PreDxion Wins Michigan Business Challenge Comptetition

What began with 100 student teams across the University’s 19 schools and colleges came down to one winner on  February 19, at the Ross School of Business. Over the course of the four-month, multi-round Michigan Business Challenge business plan competition, student startup PreDxion emerged the winner and took home a total of $30,000 from the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies’ 33^rd annual competition award ceremony.

«Prior to joining the Michigan Business Challenge, PreDxion did not have a framework or mechanism for pressure-testing our assumptions for market entry,» said Walker McHugh (MSE ’17), co-founder of PreDxion. «The competition, combined with amazing support from the Zell Lurie Institute, provided the structure and resources we needed to launch our venture and hopefully receive the financing necessary to bring our product to market.»

Founded by McHugh and Caroline Landau (MBA ’16), PreDxion fills a critical unmet need in acute care: currently, doctors using CAR T-cell therapy for high-risk cancer patients are unable to quickly and accurately monitor their patients’ immune response, increasing their risk of death. PreDxion’s groundbreaking technology, called MicroKine, solves this problem in 30 minutes from a single drop of blood and enables precision medicine in the intensive care unit for the first time. In addition to the Pryor-Hale award for best business for $25,000, PreDxion took home the Williamson Award for $5,000 for the most outstanding business and engineering team.

«Through programs like the Michigan Business Challenge and Dare to Dream, Michigan students apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real-world situations,» said Stewart Thornhill, executive director of the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. «These opportunities allow students to validate their ideas in front of a wider community of entrepreneurs and investors. We’re proud of the tremendous entrepreneurial spirit and drive shown by the student teams, and are confident that the coaching and financial resources they’ve received from the Zell Lurie Institute will help them achieve even greater success as they pursue their business ideas.»