Licensing of U-M Startup Pathways GI Celebrated with Bell Ringing Ceremony

6/7/2023

On Tuesday, June 6, 2023, Innovation Partnerships hosted the team of University of Michigan (U-M) startup Pathways GI to celebrate their licensing agreement with the ringing of the startup bell. Co-founders Ryan Stidham and Kevin Wittrup were in attendance.

On working with Innovation Partnerships, Kevin Wittrup stated: “Working with Innovation Partnerships has been exceptional. Drew and the rest of the team have been gems to work with and have been extremely creative and flexible […] I’m very thankful for the infrastructure they provide.”

Pathways GI is a medical software company focused on application development for automated evaluation of colonoscopy video using artificial intelligence (AI). Co-founder Ryan Stidham, associate professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at U-M, has an extensive background in inflammatory bowel disease. He has studied the ways in which AI and medical imaging can be used to more effectively treat such afflictions by reducing human complication and error in treatment review and prescription. 

In an interview with the journal Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stidham stated that “[AI would allow doctors to] hand off tasks such as reviewing laboratory results for evidence of medication toxicity or efficacy, watching capsule endoscopy videos to look for ulcers, and grading endoscopic severity as a central reviewer, and these tasks need to be done competently, reliably, and fast, which AI can do […] AI provides opportunities to quantify medical imaging in new ways that are impossible for humans to achieve.”

Pathways GI began when two of the project’s principal investigators, Ryan Stidham and Kayvan Najarian, connected with Ann Arbor-area entrepreneur Kevin Wittrup in 2022 to start a company focused on this technology. Wittrup, Stidham and Najarian worked to raise seed capital to acquire their necessary assets and form a C-corporation, leading to the founding of Pathways GI in spring 2023. 

Pathways GI is currently in discussion with several strategic investors for additional funding and has acquired the first two commercial clients for its invention.