Four Louisiana life sciences startups competed for over $50,000 prizes on November 16 at the annual BioChallenge in New Orleans. For the first time since the competition launched five years ago, a female entrepreneur took home the top prize.
Chosen Diagnostics, a startup working to improve healthcare delivery for patients by personalizing their treatment, won both the $25,000 grand prize and the $2,500 Audience Favorite award. The company is developing a biomarker test that can diagnose a common and life-threatening gastrointestinal disease in preterm infants.
“This competition highlights emerging startups that will generate jobs and economic growth in the state, and Chosen, led by our first female BioChallenge competition winner, will significantly impact neonatal care in the region,” said Shafin Khan, Director of Technology Commercialization at the BioInnovation Center.
The BioChallenge is hosted each year during Innovation Louisiana, a life sciences startup conference, by the New Orleans BioInnovation Center.
Other finalists included Carre BioDiagnostics from New Orleans, and Shreveport-based Grapheno and Segue Therapeutics. A second prize, a $25,000 investment award from the New Orleans BioFund, was presented to Carre BioDiagnostics.
Above photo: Shafin Khan (center) of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, Sunyoung Kim of Chosen Diagnostics (right), and researcher Rebecca Buckley of LSU Health New Orleans. Photo by Frank Aymami.