Three Pitt women innovators have been selected to participate in the 2025 cohort of the Equalize Startups pitch competition.
Established in 2020, Equalize Startups is a nonprofit program with the goal of increasing the number of women-led academic startups by providing mentoring, access to investor networks and other entrepreneurial connections.
The Pitt women selected (from left in the graphic) include:
- Hilary Liu is a Pitt School of Medicine student leading an innovation team seeking to commercialize a micro-surgical blood vessel repair device.
- Jordyn Ting is a postdoctoral researcher leading a team that is developing a deep brain stimulation system to restore swallowing and speech functioning for stroke patients.
- Yuan Liu is associate professor in the Department of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine. She is developing small molecule therapeutics focused on healthy aging.
Over the next several months, they will receive virtual mentoring and training sessions on fundraising basics, pitching to investors, government funding sources, startup banking needs, recruiting quality talent, and more. Peer cohort sessions will provide opportunities to connect and learn from other women academic innovators. They will pitch their business ideas in June to hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors, university tech transfer professionals, and supporters of university startups.
All three women are familiar faces in Pitt’s expanding innovation ecosystem. Hilary Liu in October led her innovation team to a second place prize in the Michael G. Wells Student Healthcare Competition, hosted by the Innovation Institute, part of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Ting earned her doctorate in bioengineering at Pitt and served as a medical device startup intern at LifeX, the region’s premiere life sciences capital growth company and incubator. Her startup, Lexi Medical, won a $35,000 prize in the Pitt Innovation Challenge.
Yuan Liu, meanwhile has co-founded one startup, Generian Pharmaceuticals, that has secured significant funding from UPMC Enterprises, and is working to launch a second company.
She was recently named the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s 2024 Emerging Innovator of the Year.