MedTech Entrepreneurs Secure a Leg Up with PLASMA Health at Aggie Square

There’s a new educational arm to PLASMA, the flagship entrepreneurship program of the Student Startup Center in the University of California, Davis, College of Engineering. The 12-week accelerator, which helps undergraduates launch a startup business, now features a track for students interested in medtech.  

Called PLASMA Health, it runs in parallel with the main accelerator program. It pulls in PLASMA teams developing a company around an innovative medical device or service to participate in a partnership between the Student Startup Center and Aggie Square, UC Davis’ innovation district for converging medical experts, academics and industry professionals in Sacramento, California.

“We’ve seen a huge jump in both the quantity and quality of PLASMA teams over the last few years, especially from teams working on health-related ideas,” said Aaron Anderson, the director of the Student Startup Center. “PLASMA Health is really about meeting that moment.” 

Across four events, PLASMA Health students learn from a panel of experts grouped by topics, such as prototyping and regulatory pathways to follow for approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Following the panel discussion, panelists break off to speak with students one-on-one, allowing students the opportunity to network, receive answers to lingering questions and receive tailored mentorship on how to make their medtech idea a successful one.

The first cohort features seven teams with ideas ranging from a platform to simplify at-home recovery after a stroke to dietary supplements aimed at reducing seafood waste by upcycling marine by-products, such as squid ink. Among these teams is First Bite, a medical device company with a mission to improve care for newborns and infants who need help breathing. 

“PLASMA Health has been well-geared towards providing us with the mentorship that a medical device company needs, as navigating the medical device startup space is very different from non-medical or healthcare spaces,” said Camilla Lindh, a biomedical engineering student and member of First Bite.

PLASMA Health arose out of a collaboration between Anderson and Monique Brown, the knowledge community director at Aggie Square for Wexford Science & Technology, the master developer behind the innovation district.

“We couldn’t have done this without Monique Brown,” Anderson said. “She and the team at Wexford have been incredible partners in helping us shape something that actually works for these young founders. The program is a natural extension of what we’re trying to do at the Student Startup Center, which is to help students turn serious ideas into real companies, to solve meaningful problems through entrepreneurship.”

As PLASMA Health settles in at Aggie Square, the opportunities it provides to students will only increase.

“As we get the space and community fully activated, I believe we can provide a powerful and integrated ecosystem for these students to plug into with university research, UC Davis Health, startups and industry partners in one shared environment,” Brown said.