Dr. Amy Hester, Chairwoman and CEO of HD Nursing, shares the story of how her work as a nurse and administrator at UAMS led to the creation of a highly effective fall prevention program. As regulatory and financial pressures around fall-related injuries increased, the program expanded hospital-wide, significantly reducing injury rates. With encouragement from BioVentures and the UAMS Patent and Copyright Committee, Hester and her team protected their work and eventually founded HD Nursing in 2012. Though initially hesitant about commercialization, the company has grown to serve over 50,000 hospital beds daily, with its model even licensed by Epic Systems as their standard fall risk tool. She credits strong support from UAMS leadership and BioVentures with helping turn a nurse-led solution into a nationally impactful healthcare innovation. Hester reflects on the early challenges of starting a company, admitting she and her co-founder didn’t fully understand equity structures or corporate forms when they began. She emphasizes the importance of understanding company types, equity, and governance from the outset, ideally with guidance from others who’ve been through the process. BioVentures is a great place to start asking questions—something they didn’t do early enough simply because they didn’t know what to ask. She advises new innovators to take the time to learn, talk to experienced peers, and avoid rushing into formalizing a business too quickly. Making a big impact doesn’t require a flashy or complex idea. Her work has saved lives and resonated deeply with people. She encourages others not to underestimate the value of their ideas—especially those rooted in real, human needs.

In this episode, Dr. Robert Griffin, Professor of Radiation Oncology at UAMS and Vice President for Small Business Concerns and Faculty Affairs at BioVentures, discusses strategies for securing funding for small businesses, the importance of research commercialization, and the role of non-dilutive funding. Non-dilutive funding, which includes grants and select angel investments, enables early-stage businesses to grow without surrendering ownership or equity—an essential factor for protecting the inventor's interests and technology. Dr. Griffin highlights the necessity of commercializing research, as universities do not market or sell products, and non-dilutive funding provides a crucial bridge to transition discoveries to market applications. He explains the differences between SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) funding, and how in order to qualify for small business funding, researchers must either partner with existing companies or establish their own (with BioVentures offering support throughout the process). Dr. Griffin advises that proposals should be focused and realistic, emphasizing that Phase 1 SBIR funding is about proving core concepts, while Phase 2 is for scaling and further development. Ultimately, he underscores the importance of strategic planning, understanding funding mechanisms, and forming strong industry partnerships for successful commercialization.

Dr. Laura James, a Professor of Pediatrics at UAMS and Director of the Translational Research Institute, co-founded Acetaminophen Toxicity Diagnostics (ATD) alongside Dr. Jack Henson and Dean Roberts. ATD emerged from their research on acetaminophen-induced liver injury, leading to the development of a novel assay that detects acetaminophen protein adducts in blood. Unlike traditional ALT/AST liver enzyme tests, which indicate general liver injury, ATD’s assay specifically identifies acetaminophen toxicity, aiding in rapid diagnosis and treatment. The startup leveraged NIH STTR grants to commercialize its discovery while allowing Dr. James to balance her clinical, research, and entrepreneurial roles.She highlights the importance of collaborations in their startup’s success, particularly ATD’s partnership with the Acute Liver Failure Study Group, funded by the NIH. The discussion emphasizes the role of translational research in bridging experimental findings with real-world medical applications, highlighting the significance of commercialization in advancing healthcare solutions. Dr. James also shares insights on persistence in biomedical startups, the importance of intellectual property management, and the need for open mindedness to unexpected opportunities in research and entrepreneurship.

This is our third and final episode showcasing members of this year’s AR Health Ventures Accelerator (ARHVA) program. Dr. Gyan Sahukhal sits down with us to discuss tackling staph infections and the challenges of treatment due to biofilm. His therapeutic approach targets regulators of biofilm formation and reduces complications from these types of infections. This is a major public health issue, often found in hospital settings, where they can range from mild skin conditions to severe, life threatening infections like sepsis, pneumonia, and osteomyelitis. Sahukhal highlights the role of biofilms in these infections, especially on implanted medical devices, where biofilm formation makes the bacteria highly resistant to both the immune system and conventional antibiotics. His research focuses on targeting global regulatory proteins, like MSAB and SARA, which are essential for biofilm formation. By disrupting these proteins, the researchers hope to prevent biofilm formation and make the bacteria more susceptible to conventional antibiotics. Sahukhal expresses optimism about the future impact of the research, which could help address the growing challenge of biofilm-associated infections in medical settings.

This episode focuses on Dexter Caffey, a member of the BioVenture’s Arkansas Collaborative for Technological and Innovative Venture Equality (ACTIVE) program. Dexter shares his entrepreneurial journey and the inspiration behind Smart Eye Technology, a biometric security platform focused on continuous facial recognition to protect sensitive data. His entrepreneurial path began at a young age, selling local newspapers in his neighborhood, where he learned the importance of customer relationships and market control. Smart Eye Technology was born from Dexter’s experience at a cybersecurity event, where he noticed the vulnerability of data on a laptop screen. The idea was to develop software that uses continuous facial recognition to ensure only the registered user can view their data on a screen. This system also integrates other biometrics like fingerprints, voice recognition, and behavior-based inputs (such as how a user holds a phone) to verify identity. Dexter emphasizes his commitment to staying active and healthy, given the high stress of entrepreneurship, and continuously innovating. He also highlights the value of the ACTIVE program in helping Smart Eye Technology forge important relationships with institutions, especially in healthcare and banking, which are the company’s ideal customer profiles. Future developments for Smart Eye Technology include adding continuous facial recognition to individual applications (e.g., Microsoft Word, Excel), meaning even when opening an app, the user's identity would need to be continuously verified.

The latest episode of the BioVentures podcast is the second part of the expose on the AR Health Ventures Therapeutic Accelerator (ARHVA) program. Our guest, Dr. Mitch McGill, an associate professor at UAMS, focuses his research on improving liver injury detection in clinical trials, specifically by developing new biomarkers to complement or replace alanine aminotransferase (ALT), a commonly used but limited indicator of liver damage. Dr. McGill explains that ALT can sometimes indicate false positives due to factors like diet or exercise, leading to unnecessary drug terminations in clinical trials. He proposes using fragments from deregulated proteases in liver cells as a more specific marker of true liver injury. This approach aims to enhance patient access to potentially safe medications while ensuring their safety. The project is in the early stages, with promising animal model results and plans for clinical validation. Dr. McGill highlights the importance of commercialization, noting that partnerships with industry are essential for making diagnostic tests widely available.

In this episode of the BioVentures Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Samir Jenkins, an AR Health Ventures Accelerator program (ARHVA) awardee. ARHVA is a new funding program aimed at supporting the commercialization of promising research projects at UAMS. Dr. Jenkins is focused on developing radiation-activated liposomes for targeted chemotherapy delivery, specifically using cisplatin. This approach aims to minimize the toxicity of chemotherapy to healthy tissues by releasing the drug directly at the tumor site in response to radiation, a technique that is not widely explored in current clinical applications. Jenkins has conducted initial tests demonstrating successful drugrelease upon radiation exposure and is in the process of refining the technology for further testing. Our conversation touches on the challenges of treating aggressive cancers, like lung and pancreatic cancer, and the potential benefits of localized drug delivery to improve treatment outcomes.

Our first episode! Dr. Stefanie Kennon-McGill, Senior Program Manager for BioVentures and Dmitri Scott, Program Manager for the Arkansas Collaborative for Technological and Innovative Venture Equality (ACTIVE) sit down to discuss this new collaborative and its overall goal of assisting health entrepreneurs who are socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. View transcript here: https://bioventures.tech/podcast/transcript-episode-1/