In our second edition of the EMRG Conference/Impakter cooperation, we are going to focus on the Tech for Good startups: companies that can have a positive impact on people’s lives.
If you wish to be a part of the 2019 edition of EMRG Conference, please check out emrg.io for more information.
WellPower
WellPower is a sustainable off-grid energy solution that can be used to solve the issue of clean water access in developing countries. The idea behind it is simple: while the amount of clean water accessible to marginalized communities is incredibly low, the amount of wasted solar panels and electric vehicles batteries is astonishingly high. WellPower aims to recycle and upcycle those batteries and solar panels in order to power their water purification systems. The system is so advanced that could be used to generate electric power as well. Founded by a group of Princeton University undergraduate students: Noah Schochet, Ayushi Sinha, Todd Baldwin, Bethwel Kiplimo, and Victoria Scott, WellPower could be a game-changer in achieving UN SDG 6 – clean water for everyone.
Briomics
Nowadays farmers face a remarkable challenge: they must scale food production in the face of climate change and a rapidly growing global population. They also must accomplish this increase without the use of previously acceptable environmentally-damaging farming practices. A solution to this challenge lies right below the ground- in the microbiomes of agriculture. Plant microbes have been shown to promote plant growth and boost agricultural production by providing critical nutrients and protecting crops from opportunistic plant pathogens and disease.
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Briomics is building a simple DNA sequencing kit that will empower farmers with actionable insight regarding the microbial communities growing in their soil. Despite the importance of microbiology in agriculture, there lacks a convenient way for farmers to know and understand what microbes are in their soil and whether there is any action that they can take to improve the health of their crop’s microbiome.
Impact Protoemics
This startup founded by Amber Lucas Ph.D. and Professor Jonathan Minden Ph.D. both from Carnegie Mellon University aims to solve the issue of protein samples availability used in biomarker and drug discovery, by creating a standard protein sample preparation kit for universal use.
Even though proteins tell us the most about health and disease, they are also the hardest biomolecule to work with because of their complexity. Researchers spend on average 10-40 billion dollars and 2-10 years trying to find protein drug targets and biomarkers, with a success rate of less than 0.1%. The reason for these numbers is that there isn’t any commercially available method for protein sample preparation, so researchers struggle to get enough proteins for analysis.
This means that drugs end up being really expensive because those successful drugs have to cover the cost of all the failed projects along the way. This is a huge issue in today’s economy and Impact Protoemics aims to tackle this with their sample preparation kit.
Vixi Biotech
Vixi Biotech has created an innovative blood test for diagnosing common liver diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Their flagship product, AccuNash, is intended to be a low-cost, simple way to inform physicians on the severity of liver disease in broad populations worldwide. Vixi Biotech intends to offer a better alternative to existing methods, such as biopsy procedures, which are invasive, risky, expensive, and painful.
In the cover picture: The EMRG Conference in New York. Photo Credit: EMRG Conference
EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions expressed here by Impakter.com columnists are their own, not those of Impakter.com.
