Katie Maney

SonoVanta™, a patent-pending contrast agent that improves the precision of cancer margin imaging, is the second technology from George Mason University to be licensed through the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation’s (VIPC) Lab-to-Launch (L2L) Program, which accelerates the commercialization of promising research breakthroughs emerging from Virginia’s universities.

This spring, start-ups from around the world came to the Nexus234 Innovation District for Northern Virginia International Soft Landing Accelerator's (NISA) Global Innovation Showcase.

Many accessibility surveys depend on manual measurements, handwritten notes, and extensive walkthroughs with compliance checklists. A team of George Mason University engineering students wondered if a robot could do it faster. Nine months later, they created one. 

With their capstone project, four George Mason mechanical engineering students explored how to make airport travel less stressful for people with mobility challenges?

This May, startups from across the globe came to Manassas, Virginia. Along with their suitcases, they brought polished presentations, new technologies, and big plans.

Throughout Virginia, the life sciences sector is gaining momentum as major pharmaceutical companies invest billions in new facilities and operations. As a result, employers need to find people who can step into laboratory and manufacturing roles right away. George Mason University's Innovation District is meeting the demand.

After participating in George Mason's Nano Boot Campus, George Mason alumnus and veteran Charles Stewart was hired by Micron Technology.

This month, a new Northern Virginia International Soft-Landing Accelerator (NISA) program, designed to help start-ups from around the globe find guidance, connections, and lab or office spaces at no cost, was launched to help develop new technologies in life sciences.

TJ Master and Elizabeth Pyle, mentors with the Virginia Small Business Development Center’s (SBDC) Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP), are advising entrepreneurs in the Innovation District.

This summer, George Mason graduate students rolled up their sleeves in busy labs, learned their way around unfamiliar equipment, and even played a part in moving clinical trials forward, working with start-ups and biotech companies in the recently established Innovation District anchored by the university’s Science and Technology Campus.