelling and clear our ideas are and what what the need actually is…We were testing that assumption. Is this need actually there, or are these just stats [sic]?” According to him, they received promising results: “high recommendations from investors, from educational institutes, [and] from companies that require skilled trades.”

So while Connexus were originally inspired by Enfield, their solution isn’t specialized to only serve one community. They plan to offer services throughout the Carolinas, partnering with colleges and high schools. “Environmentally, we’re hoping to fuel great infrastructure development and support the energy transition,” Preston said.

Meanwhile, Andrew Johnson, Eesha Yaqub, Adiya Jumagaliyeva, Claire Qiu, Mark Lamendola, and Joey Offen are working with chemistry professor Jie Liu on reducing the environmental impact of creating fertilizer. The last time I spoke to Lamendola, a graduate student at the Nicholas School of the Environment, his team was looking to upscale a carbon neutral method for producing synthetic methane. Since then, the group has slightly pivoted, becoming LightSyn Labs.

“In the first semester we looked at the sort of the carbon dioxide to methane pathway, and we still think that’s a viable commercialization opportunity,” Lamendola said. However, the group decided to make the change after speaking to the Luol Deng Foundation. Founded by its Duke basketball alum namesake, it’s based in South Sudan, a largely rural country that relies on agriculture.

That’s important, because their new focus is on using a less carbon intensive process to create ammonia, the main ingredient in most fertilizers. Currently, almost all ammonia production occurs through the Haber-Bosch process, in which hydrogen and nitrogen react to form ammonia. While its discovery greatly improved agricultural returns, the Haber process also requires a lot of energy.

LightSyn Labs is looking to replace it with a method called plasmonic catalysis, developed at Duke by Jie Liu and his colleagues. “It’s activated by light,” Lamendola said. Unlike the Haber process, “it doesn’t rely on high pressure and temperature to drive the reaction.” That means less energy is required and as a result, lower greenhouse emissions and lower costs for farmers, all without disrupting food security. As a “system that requires no heavy infrastructure,” this type of green ammonia production can also occur locally instead of relying on global supply chains, increasing self-sufficiency among South Sudanese farmers.

In a way, everything leading up to this presentation is a warm up for a much larger pitch. This team has been chosen to compete for cash prizes in the EnergyTech Up University Prize Challenge, hosted by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions. Looking even further than that, they predict they’ll need four years–and some strategic partnerships–for LightSyn Labs to fully launch.

The spirit of the Design Climate program is one rooted in entrepreneurship and real-world feasibility. This far from the end for these teams–in fact, this stage is just the beginning.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

Protecting Your Work 101

By Noor Nazir

On March 3, 2025

In Entrepreneurship

A Disney star waves their wand, tracing three glowing circles in the air—Mickey Mouse’s head. With that Disney smile, they say, “You’re watching Disney Channel.”

Iconic, right? Instantly recognizable? Absolutely.

Protected? Without a doubt.

Disney holds patents on a variety of innovations—including fireworks that explode into specific shapes. Intellectual property (IP) protections like patents, trademarks and copyrights allow companies to safeguard their creative and technological ideas.

If you think you’ve just come up with the next big breakthrough, the first step isn’t just to celebrate and start working on it—it’s to patent it.

When Jodi Psoter, head of Duke’s Marine Lab Library and an expert in science research strategies, gave a talk on patents, she broke it down for people like me—someone who knew next to nothing about them.

Jodi Psoter, Head, Marine Lab Library and Librarian for Marine Science

Here’s what I learned:

What Are Patents?

A patent is a legal tool that grants inventors exclusive rights to their inventions for a set period. An important disclaimer, in Psoter’s words, “I wish I had a good meme for the fact that I am not a lawyer – and this is not legal advice.” As a science expert, however, she comprehensively laid out the essentials: what a patent is, how it differs from research articles, when to apply for one, and the steps to do so.

Protecting your work 101 broken down:

Patents protect inventions, such as a new chemical compound or a technological innovation.
Trademarks cover branding elements like logos and names (yes, Duke has one!).
Copyrights safeguard creative works, such as literature, music, and even game designs.

Patents vs Trade Secrets

In addition to patents, another key form of intellectual property protection is trade secrets. Unlike patents, which require public disclosure in exchange for exclusive rights, trade secrets protect valuable, confidential information that gives a company a competitive edge. Jodi Psoter highlighted Coca-Cola’s secret formula as a classic example—closely guarded and never patented to ensure indefinite protection. For something to qualify as a trade secret, three elements must apply:

1. It must have value by the fact that it is not known. If the information were public, it would lose its competitive advantage.

2. Others must want the information. If competitors could benefit from knowing it, it has economic significance.

3. Efforts must be taken to maintain its secrecy. Companies must actively safeguard trade secrets through confidentiality agreements, restricted access, and legal measures.

Unlike patents, which expire after a set period, trade secrets can last indefinitely—as long as they remain secret. If disclosed, whether intentionally or through a breach, they lose protection. This makes them a crucial but high-risk form of intellectual property for businesses aiming to maintain an advantage in their industry.

Similar to patenting, trade secrets are also a crucial step to possibly protect your future work!

Types of Patents

I’m no researcher, quite the opposite in fact. In the simplest terms, for you and me, here are the types of patents:

1. Utility Patents: They cover new processes, machines, or compositions of matter (this is what Disney has for their fireworks!).

2. Design Patents: They protect the visual appearance of a product (Nike, for example, has patented sneaker designs rather than the sneakers themselves).

3. Plant Patents: they apply to new plant varieties produced through asexual reproduction.

Patents must be novel and non-obvious. Psoter explained, “It has to be a new idea. It has to be non-obvious—‘not something where everyone just says, oh well, of course that can happen.’”

When Should You Protect Your Work?

As early as possible!

Psoter emphasized the importance of timing when it comes to patents: “If you show it to the public, that becomes public information, and then you won’t qualify for a patent in the U.S.” In other words, once an invention is fully disclosed—whether in a research paper, presentation, or casual conversation—it may no longer be patentable.

However, researchers often face a dilemma: How much can you publish while still securing a patent? The answer isn’t straightforward, and legal guidance is key. Psoter noted that lawyers can advise on striking the right balance—ensuring that enough information is shared for academic progress without compromising the ability to protect an invention.

If something can’t be patented, there may be alternative protections, such as trade secrets or copyrights. But for patentable innovations, securing rights early is critical to preventing others from capitalizing on your work.

Is Your Idea Already Patented? Find Out Early

Psoter recounted a personal experience: while making long drives to pick up her stepson, she brainstormed an app for finding clean bathrooms along the way—only to discover it already existed. This process, often called a prior art search, involves looking at existing patents to see if someone else has already claimed a similar innovation. The idea is to make sure your concept hasn’t already been patented or publicly disclosed, which would make it ineligible for protection.

“You have to check if your idea has already been patented,” she said, recommending Google Patents and databases like Derwent. She compared patent language to drug names: “Koosh ball? That’s ‘floppy filaments.’ If you look at a drug patent, it’ll be 21 letters long, but in the end, it turns out to be Tylenol.”

But looking for patents may not be that easy.

When searching for patents, using classification codes can be far more effective than relying on keywords alone. Every patent is assigned a specific classification number that categorizes it based on its function and design, helping researchers find related patents and track prior innovations. Jodi Psoter highlighted this through the example of the Beerbrella, a patented umbrella attachment for a beer bottle, classified under A45B11/00—which covers “umbrellas characterized by their shape or attachment.” Additional codes, like A47G23/00 for “other table equipment” and A45B17/00 for “tiltable umbrellas,” further refine the search. Using these classification numbers in Google Patents or Derwent allows researchers to uncover prior patents, identify competitors, and ensure their idea is truly novel before filing a patent application.

Final Thoughts: Why Protecting Your Work Matters

Whether it’s Disney securing its fireworks, Nike patenting sneaker designs, or researchers at Duke innovating in their fields, intellectual property protection is what turns ideas into assets.

Understanding patents, trade secrets, and copyrights isn’t just for corporations—it’s for anyone looking to protect their work, claim credit, and ensure that their innovations make an impact.

As Psoter emphasized, the key is acting early. If you have an idea that could change the world, don’t let it slip into the public domain before securing your rights.

So, next time inspiration strikes, celebrate the idea—but protect it first.

Think you may have an invention?

The Office for Translation and Commercialization helps Duke inventors with IP, startups, and more.

You can also check out Google Patents to explore existing patents.

Or visit the patent resources from Duke Libraries for additional guidance.

‘Design Climate’ Students Pitch Solutions at Energy Week 2024

By Crystal Han

On November 26, 2024

In Climate/Global Change, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Environment/Sustainability, Students

Amid the constant drumbeat of campus events, much of the conversation turned toward the challenges we face in energy policy, security and transitions during Duke’s annual Energy Week, held Nov. 11-15.

On the second day, the Innovation Showcase featured not only startups making their pitches for clean energy and sustainable tech products, but students doing so as well.

Currently in its second year, Duke Design Climate is a new initiative between the Pratt School of Engineering and the Nicholas School of the Environment. It functions as a two-course sequence, in which students form groups to prototype and promote climate solutions after conducting market research.

As I made my rounds to the teams, I met a mix of graduate students and undergraduates with academic backgrounds ranging from engineering to economics to environmental science. The ideas they have aren’t purely theoretical: all are looking for sponsors or partners to help implement their solutions into real-world use. Here were some of the highlights:

Team ReefCycle is building from plants: Our first stop is named after the company whose product they intend to scale up. Initially, Mary Lempres founded ReefCycle to develop sustainable material for artificial reefs. Regular industrial production for cement requires intensive heating– burning of fossil fuels–releasing tons of carbon dioxide. ReefCycle sought to reduce this climate impact with a different method: their cement is plant-based and enzymatic, meaning it’s essentially grown using enzymes from beans. Testing in the New York Harbor yielded some promise: the cement appeared to resist corrosion, while becoming home for some oysters. The Design Climate team is now trying to bring it to more widespread use on land, while targeting up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions across all scopes.

Team Enfield is uplifting a local community: Design Climate, evidently, is by no means limited to science. Instead, these team members intend to address an environmental justice issue close to home: energy inequality. Around 30-35% of Enfield residents live below the poverty line, and yet suffer from some of the highest energy bills in the larger area. Located a ninety minute drive east of Durham, this rural town is one of the poorest in North Carolina. Historic redlining and unfavorable urban planning are responsible for its lack of development, but now this team aims to bring back commerce to the area through microfinance. Once enough funding is gathered from investors and grants, the team hopes to provide microloans and financial literacy to spur and empower businesses.

Team Methamatic promotes a pragmatic e-methane solution: This team is harnessing the power of sunlight to drive fuel production. Synthetic methane, commonly referred to as e-methane, is produced by reacting green hydrogen and carbon dioxide. “Currently, the power-to-gas process can be carbon neutral,” said team member Eesha Yaqub, a senior. “Sourcing the recycled carbon dioxide from a carbon capture facility essentially cancels out the emissions from burning methane.” However, this power-to-gas (P2G) process is an intensive one requiring high heat, energy, and pressure–hoops that might not have to be jumped through if an alternative process could break through the market. Professor Jie Liu and the Department of Chemistry have been working on developing a reactor that would conduct this same reaction without those obstacles. “[Utilizing] the energy from ultraviolet light, which is absorbed by a catalyst …makes the process less energy intensive,” Yaqub said.

Right now, the team has a small prototype, but one used for commercial generation would appear much larger and cost between $15,000 to $20,000. Their intended customers? Oil and gas companies under pressure to shift away from fossil fuels. If successfully scaled up, they predict this process would produce e-methane at a price of $5 per kilogram.

Analyzing living shorelines through Team Coastal Connect: If “Coastal Connect” sounds more like an app than a project name, that’s because it is one. This group is designing what one member dubbed a “fitbit for shorelines”: a monitoring system that brings data from ocean buoys to the phones of local landowners. While measurements in salinity and water level aren’t always telling for the average person, the app would contextualize these into more useful phrases. Is it currently safe to swim? It’ll let you know.

Moreover, it would also allow for the long-term monitoring of living shorelines. While we know this nature-based solution offers resilience to natural disasters and presents erosion, short-term fixes like seawalls are often built instead to continue allowing development up to the edge of beaches. The team hopes that ideally, providing concrete data on living shorelines would allow us to demonstrate their benefits and promote their implementation.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

Invented at Duke, Inspired at Duke

By Stone Yan

On November 25, 2024

In Biomedical Engineering, Entrepreneurship

“Our technology is tailored towards scanning animals. In fact, we can run scans on entire organisms!”

Image from the Photoacoustic Imaging Lab that made it onto the front page of Science: glassfrog transparency!

Excitedly, Soon-Woo Cho, a postdoctoral associate in the Photoacoustic Imaging Lab, referred me to the standing poster at the Nov. 20 Invented at Duke showcase. While I stood puzzled looking intensely at the articulate images, I suddenly realized that the jumble of blue and red outlined the shape of a frog!

As one could imagine, this technology, the masterpiece invention of biomedical engineering professor Junjie Yao and his team, is too advanced for a first-semester undergraduate to understand.

Nonetheless, Cho patiently explained its basic mechanisms to me in simpler terms. One of the technology’s key attributes was its speed; while traditional imaging counterparts were known for their long processing times, Yao’s team was able to reduce that time to mere seconds.

Another accomplishment is the product’s versatility and widespread application. Not only can the system distinguish between arteries and veins, coloring them as red and blue respectively, it can also play an important role in diagnosing cancer cells, as these malignant cells are known for inducing abnormal growth of surrounding blood vessels.

After hearing this inspirational work, I traveled a few steps to another booth. While both research projects take place within the biomedical engineering department, their focus could not be more different. Ruth Verrinder, a current PhD student working in Jonathan Viventi’s lab, explained to me how the flexible electrode strips on display are part of an effort to address a significant medical need.

Ruth Verrinder, PhD student and member of the Viventi Lab.

Today, many surgeries to treat epilepsy are disappointingly unsuccessful. Even after a lengthy medical process including diagnosis and highly intensive treatment and procedures, such failures are simply too much to bear for many patients and families. The Viventi Lab believes that through improving the quality and quantity of data collected by medical electrodes, more surgical successes would naturally follow.

Their current product is already in use at Duke, and the team has ambitious plans for further developing the product. The top priority is to build implantable electrodes so brain signals could be tracked for weeks to months before prospective surgeries, better informing surgeons and medical professionals on the specific patient’s conditions.

While the booths hosting major inventions attracted the most fanfare, many other organizations were also present. One can hardly avoid the history exhibition: the bending, wave-like wall of “A Century of Innovation at Duke” greeted every visitor as they walked in the Penn Pavilion doors. On the other side of the wall, a history table curated by the Rubenstein Library displayed remarkable patents from Blue Devils across time, not to mention the popular button-making station that touted designs like “I love patents!”

Although the acclaimed Dr. Robert Califf, director of the Food and Drug Administration, did not make it to the event, the occasion was nonetheless an overwhelming success. As a biomedical engineering student, I got to witness some of the most advanced research occurring in my field of study and meet prominent faculty. In the crowd of attendees, many students, regardless of undergraduate or graduate, studying humanities or the sciences, huddled around posters while inquisitively listening to inventors. Even academics from other institutions came to attend the sixth annual Invented at Duke: while I was learning more about the Viventi Lab’s research, a scholar from the University of Georgia joined the huddle and posed questions.

Even as all attendees, including myself, were astounded by the ingenious discoveries presented, I think there is a deeper takeaway than simply being “wowed” by incredibly advanced brain electrodes or imaging systems.

As stressed by the Office of Translation and Commercialization, Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Nucleate, a student-led organization focused on biotechnology innovation, groundbreaking development is feasible and not a feat to be done alone. For those with bold ideas, there are innumerable resources on campus to help bring those visions into reality.

For those interested in innovation but do not have the “sparks,” there are countless ways to get involved with existing projects and find one that suits your passions. Above all, those whose interest lies beyond biomedical sciences should not be discouraged: if there are current initiatives aimed at improving satellite images, there are surely many other non-biomedical endeavors for you to explore!

Let us not only celebrate what’s invented, but also the thriving spirit of invention here at Duke. Onwards!

From Immune Responses to Private Equity, New Series Offers “Research On Tap”

By Crystal Han

On October 28, 2024

In Biology, Business/Economics, Entrepreneurship, Global Health, Immunology

On every third Thursday of the month, Devil’s Krafthouse is host to Research on Tap: a series that gives Duke researchers, from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows, the opportunity to present their work in a casual setting. It may seem odd for the procedures of academia to make their way into a space for socialization and entertainment, but this situation allows individuals to practice speaking publicly to a general audience under a short time limit–good conditions for developing their “research elevator pitch.” These were the pitches on October 17:

*As it’s name suggests, Cv is a bacterium violet in color. Photo courtesy of Dr. Edward Miao and Dr. Carissa Harvest.*

Jacqueline Trujillo, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, who is part of Dr. Edward Miao’s lab, presented her research on immune cell response to the bacterium Chromobacterium violaceum (Cv). Being an environmental pathogen, Cv usually resides in the soil of tropical and subtropical areas. While disease in humans is rare, the mortality rate is high in immunocompromised individuals.

“The Miao Lab was initially studying pyroptosis, a form of cell death that occurs during infection, when they discovered Cv-induced granulomas,” Trujillo said. Granulomas are specialized structures that are formed to contain and eradicate pathogens, but they can range in the arrangement and type of cells they consist of; one induced by tuberculosis infection, for example, would include adaptive immune cells like T and B cells. However, when the pathogen inducing them is Cv, only innate immune cells are present: neutrophils in the inner cluster and inflammatory macrophages in the outer cluster. When Cv is detected, neutrophils are the first to flock to the site of infection in a “toxic swarm.” The neutrophils themselves are typically able to effectively kill microbes even before granuloma formation. “These are one of the most toxic defending cell types in the immune system,” Trujillo said.

Despite this, the lab observed something unusual: these neutrophils failed to kill off the Cv bacteria, which continued to replicate despite the swarm. The lab ultimately saw Cv eliminated by the innate granulomas within about 21 days, but the ability to survive the neutrophils is what Trujillo now aims to understand. Such a feat from an environmental bacterium comes as a surprise, being “something more characteristic of the causative agent [Yersinia] of the bubonic plague,” Trujillo said. A comparison between the proteins CopH and YopH, virulence effectors in Cv and Yersinia respectively, reveals lots of similarities between the two. Trujillo hypothesizes that CopH is part of the secret to how Cv disarms the immune system’s defenses.

The role of virulence effectors is generally “aid[ing] in survival, invasion, and suppressing immune responses.” Through needle-like structures, bacteria inject these proteins into a host cell. A cell responds to this in two main ways. It dies–initiating pyroptosis to prevent the pathogen from replicating inside the cell. Second, it signals for help by making chemical messengers called inflammatory cytokines. Investigating the first response is what led the Miao Lab to Cv-induced granulomas.

Now, the lab is interested in understanding the regulatory signals that form the granuloma–and the role that inflammatory cytokines might play, if any. In addition to testing her hypothesis on CopH, Trujillo intends to determine if neutrophils respond to Cv’s initial survival by producing the cytokine IL-18, thus recruiting immune cells to the infection site. This would help the Miao Lab confirm their idea that the neutrophils’ failure to clear Cv is what prompts the process of granuloma formation.

With much still unknown in the area of granuloma biology, Cv provides an “excellent model for studying immune cell biology and characterizing bacterial virulence effectors,” Trujillo said.

Though it happens that many Research On Tap speakers are in the sciences, the program isn’t discipline-specific. Our second researcher of the evening, Sungil Kim, studies a far different field from Jacqueline.

As a Ph.D. student in Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Kim is looking at the effects of a growing trend in recent years: private equity (PE) firms acquiring healthcare companies. His focus is on what’s known as the “buy-and-build”, as this business strategy is often used by such firms entering the healthcare sector. The scenario typically looks like this: a private equity firm first acquires a large existing company, called the platform company or “first deal.” They’ll then acquire several smaller companies, or “add-on deals,” in order to expand the platform company’s operations.

Since private equity firms buy businesses with the eventual goal of selling them at a profit, their primary focus is increasing efficiency to reduce costs. On one hand, these buyouts might be seen as beneficial for languishing businesses in need of operation enhancements. But within the healthcare sector, many worry the resultant cost-cutting will lead to declining standards of care for patients.

Kim set out to investigate if operational improvements are sustainable across multiple acquisitions within the buy-and-build framework. The simple answer? No.

Kim confirmed that, on average, private equity firms improve the operational performance of hospitals without hurting quality, “a finding that agrees with some of the previous literature.” Yet, one only needs to take a closer look into the sequence of deals to uncover a different, more complicated story.

To arrive at his answer, Kim considered three main factors–operational efficiency, profitability and quality–in both the platform company and add-on companies. Platforms, or first acquisitions, did see success in performance, but this came with what appears to be a trade-off, as the first two factors increased while quality went down. As in, quality of healthcare. From one of Kim’s graphs, it was apparent that occurrences of four of the six health outcomes measured, including mortality and remission of heart failure, increased in such first deal situations.

Meanwhile, results for the add-ons changed little before and after the buyout, meaning that the initial success from the platform didn’t carry over to later acquisitions, even as reduced costs did. A potential reason for this inability to replicate success, Kim explained, is that these cost savings may come from reducing the number of patients and services, instead of truly improving the efficiency of operations.

In contrast to academic journals that display research that’s been in the works for years, Research on Tap brings us closer to working papers in their ongoing, exploratory stages. While it’s difficult to draw wider conclusions from Kim’s findings just yet, and important to remember the specific first deal context of this study, research like his helps us further understand the issues facing improvement of our healthcare system and where private equity plays a role.

If you’re interested in learning something new and free Krafthouse bites, swing by and attend a session–the next one occurs on November 21, 2024 at 5 p.m. The program welcomes prospective speakers to place themselves on the waitlist for a spot.

Duke experts discuss the potential of AI to help prevent, detect and treat disease

By Robin Smith

On October 15, 2024

In Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Medicine

Sure, A.I. chatbots can write emails, summarize an article, or come up with a grocery list. But ChatGPT-style artificial intelligence and other machine learning techniques have been making their way into another realm: healthcare.

Imagine using AI to detect early changes in our health before we get sick, or understand what happens in our brains when we feel anxious or depressed — even design new ways to fight hard-to-treat diseases.

These were just a few of the research themes discussed at the Duke Summit on AI for Health Innovation, held October 9 – 11.

Duke assistant professor Pranam Chatterjee is the co-founder of Gameto, Inc. and UbiquiTx, Inc. Credit: Brian Strickland

For assistant professor of biomedical engineering Pranam Chatterjee, the real opportunity for the large language models behind tools like ChatGPT lies not in the language of words, but in the language of biology.

Just like ChatGPT predicts the order of words in a sentence, the language models his lab works on can generate strings of molecules that make up proteins.

His team has trained language models to design new proteins that could one day fight diseases such as Huntington’s or cancer, even grow human eggs from stem cells to help people struggling with infertility.

“We don’t just make any proteins,” Chatterjee said. “We make proteins that can edit any DNA sequence, or proteins that can modify other disease-causing proteins, as well as proteins that can make new cells and tissues from scratch.”

Duke assistant professor Monica Agrawal is the co-founder of Layer Health. Credit: Brian Strickland

New faculty member Monica Agrawal said algorithms that leverage the power of large language models could help with another healthcare challenge: mining the ever-expanding trove of data in a patient’s medical chart.

To choose the best medication for a certain patient, for example, a doctor might first need to know things like: How has their disease progressed over time? What interventions have already been tried? What symptoms and side effects did they have? Do they have other conditions that need to be considered?

“The challenge is, most of these variables are not found cleanly in the electronic health record,” said Agrawal, who joined the departments of computer science and biostatistics and bioinformatics this fall.

Instead, most of the data that could answer these questions is trapped in doctors’ notes. The observations doctors type into a patient’s electronic medical record during a visit, they’re often chock-full of jargon and abbreviations.

The shorthand saves time during patient visits, but it can also lead to confusion among patients and other providers. What’s more, reviewing these records to understand a patient’s healthcare history is time-intensive and costly.

Agrawal is building algorithms that could make these records easier to maintain and analyze, with help from AI.

“Language is really embedded across medicine, from notes to literature to patient communications to trials,” Agrawal said. “And it affects many stakeholders, from clinicians to researchers to patients. The goal of my new lab is to make clinical language work for everyone.”

Duke assistant professor Jessilyn Dunn leads Duke’s BIG IDEAs Lab. Credit: Brian Strickland

Jessilyn Dunn, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke, is looking at whether data from smartwatches and other wearable devices could help detect early signs of illness or infection before people start to have symptoms and realize they’re sick.

Using AI and machine learning to analyze data from these devices, she and her team at Duke’s Big Ideas Lab say their research could help people who are at risk of developing diabetes take action to reverse it, or even detect when someone is likely to have RSV, COVID-19 or the flu before they have a chance to spread the infection.

“The benefit of wearables is that we can gather information about a person’s health over time, continuously and at a very low cost,” Dunn said. “Ultimately, the goal is to provide patient empowerment, precision therapies, just-in-time intervention and improve access to care.”

Duke associate professor David Carlson. Credit: Brian Strickland

David Carlson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and biostatistics and bioinformatics, is developing AI techniques that can make sense of brain wave data to better understand different emotions and behaviors.

Using machine learning to analyze the electrical activity of different brain regions in mice, he and his colleagues have been able to track how aggressive a mouse is feeling, and even block the aggression signals to make them more friendly to other mice.

“This might sound like science fiction,” Carlson said. But Carlson said the work will help researchers better understand what happens in the brains of people who struggle with social situations, such as those with autism or social anxiety disorder, and could even lead to new ways to manage and treat psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression.

Rosetta Reitz: The Life Behind the Music

By Gabrielle Douglas

On February 14, 2024

In Anthropology, Entrepreneurship, Students

A 1983 New Yorker article by Whitney Balliet argued that “Women don’t have the grace and poise to play jazz.” While this comment wasn’t uncommon for the time, it certainly wasn’t universally accepted. In fact, this comment is what feminist writer and producer, Rosetta Reitz, sought to disprove through her decades-long efforts to promote underrepresented records.

This past Tuesday Feb. 6, the “Rosetta Reitz’s Musical Archive of Care” Bass Connections team hosted a discussion pertaining to the origins, findings, and thought process of this archive. Leading this discussion were researchers Anthony Kelley, Duke Professor, and Tift Merritt, Grammy-nominated musician. In this, the pair explored the key theme of artistic empathy utilized through the archival process. Archival artistic empathy describes the act of not making yourself the center of your findings but allowing them to enlarge your compassion. This theme was pertinent not only for Merritt’s research journey but also for that of Reitz.

From L to R: Tift Merritt, Annie Koppes and Anthony Kelley

Rosetta Rietz was a feminist, historian, and producer who recognized the absence of female voices within the jazz industry and sought to find the root cause. Through her efforts she quickly recognized that the women were there, they were simply unheard. Rosetta, determined to change this fact, began to collect information about the music of these women as a means of building a platform for them in Rosetta Records. This recording company was created for the sole purpose of promoting, rediscovering, and establishing the voices of women in the jazz industry, a rarity for the time period. With exactly 97 women under her records, Reitz was unwavering in her attempts to get their music picked up by major radio stations. Rosetta Records would go on to produce eighteen albums dedicated to many talented unknown singers and even some as big as Billie Holiday.

From L to R: Tift Merritt, Annie Koppes and Anthony Kelley (Picture taken by Yasaman Baghban)

Rosetta was truly an influential creative whose influence extended beyond that of music. She was the owner of a bookstore in Greenwich Village. She went on to write one of the first books on menopause and on the absence of women in jazz. She was an active member in her community seeking to recognize and correct injustices. Reitz was truly someone whose compassion and artistic empathy shone through. This is not to say that attempts at not centering herself were always successful. Reitz often faced backlash from the media for appearing disingenuous due to ethical and legal concerns surrounding her work. These concerns largely apply to works such as her Jailhouse Blues record which utilized the voices and struggles of women in a Mississippi prison, released by Mississippi congress, to create a record. Many questioned if these women consented to this, how they felt to find this, and the overall ethicality in creating this.

Bass Connections team members Lindsay Frankfort and Trisha Santanam.

The legacy of Rosetta Reitz is one full of great passion and love for the art that is jazz and women’s place within it. The Bass Connections research team has managed to bring it to life by employing their own artistic empathy. They have created a full picture of the complexities, devotion and love Rosetta had for life’s work further cementing the fact that women indeed have a rightful place within the jazz industry.

Post by Gabrielle Douglas, Class of 2027

Soldier to Philanthropist: Abraham George’s Lasting Legacy at Shanti Bhavan

By Noor Nazir

On January 31, 2024

In Business/Economics, Entrepreneurship, Lecture

From his time in the Indian military to his journey to the NYU Stern School of Business to making his mark in India through his social work, Abraham George seems to be, and indeed is, a jack of all trades. He is the founder and principal of Shanti Bhavan, a school for students born into India’s lowest socioeconomic class.

“The last 29 years since I founded Shanti Bhavan, it has been the most rewarding and satisfying part of my life – I’ve done a lot of stuff, but nothing compares to what I’ve done with this,” George said. “The satisfaction comes from the fact that the children we have worked with are able to acquire jobs in Amazon and study in schools like Duke – one of them is here!” His words were infused with unmistakable passion. The crowd cheered the former student. We experienced a collective shiver down our spines; the fruit of George’s work was right in front of us – undeniable and beautiful.

The story of his life’s work was made into a Netflix documentary called “Daughters of Destiny.” Created and produced by Vanessa Roh, it featured the lives of students at the boarding school George founded. During his talk, we saw an ABC news segment called “Shanti Bhavan: haven of peace”.

After hearing the inspirations and motivations behind the creation of this boarding school, the designation of it being a ‘haven of peace’ is irrefutable.

George didn’t start in philanthropy. As an 18-year-old he found himself in the Indian military; he was posted near Tibet (in the Salem pass) where his job was to establish gun positions in case China invaded the country, India. In subzero temperatures, he lived through it for eleven months. During his time there, he read a quote ‘there is nothing right about war, it is about who is left’.

And so, George began asking himself questions: Why was he ready to take people’s lives? What was he truly doing with his life? And what would life be like in service of others?

He embarked on a newfound journey: to create a safe space where religion, caste or class does not matter. Today, Shanti Bhavan serves as a school for all – where students are not called ‘students’ but rather ‘children’.

A crucial question still stands: does the success of Shanti Bhavan prove the effectiveness of all charitable projects? When asked, George was quick to point out the fact that without money, there is no success. Consequently, his first goal was to earn, and second was to fund. Perhaps then all charitable causes could be effective if one has funding? It’s difficult to have a concrete answer, but it goes without saying that if it is true, George’s work serves as evidence.

George moved on from the life of a solider, to pursue education in the hopes of reaching a place where he could benefit others. “Think of a world only a heart can build and never ask why” – a memorable quote from a true benevolent force, akin to angelic presence.

Inventors, Assemble: The Newest Gadgets Coming Out of Duke

By Michelle Li

On December 15, 2023

In Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Faculty, Medicine, Science Communication & Education

What do a smart toilet, an analog film app, and metamaterial computer chips have in common? They were all invented at Duke!

The Office for Translation & Commercialization—which supports Duke innovators bringing new technologies to market—recently hosted its fifth annual Invented at Duke celebration. With nine featured inventors and 300 attendees, it was an energetic atmosphere to network and learn.

*Attendees mingle in Penn Pavilion. Credit: Brian Mullins Photography.*

When event organizer Fedor Kossakovski was selecting booths, the name of the game was diversity—from medicine to art, from graduate students to faculty. “Hopefully people feel like they see themselves in these [inventors] and it’s representative of Duke overall,” he said. Indeed, as I munched through my second Oreo bar from the snack table and made the rounds, this diversity became apparent. Here are just two of the inventions on display:

Guided Medical Solutions

The first thing you’ll notice at Jacob Peloquin’s booth is a massive rubber torso.

As he replaces a punctured layer of rubber skin with a shiny new one, Peloquin beckons us over to watch. Using his OptiSETT device, he demonstrates easy insertion and placement of a chest tube.

“Currently, the method that’s used is you make an incision, and then place your fingers through, and then take the tube and place that between your fingers,” Peloquin explained. This results in a dangerously large incision that cuts through fascia and muscle; in fact, one-third of these procedures currently end in complications.

Peloquin’s device is a trocar—a thin plastic cylinder with a pointed tip at one end and tubing coming out of the other. It includes a pressure-based feedback system that tells you exactly how deep to cut, avoiding damage to the lungs or liver, and a camera to aid placement. Once the device is inserted, the outer piece can be removed so only the tubing remains.

*Peloquin demonstrates his OptiSETT device. Credit: Brian Mullins Photography.*

Peloquin—a mechanical engineering graduate student—was originally approached by the surgeons behind OptiSETT to assist with 3D printing. “They needed help, so I kind of helped those initial prototypes, then we realized there might be a market for this,” he said. Now, as he finishes his doctorate, he has a plethora of opportunities to continue working on OptiSETT full-time—starting a company, partnering with the Department of Defense, and integrating machine learning to interpret the camera feed.

It’s amazing how much can change in a couple years, and how much good a rubber torso can do.

GRIP Display

This invention is for my fellow molecular biology enthusiasts—for the lovers of cells, genes, and proteins!

The theme of Victoria Goldenshtein’s booth is things that stick together. It features an adorable claw machine that grabs onto its stuffed animal targets, and a lime green plastic molecule that can grab DNA. Although the molecule looks complex, Goldenshtein says its function is straightforward. “This just serves as a glue between protein and the DNA [that encodes it].”

*Goldenshtein—a postdoctoral associate in biomedical engineering—uses her lime green molecular model to demonstrate GRIP’s function. Credit: Brian Mullins Photography.*

Goldenshtein applies this technology to an especially relevant class of proteins—antibodies. Antibodies are produced by the immune system to bind and neutralize foreign substances like disease. They can be leveraged to create drug therapies, but first we need to know which gene corresponds to which antibody and which disease. That’s where GRIP steps in.

“You would display an antibody and you would vary the antibody—a billion different variations—and attach each one to the system. This grabs the DNA,” Goldenshtein said.

Then, you mix these billions of antibody-DNA pairs with disease cells to see which one attaches. Once you’ve found the right one, the DNA is readily available to be amplified, making an army of the same disease-battling antibody. Goldenshtein says this method of high-throughput screening can be used to find a cancer cure.

Although GRIP be but small, its applications are mighty.

Explore Other Booths

Coprata: a smart toilet that tracks your digestive health
inSoma Bio: a polymer that aids soft-tissue reconstruction
Spoolyard: a platform for exploring digital footage with analog film techniques
FaunaLabs: smart watches for our furry friends
G1 Optics: a tonometer to automatically detect eye pressure
TheraSplice: precision RNA splicing to treat cancer
Neurophos: metamaterial photonics for powering ultra-fast AI computation

As I finished my last Oreo bar and prepared for the trek back to East Campus, I was presented with a parting gift—a leather notebook with “Inventor” embossed on the cover. “No pressure,” said the employee who was handing them out with a wink.

I thought about the unique and diverse people I’d met that night—an undergraduate working in the Co-Lab, an ECE graduate student, and even a librarian from UNC—and smiled. As long as we each keep imagining and scribbling in our notebooks, there’s no doubt we can invent something that changes the world.

Post by Michelle Li, Class of 2027

Liam Frumkin and AHAV: Improving Lives Through Simple Snacks

By Emily Zou

On December 13, 2023

In Behavior/Psychology, Business/Economics, Entrepreneurship, Students

We’re all familiar with the quintessential elementary school bake sale: hand-drawn posters, homemade treats, and shockingly high price tags, all in the name of charity. However, for Duke sophomore Liam Frumkin, his Few Quad bake sale resulted in a potential Shark Tank Product.

Liam Frumkin, Trinity '26 — Liam Frumkin, Trinity ’26

Frumkin is a 20 year old economics major who recently got back from a gap year developing AHAV, a snack company specializing in healthy treats. AHAV, which means “to love” in Hebrew, has a mission statement “To Improve Lives Through Simple Snacks and Simple Ingredients!” Through selling healthy cookie dough bites and donating a portion of the proceeds to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and No Kid Hungry, Frumkin has been able to turn his bake sale into an amazing entrepreneurial venture.

Frumkin’s story started seven years ago when he began to develop an eating disorder. Throughout his freshman and sophomore years of high school, Frumkin remembers losing unhealthy amounts of weight through constant exercise and eating very little. At grocery stores, he was overwhelmed by ingredient lists and nutritional contents of the snacks lining the aisles.

His eating disorder came to its peak during his junior year, when he was hospitalized and began professional treatment for his eating disorder. Throughout treatment, Frumkin began to cook more in order to create snacks that both satisfied his cravings, and felt comfortable and safe to eat. At first, he says, Frumkin was doing this “just for [him]self”.

When Frumkin arrived at Duke in August of 2021, he continued cooking in his dorm kitchens. Intrigued, his dorm-mates and friends would stop by to inquire and try Frumkin’s creations. Frumkin said he received stellar feedback about the nutritional value and deliciousness of his treats (I can confirm, having tried AHAV chocolate chip cookie dough bites, that they are, in fact, delicious). Because of his obsession with Shark Tank (I’m sure we can all relate), Frumkin began looking into how to capitalize on his passion of creating nutritional snacks.

Liam and his very first batch of cookie dough bites.

And so, Frumkin began to hold bake sales in front of Few Quad on West Campus, selling ziploc bags of his homemade treats. Within a couple of months, he had made thousands of dollars, far surpassing my elementary school bake sales. When the Duke Administration caught wind of Frumkin’s bake sales, they informed him that the sale of foods without a license were illegal and encouraged him to find a professional kitchen.

Frumkin agreed with Duke and began searching for a professional kitchen, eventually finding a Duke alumnus who had started their own food business through an accelerator program called Union Kitchen. Union Kitchen accepts eight people a year and in exchange for 10% equity, allows access to kitchens, resources, and connections.

Frumkin applied to the program with zero expectations, not even telling his parents about his plans. However, after receiving the good news, his parents were nothing but supportive.

Liam and his parents in the AHAV kitchen.

With nothing but a few suitcases and ziploc bags of cookie dough bites, Frumkin began his semester off, moved to Washington D.C., and started work on AHAV.

Pretty soon, a gap semester turned into a gap year, and Frumkin launched AHAV on January 1, 2023. At the time of the launch, Frumkin had already partnered with local retail stores to sell AHAV products in-store. When I talked with Frumkin, he expressed immense appreciation for Union Kitchen’s connections and their help getting his company off the ground.

Liam and the first bag of AHAV ever produced.

Frumkin turned to TikTok and Instagram to share his own journey with his eating disorder and to market AHAV, receiving resounding support from his followers, who resonated with both Frumkin’s story and AHAV’s mission. AHAV has more than 120,000 followers across various social media platforms and a team of six full-time employees based out of Washington D.C.

From applying for Shark Tank, to grocery stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, AHAV clearly has a bright future. AHAV has also donated over 120,000 meals to kids in need and helped over 6,000 kids get treatment for their eating disorders. Frumkin’s philanthropy has really lived up to AHAV’s meaning of “to love” and the heart-based logo.

During his time-off, Frumkin found himself struggling with loneliness, having no consistent interactions with students his own age. Since he’s been back, Frumkin says he’s still searching for that perfect work-life-school balance. Despite this, he still says it is hands-down the smartest decision he’s ever made, which he largely credits to Duke’s support. During his time-off, Frumkin said Time Away From Duke was extremely supportive and accommodating. Since being back on campus, he’s reached out to the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Office and connected with fellow Duke students who are eager to help with video editing, marketing, etc. Frumkin also found support from Duke’s extensive alumni network, which he met through the pre-orientation group Project Edge, as well as the Duke in Silicon Valley program.

Frumkin says that as a freshman, he still continued to struggle with disordered eating. He frequently met with a nutritionist from Duke Student Health, who he says was very helpful, specifically around his obsession with nutrients and ingredients. Frumkin stressed that students with eating disorders can fight their battles together. He says one of the most rewarding parts of starting AHAV has been sharing his journey and helping other people realize that they’re not alone.

By Emily Zou, Class of 2027

Following the people and events that make up the research community at Duke