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University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships
University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships
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Celebrate Invention Highlights a Remarkable Year for U-M Innovation

10/5/2026

On September 24, Innovation Partnerships hosted nearly 300 attendees at its annual Celebrate Invention event. Members of the University of Michigan community and the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem gathered together at the Michigan Union to honor campus innovators and the societal impact of their discoveries.

The program opened with the presentation of the 2026 Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Award to H. David Humes, professor emeritus of internal medicine and a nephrologist whose decades-long work led to the development and commercialization of the selective cytopheretic device (SCD). The SCD received FDA approval in 2024 for use in critically ill children with acute kidney injury and sepsis or a sepsis-like condition who require continuous kidney replacement therapy.

Following Humes’ presentation, Kelly Sexton, associate vice president for research – innovation partnerships and economic impact, moderated a panel discussion titled “From Bench to Bedside: A Sepsis Breakthrough Two Decades in the Making.” The panel included Humes; Eric Schlorff, the CEO of Humes’ startup that commercialized the SCD, SeaStar Medical and Dr. Lenar Yessayan, clinical professor of internal medicine and medical director of the MDS Dialysis Unit at U-M’s Medical School. The conversation explored what it took to move the technology from discovery to FDA approval, the clinical significance of the advance and the persistence required to keep the technology moving forward through more than two decades of scientific, regulatory and commercial challenges.

At the networking reception, Sexton highlighted a year of significant momentum across U-M’s innovation ecosystem, including a record 40 startups launched by U-M researchers in FY26, the establishment of the ASICS Michigan Sport Innovation Center and the FDA approval of Komzifti for patients with acute myeloid leukemia. 

“Celebrate Invention is a chance to see what happens when Michigan ingenuity is paired with the persistence, partnerships and resources needed to move ideas into the world,” said Sexton. 

“The innovations we celebrated this year are already improving lives, and the pipeline behind them gives us tremendous reason to be excited about what comes next.”

Stephen Forrest, former vice president for research who established the Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Award, joined the presentation to reflect on the award’s origins and present Humes with the honor.

“At the time we created the Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Award, research commercialization was not always viewed as an integral part of the university research mission,” Forrest said. 

“David Humes is exactly the kind of innovator this award was created to recognize. David’s story shows what translation really demands: not just a breakthrough idea, but the resolve to keep advancing it through years of scientific, clinical, regulatory and commercial challenges.”

Upon the conclusion of remarks, attendees toured the room, where nine U-M startups and technologies showcased their work. The projects and startups included:

  • Aquora Biosystems – Aquora partners with renewable fuel developers to transform organic waste into valuable fertilizers and fuels, while destroying environmental contaminants like PFAS and microplastics.
  • ArtOva Biosciences –  ArtOva Biosciences is developing a regenerative medicine therapy designed to restore ovarian hormone production in girls and women with impaired ovarian endocrine function.

  • Healthy Lifetime, Inc. – HealthyLifetime’s flagship SaaS platform, Proving Care Works, helps healthcare organizations identify early risk for decline, support behavior change and measure the impact of coaching and care coordination.

  • Light Forms – Light Forms is a compressive, tessellated glass block system engineered for light transmission and structural performance.

  • Linkage Community – Linkage Community is Michigan’s only statewide, member-driven network for creative individuals with lived experience of incarceration.

  • Medication Data Science (MeDS) – MeDS is transforming medication safety and pharmacy operations through an AI-powered suite of safety and productivity solutions that prevent medication errors, automate clinical and operational workflows and dramatically improve productivity.

  • Selective Cytopheretic Device – The selective cytopheretic device for pediatrics (SCD-PED), brand name QUELIMMUNE, is an extracorporeal cartridge/device connected in-line to an existing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT/hemodialysis) circuit.

  • Veradyn Medical – Veradyn Medical is building a wearable system that gives allergists an objective, real-time physiological signal of an allergic reaction before symptoms are obvious.

  • ZetaStorm – ZetaStorm is a neurosymbolic AI audit tool that uses natural-language requirements to deterministically prove that software conforms to specified standards, producing tamper-evident, third-party-verifiable attestation.