After taking a class in Biomedical Entrepreneurship, Bobby Chang and Halim Ayan (MEM Graduate Students) were tasked to write a business plan, and their concept was born.

The students coined the company name InvitroPharm and together sought to develop and test a high-fidelity, high-throughput in vitro toxicology platform as a bridge between traditional in vitro and in vivo testing of drugs. Their technique fuses aspects of tissue engineering, solid freeform fabrication, and microfabrication technology to offer competitive advantages over available methods today. This methodology allows rational design, fabrication, and characterization of a microfluidic device to serve as a physiologically pertinent in vitro liver model for drug metabolism testing.

Each of the 5 winning teams received cash prizes of $500 and the chance to compete this May in the Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship in Technology 2008 Business Plan Competition.