Emory University's Office of Technology Transfer marked its 20th Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation by honoring the outstanding scientists, research and innovations at Emory. The event kicked off with an hour-long awards presentation, which honored superlative projects in seven categories. The awardees represented several areas across the university, including three schools (Medicine, Nursing and Emory College of Arts and Sciences) and several departments, including Computer Science, Biochemistry, Dermatology and Human Health, Infectious Diseases and more.
The ceremony, held at the Emory Conference Center Hotel's Silverbell Pavilion, was followed by a reception to network and mingle. Members of the Atlanta technology ecosystem joined Emory's academic research community to celebrate the university's groundbreaking work.
Learn more about the awarded projects below — and get to know a few of the researchers behind them on the Emory Technology Transfer blog.
Innovation of the Year
Tinker Tales: Interactive AI Storytelling for Early Learners
Jinho Choi, PhD; Ikseon Choi, PhD; Nayoung Choi
The recent, rapid adoption of artificial intelligence has introduced an education gap. Most AI-learning tools are targeted toward teen and adult learners, and with few structured, age‑appropriate tools available to introduce AI concepts to young learners, children ages 5-8 are left with without foundational exposure during a critical period for cognitive and language development.
To address this gap, Emory researchers Jinho Choi, Ike Choi and Nayoung Choi have developed a hybrid tangible‑digital storytelling platform that teaches AI literacy through active, play‑based learning. Through guided dialogue, adaptive prompts and developmentally aligned language, the platform fosters creativity, narrative skills and an early understanding of human‑AI collaboration. By fostering AI literacy as an active, co-creative process, this technology has the potential to shape a new paradigm in early education — preparing children not just to use AI, but to understand and collaborate with it.
Deal of the Year
Rhapsogen – Exclusive License for Autoimmune Disease Treatments
Eric Sundberg, PhD; Diego Sastre, PhD
Autoimmune diseases, which can affect almost every bodily organ, cause a patient's immune system to attack its own healthy cells. As of now, these devastating diseases have no FDA-approved cure and can only be managed with medication. However, Emory researcher Eric Sundberg, PhD, and his team have developed a novel class of protein-based therapeutics aimed at treating or preventing IgG antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases. Through some novel engineered protein compositions with enhanced properties that have shown robust in vitro and in vivo activity, the team is poised to develop medications for dysregulation of the adaptive immune system, including many autoimmune diseases with no effective treatment options.
In 2025, Emory University signed an exclusive, high-net-worth license pertaining to these technologies with Rhapsogen, an innovative biotech start-up company focused on developing the first-in-class engineered enzyme therapeutics to address unmet needs in inflammatory and autoimmune-related diseases. Rhapsogen is an Emory start-up company co-founded by Sundberg and Sastre.
Start-up of the Year
Verdant Scientific, Inc.
Cassandra Quave, PhD
In 2025, Emory University start-up Verdant Scientific secured seed funding and was invited to present at the Southeast Venture Showcase. Verdant Scientific is an early-stage biotech start-up developing a first-in-class, first-in-approach small molecule (VDT-002) for the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD), more commonly known as eczema. This chronic, inflammatory skin condition affects more than 200 million people worldwide and has no cure — only treatments that seek to reduce disease symptoms by modulating the body's immune response. Verdant's novel approach does not kill the staphylococcus aureus bacteria that colonize AD patients' skin but rather stops them from causing harm. This mechanism of action opens the possibility for the drug to be used not only in an acute flare setting, but in perpetuity in a prophylactic manner, representing a "cure" for AD patients.
Significant Event of the Year
TopoDx receives inaugural Emory BioFoundry Institute investment
David Weiss, PhD
TopoDx, a medtech start-up co-founded by School of Medicine professor David Weiss, is developing a new technology focused on testing antibiotic resistance and susceptibility in real time. The company's approach, combining expertise in pathology, physics and AI, aims to transform the standard, days-long period of antibiotic testing into an instantaneous occurrence, potentially saving lives and promoting more effective patient care.
In 2025, TopoDx was the first recipient of an investment from the Emory BioFoundry Institute (EBFI), an initiative designed to connect groundbreaking research to real-world impact for medical devices and diagnostics. In addition to the financial investment, TopoDx will receive development expertise and access to a broader industry network. TopoDx has also been funded by Portal Innovations, Invest Georgia and the Georgia Research Alliance.
Corporate Partnership Award
Academic-Industry Collaborations in Artificial Intelligence
Hari Trivedi, MD
Hari Trivedi is an associate professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences with a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Emory University School of Medicine. He serves as director of the AI Image Extraction Core and codirector of the Healthcare Innovation and Translational Informatics Lab (HITI Lab), where his work focuses on applying machine learning to critical health care challenges, including the development and validation of diagnostic and predictive imaging models, with a strong emphasis on fairness and explainability of artificial intelligence.
Trivedi is recognized with the OTT Corporate Partnership Award for his central role in advancing Emory's academic–industry collaborations in AI. Through his leadership in AIdriven imaging research, he has been instrumental in connecting OTT with industry partners and enabling multiple data and AI model licensing agreements that support AI research. By proactively aligning Emory's research capabilities with industry needs, Trivedi has helped translate innovation into impactful partnerships aligned with Emory University's translational mission.
About Emory's Office of Technology Transfer
Emory University's Office of Technology Transfer has more than 40 years of success in guiding scientific discoveries from the laboratory into the marketplace. Emory currently manages more than 1,800 technologies, which has led to the formation of 148 companies and more than 65 new products in the marketplace, some of which — like the discovery of several HIV drugs — have offered major health and societal benefit. Since FY 2000, the university has filed more than 7,200 patent applications and has been issued over 930 U.S. patents. In that time, Emory has executed more than 900 license agreements, resulting in over $1.4 billion in licensing revenue, thereby creating additional funding for new and ongoing research.
