Maryland Innovation Initiative awards more than $2 million across 14 projects
COLUMBIA, Md., (November 10, 2025) — TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced the next round of the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII)’s Company Formation and Technology Assessment awardees, marking a significant milestone in promoting the commercialization of groundbreaking research from Maryland's prestigious academic research institutions.
“The MII remains dedicated to supporting the continued growth of our innovation ecosystem,” said Abi Kulshreshtha, executive director, MII, TEDCO. “We are excited to see the MII’s continued traction across the state. In these award cycles the MII staff and technical reviewers selected 14 awardees, eight for the Company Formation awards – totaling about $1.75 million – and six for the Technology Assessment awards – a total of around $780,000.”
The Company Formation award is provided to support the efforts to commercialize technology licensed from Qualifying Universities. The eight awardees for the January and April 2025 cycles include:
1. Vascular Rescue Inc. - Advancing the development of automated vascular access
2. 1104 Health, LLC - Accelerating access to oncology care options and improving health equity with the 1104Health Shared Care Platform
3. SHARP Diagnostics, Inc. - SHARP Platform for enabling single-step molecular assays
4. Droserix, LLC - Commercializing nanoscale electrodes for higher-resolution neurotransmitter detection
5. Lithinity, LLC - LiON’s Share: Commercializing MOF-polymer Membranes for direct extraction of lithium ions from brine
6. Nodal Therapeutics Inc.- Re-educating the immune system with lymph node depots to induce safe and durable remission in celiac
7. CurveAssure, Inc. - At-home neurological evaluation through scalable smartphone-based functional assessments
8. NanoForge Systems Corp. - Handheld nitrate sensing platform
The Technology Assessment award is a nine-month project that builds strong preliminary data that demonstrates the technology’s utility for specific commercial applications beyond basic research. The six awardees for the April 2025 cycle include:
1. Sujatha Kannan - Cell-targeted dendrimer-drug therapies for safe, convenient, and effective treatment of obesity and atherosclerosis
2. Kevin Daniels - A universal rapid, ultrasensitive, and selective biological diagnostic and detection system based on epitaxial graphene
3. Aryya Gangopadhyay - AI-enabled multi-sensor vest for real-time situational awareness in high-risk operations
4. Ishan Barman - D-SENSE: Deep learning-powered digital SERS for rapid and ultrasensitive bioprocess monitoring
5. Jose Ortiz - Automating language assessment: Enhancing DLD diagnosis for bilingual children
6. Justin Hanes - Non-viral brain-penetrating gene therapy for effective treatment of Parkinson's Disease
“MII is proud to bring innovation from lab to market,” said Renée Winsky, chair of the MII Board of Directors. “Since inception, it has supported the creation of more than 450 jobs, created or supported more than 215 startups, and invested over $63 million in the Maryland innovation ecosystem; we look forward to continuing this progress.”
MII’s Funding Opportunities
The MII program, administered by TEDCO, was created as a collaboration between the State of Maryland and five leading academic research institutions—Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, University of Maryland, Baltimore, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and University of Maryland, College Park— that aims to leverage each institution's strengths to transition promising technologies into the commercial sector.
“Across Maryland’s universities, we can find researchers, innovators and even dreamers – it is essential that we continue providing avenues to these individuals as they support the state’s economic development and innovation ecosystem,” said TEDCO CEO Troy LeMaile-Stovall. “This is why we are so excited to see the continued traction the MII has received over the past 13 years and we hope to see the continued growth for years to come.”
MII has also expanded its reach to include comprehensive universities, along with the creation of the Baltimore Innovation Initiative (BII) with the goal of fostering a more equitable innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem across Maryland. For more information, visit the MII webpage.