Glytrix, a student-led company that has developed a platform technology for tissue healing and regeneration that also minimizes scarring, took first prize in the Gold Division of the 23rd annual Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition. The team members for Glytrix include Purdue Krannert School of Management graduate student Joshua Cox, and Weldon post-doctoral students John Paderi and Kate Stuart and Professor Alyssa Panitch. Their $30,000 prize was announced at an awards dinner following a full day of competition, where 10 finalists gave their business plan presentations.

Second prize in the Gold Division went to BioRegeneration Technologies for their work to commercialize a naturally derived biomaterial scaffold for tissue regeneration following an injury. The BioRegeneration Technologies team benefits from the expertise of graduate student Leonard Kim, Weldon alums Darryl Dickerson and Theresa Gordon, and Professor Eric Nauman. The Gold Division is open to Purdue graduate students, along with faculty, local entrepreneurs and Purdue alumni as supporting team members.

The late Burton D. Morgan established the competition in 1987 with an endowment gift to Purdue. Each team gets 20 minutes to present their business idea, and then has 10 minutes to field questions from the judges during the event. This year, a student on the top finishing team in each division is eligible for either an annual Krannert scholarship for a full-time MBA program or a seat in Krannert's two-week Applied Management Principles program ("mini-MBA").

GlucaGo, the three student powerhouse team of Peter Greco (Krannert), Art Chlebowski and Rush Bartlett (Weldon), is preparing for the Global MOOT corp competition at the University of Texas in the first week of May. The team continues to rake in honors as they take their message and their innovative drug delivery device on the road. Semi-Finalists in the Dell Social Innovation Competition, they made <a href="http://www.glucago.com">a video</a> to promote their invention. Other awards and honors include:

• October 2009 - Global Idea 2 Product Competition, University of Texas - 1st Place; Best Showcase
• February 2010 - Spirit of Enterprise Competition, University of Cincinnati - 1st Place Taxi/Limo Pitch
• March 2010 - McGinnis Venture Competition, Carnegie Mellon University - 2nd Place Life Science; 2nd Place Elevator Pitch
• March 2010 - San Diego Venture Challenge, San Diego State Venture Challenge - 1st Place
• March 2010 - Wake Forest Elevator Pitch Competition, Wake Forest University - 1st Place
• April 2010 - Purdue Elevator Pitch Competition, Purdue University - 1st Place
• April 2010 - Rice Business Plan Competition, Rice University - 3rd Place Overall, 5th Place Elevator Pitch, Nasa's Top Life Science Prize, 420 applicants, 42 teams invited.
• Purdue Life Science Competition - 5th Place
• San Francisco Business Plan Competition - SemiFinalist
• Purdue Burton D. Morgan Competition - SemiFinalist

GlucaGo has been invited to the Global MOOT corp competition. To qualify most competitors must win a semifinal competition. The Texas competition had three categories with three first place winners. "They had to pick one, in this case GlucaGo, to be the lead finalist," explains Bartlett. With a $135,000 first prize, "It is the SuperBowl of Business Plan competitions." The team created their project and developed their business plan in last spring's Biomedship class and has found success in many competitions, allowing them to launch their own organization. GlucaGo is currently seeking investors to validate manufacturing processes for their device. Please join us in wishing them the best in May.