Over the summer, CHIP learned of some exciting news for two students. CHIP alum Sanju Rajan, PharmD (Summer 2024 MPS grad) and Shilpa Sundar (Summer 2024 MPS grad and current Doctoral student) won the Nucleate Activator program final event. Nucleate is a startup accelerator program and Activator is a Nucleate program that provides mentorship, educational workshops, and networking opportunities to the next generation of bioentrepreneurs.
Sanju and Shilpa won the Alnylam Scientific Excellence Award for demonstrating cutting-edge science and solving a major scientific problem with technology. They also won the Genentech DEI Award (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) for creating a practical corporate strategy for the newly formed company. Sanju and Shilpa were part of the 2023 Activator finalist cohort (1500+ applicants) and served as the contributors for one of the three final teams with the technology inventor, Jim Roach, at Duke University.
Their final product is a state-of-the-art 3-D ethological observatory designed to study animal behavior models, providing insights into movement disorders such as Parkinson's Disease. This sophisticated software employs advanced AI technology, utilizing machine learning predictive modeling to analyze animal movement and behavior. By processing vast amounts of data, it delivers actionable kinematic analytics, enabling researchers to uncover patterns and make informed decisions regarding the progression and treatment of these disorders. The capabilities of this observatory paves the way for groundbreaking discoveries in the field of neurodegenerative disease research.
They commented, "We are incredibly happy to use our informatics and data science knowledge to be able to work on this project and pitch. All the learnings from our clinical data science and machine learning classes this past year at CHIP helped us understand the technology and work with it. Representing the CHIP department and UNC Chapel Hill, while collaborating with team members from Duke and Columbia University, has been a highlight of our journey."
Congratulations on this amazing accomplishment!
