SPARK Colorado Announces Cohort 9: Nine Projects Advancing Cell Therapies, AI Tools, and Novel Biologics
核心洞察
SPARK Colorado has selected nine new faculty-led projects for its 2026 Cohort 9, spanning CAR-T therapies, AI-enabled clinical tools, and first-in-class biologics.
Two armored CAR-T projects aim to overcome aging-associated T-cell dysfunction and pediatric brain cancer immune suppression, respectively.
A novel biologic targeting IL-37 (搜索) anti-inflammatory signaling offers a potential first-in-class cytokine storm therapy without broad immune suppression.
CU Anschutz (搜索) Innovations has announced the selection of nine new faculty-led technology teams for Cohort 9 of SPARK and digiSPARK, representing some of the most promising translational discoveries emerging across the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The 2026 cohort spans next-generation cell therapies, first-in-class biologics, AI-enabled clinical tools, advanced surgical devices, and novel diagnostics—each chosen for its potential to meaningfully improve patient care and accelerate impact.
Since its launch in 2018, SPARK Colorado has supported 70 projects across eight cohorts, engaged more than 65 business mentors, delivered 32 commercialization seminars, and helped launch 29 startups. SPARK teams have secured more than $60 million in follow-on funding, building on $8.2 million invested directly into campus innovators. The program continues to serve as a critical bridge between academic discovery and real-world patient benefit.
Next-Generation Cell Therapies Take Center Stage
Two armored CAR-T therapy projects headline this year's cohort, both addressing significant unmet needs in oncology.
Curtis Henry, PhD, Associate Professor of Immunology & Microbiology, is developing an interleukin-37 armored CAR T-cell therapy designed to overcome aging-associated T-cell dysfunction. The engineered CAR-T therapy secretes IL-37 (搜索) to restore age-related T-cell function, improving tumor control while reducing cytokine release syndrome (搜索) in older patients—a population that has historically faced greater toxicity challenges with cellular immunotherapies.
In the pediatric oncology space, Sujatha Venkataraman, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, is advancing a dual-target armored CAR-T therapy for curative treatment of pediatric posterior fossa A ependymoma (搜索). This therapy is engineered to overcome tumor heterogeneity and IL-6/CCL2 (搜索)-mediated immune suppression in one of the most challenging pediatric brain cancers.
First-in-Class Biologics and Novel Therapeutic Approaches
Suzhao Li, PhD, Associate Research Professor of Medicine in Infectious Disease, is developing bi-functional miniproteins as a first-in-class cytokine storm therapy. The novel biologic activates IL-37 (搜索) anti-inflammatory signaling to control hyperinflammation without broad or prolonged immune suppression, potentially offering a more targeted approach to managing life-threatening inflammatory cascades.
Kristi Kuhn, MD, PhD, Division Head of Rheumatology, is pursuing an oral therapy that blocks gut bacteria from converting dietary tryptophan into indole, a key driver of joint inflammation. This approach offers a potentially safer alternative to immune-suppressing injections for the treatment of rheumatoid and similar arthritis.
AI-Enabled Clinical Tools and Advanced Diagnostics
The digiSPARK track features Niranjan Manoharan, MD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, who is building a multimodal AI recruitment tool for ophthalmology clinical trials. The platform integrates EHR data, clinical text, and retinal imaging to automatically prescreen patients, reducing image-driven screen failures and accelerating enrollment for sight-saving therapies.
Srinivas Ramachandran, PhD, and Sujatha Jagannathan, PhD, from Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics are developing a cell-free DNA biomarker for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (搜索) (FSHD). This blood-based diagnostic measures muscle damage through circulating DNA fragments, reducing reliance on painful muscle biopsies.
Surgical Innovation and Protein Engineering
Duncan Wilcox, MD, Professor of Surgery, has designed a deformable needle and introducer for minimally invasive surgery—a shape-changing Nitinol suture needle that passes straight through small ports and then returns to its optimal curved form inside the body, improving safety and suturing performance.
Vik Patel, MD, Professor of Orthopedics, is developing a next-generation wound care system that enables ongoing management and dressing modification for complex surgical wounds without the need for repeat operative intervention.
Olivia Rissland, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, rounds out the cohort with Link & Select, a plug-and-play platform for in vitro protein evolution that links proteins to their genetic instructions, enabling rapid screening and evolution of millions of variants using standard lab techniques.
Program Impact and Funding
SPARK awards are independent funding programs that provide non-dilutive, seed-stage grants of up to $200,000 or more to bridge the gap between research and commercial application. In 2020, the National Institutes of Health recognized CU as one of five national hubs supporting translational science, awarding $4 million over four years to expand project funding and educational initiatives. The SPARK program at CU Anschutz (搜索) is funded by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) and the Healthcare Innovation & Entrepreneurship (HIE) Initiative.