MSU Innovation Center Annual Reports: Past Reports & Highlights
Explore stories, startup spotlights, and innovation summaries from previous years of MSU’s annual report.
The Future, Fueled by MSU.
The MSU Innovation Center Annual Report is Michigan State University’s yearly record of discovery in motion, where bold ideas, breakthrough research, and entrepreneurial energy are captured in one place.
Published by the MSU Innovation Center, each report celebrates the faculty and student innovators advancing new technologies and building new ventures, alongside the partners who help turn promising research into real-world solutions.
Each report features in-depth stories highlighting MSU-born innovations and startups, shining a light on inventors and founders, and illustrating how MSU’s innovation ecosystem supports progress: from intellectual property and technology transfer to industry collaboration and venture formation.
Honoring Excellence
Each year, the report also highlights student scholars whose achievements reflect the next generation of innovation at MSU, through the James Ian Gray Scholarship in Entrepreneurial Studies, awarded annually to an MSU student exhibiting the exceptional qualities of an entrepreneur.
2025 Annual Report
The 2025 report marks a year of record-breaking milestones — including all-time highs in faculty engagement, invention disclosures, and startup formations — alongside the first-ever 517 Entrepreneurship & Innovation Week and new venture fund launches. Featured stories span agricultural heritage revival, climate technology, and next-generation vaccine development.
From Seed to Spirit (MSU & Mammoth Distilling): An MSU library discovery about the nearly extinct Rosen Rye sparked a multi-year partnership between MSU plant geneticist Dr. Eric Olson and Mammoth Distilling founder Chad Munger, leading to the revival of heritage grain varieties and the foundation of the first hybrid rye breeding program at a U.S. public university.
Counting Every Tree (MSU & IORA Nature Tech): Dr. David Skole co-founded IORA Nature Tech to commercialize MSU-developed AI and satellite imaging tools that can map and measure individual trees at scale — enabling high-integrity carbon accounting for corporations, governments, and smallholder farmers worldwide.
From Molecule to Medicine (IASO Therapeutics): Dr. Xuefei Huang developed the mQß synthetic vaccine platform — a precisely engineered nanoparticle capable of generating strong, durable immune responses against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, viruses, and cancer — and co-founded IASO Therapeutics to bring it to global markets, with support from the full MSU innovation ecosystem.
2024 Annual Report
The 2024 report highlights the power of industry-academic collaboration and the growing impact of MSU-rooted startups, with corporate-supported programs again exceeding $25 million. Featured stories range from sustainable materials chemistry to clean energy storage and precision agriculture.
Unlocking Nature’s Secret: The Lignin Revolution: Dr. Mojgan Nejad is pioneering the use of unmodified lignin: a plant polymer typically discarded as waste, to replace toxic BPA in bio-based epoxy resins and coatings, in partnership with global industry players AGC Vinythai and allnex.
Earthmetric: Revolutionizing Farming Through Technology and Sustainability: Dr. Younsuk Dong’s LOCOMOS soil and crop monitoring technology became the foundation for EarthMetric, a startup whose Bluewise system gives farmers real-time field data and AI-driven irrigation and pesticide recommendations via smartphone.
MSU Startup of the Year — RedoxBlox: Dr. James Klausner’s metal oxide energy storage technology, developed at MSU, powers RedoxBlox, a startup targeting industrial decarbonization and grid-scale energy storage through a novel reversible redox cycle that can reach 1500°C and replace natural gas combustors.
Ian Gray Scholarship: Jogi Katende and Duy Nguyen, co-founders of the startup Apprese, were jointly named the 2024 James Ian Gray Scholars for their entrepreneurial ambition, strong community contributions through the Burgess Institute, and commitment to using business as a force for social impact.
2023 Annual Report
The 2023 report emphasizes the breadth of MSU’s research translation, from neuroscience and infectious disease to middle school math curricula and student entrepreneurship. It also celebrates national recognition for MSU faculty innovators.
Closing in on a Cure (Parkinson’s Disease & Takeda): Dr. Caryl Sortwell’s decades of Parkinson’s disease research led to a sponsored research agreement with global pharmaceutical company Takeda, using MSU’s well-characterized preclinical models to test novel disease-modifying compounds.
Making Math More Accessible (Connected Mathematics & Lab-Aids): MSU and Lab-Aids formed an exclusive publishing partnership for the fourth edition of the Connected Mathematics curriculum (CMP4), a problem-based middle school math program used across the US and internationally.
From Lab to Marketplace (Tarn Biosciences): Dr. Rob Abramovitch’s decade-long research into tuberculosis therapeutics led to the formation of Tarn Biosciences, an East Lansing startup developing faster-acting treatments for drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB and other mycobacterial infections.
Ian Gray Scholarship: Christian Nderu, a senior in Experience Architecture and brand designer with an entrepreneurial flair, was named the 2023 James Ian Gray Scholar for blending design thinking with entrepreneurial problem-solving through his involvement in the Burgess Institute community.
2022 Annual Report
The 2022 report highlights MSU’s post-COVID recovery, with corporate support and invention disclosures both rebounding strongly. The report showcases partnerships spanning drug discovery, autonomous mobility, quantum computing, and student entrepreneurship.
Portera Therapeutics: MSU Chemistry Professor Jetze Tepe’s research on degrading toxic proteins led to the formation of Portera Therapeutics, a VC-funded biotech startup targeting cancer and neurodegeneration, brought to life through a collaboration of MSUT, Spartan Innovations, Red Cedar Ventures, and Business Connect.
Human-Centered Tractor Cabin Design: MSU partnered with CNH Industrial to study how farmers interact with Case IH tractor cabins, with Drs. Tamara Bush and Sarah Swierenga leading cross-disciplinary user experience research to inform next-generation interior designs.
CAPNOS Zero: MSU student entrepreneur Brendan Wang leveraged the Burgess Institute and Innovation Center ecosystem to develop and commercialize CAPNOS Zero, a pressurized air inhaler designed to help people quit nicotine addiction, now sold globally.
MSU Researcher Collaborates with Atomwise: Dr. Jeff MacKeigan partnered with AI-driven pharmaceutical company Atomwise to use their AtomNet neural network platform to virtually screen billions of drug compounds for novel cancer therapeutics, dramatically accelerating the early drug discovery process.
Making Large-Scale Quantum Computing a Reality: MSU Physics Professor Johannes Pollanen co-founded EeroQ, a Chicago-based startup commercializing a trapped-electron qubit technology originally developed at MSU, with the goal of building a practical large-scale quantum computer.
Ian Gray Scholarship: Madison Marsh, author of The Cut Cookbook, was named the 2022 Ian Gray Scholar for building a food brand rooted in healthy, organic cooking and Michigan-inspired photography while pursuing her degree in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.