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Researchers Capture the Big Idea

Around Campus

Three UTSW research teams won prizes at the Big Idea Competition, one of the most celebrated nights of entrepreneurship in North Texas held at UT Dallas. Finalists pitched their ideas to panels of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists for cash and scholarship awards. Congratulations to Dr. V. Vinod Mootha, Professor of Ophthalmology and in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, who won the $50,000 grand prize for developing a compound to treat a genetic defect that can cause blindness; Dr. Yang Xie, Professor of Population and Data Sciences in the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics, who won $12,500 for creating an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to improve cancer diagnosis; and Dr. Karanjit Kooner, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, who advised a team of students that won $25,000 for designing an implant to treat glaucoma.

Karanjit Kooner, M.D.

Karanjit Kooner, M.D.

Associated Professor of Ophthalmology

V. Vinod Mootha, M.D.

V. Vinod Mootha, M.D.

Professor of Ophthalmology

Yang Xie, M.D.

Yang Xie, M.D.

Professor of Population of Data Sciences in the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics