Research, ventures, and the people moving Duke innovation forward.
Research, ventures, and the people moving Duke innovation forward.
Ventures
Upswing co-founder and CEO Melvin Hines, a Duke JD/MBA alum, returned to campus to let Executive MBA students dissect a case study of his edtech startup's toughest choices, sharing lessons on funding, hiring, and building a company without personal wealth.
Ventures
Upswing co-founder and CEO Melvin Hines, a Duke JD/MBA alum, returned to campus to let Executive MBA students dissect a case study of his edtech startup's toughest choices, sharing lessons on funding, hiring, and building a company without personal wealth.
Ventures
Upswing co-founder and CEO Melvin Hines, a Duke JD/MBA alum, returned to campus to let Executive MBA students dissect a case study of his edtech startup's toughest choices, sharing lessons on funding, hiring, and building a company without personal wealth.
Breakthroughs
A Duke University School of Medicine study published in JAMA Ophthalmology found that a noninvasive retinal scan performed on very preterm infants in the NICU can predict cognitive, motor, and behavioral outcomes at age 2, potentially enabling earlier intervention for developmental delays.
Breakthroughs
Duke's Jonathan Campbell presented evidence at ADA 2026 that glucagon, not just GLP-1, may be a key driver behind the remarkable efficacy of triple-agonist obesity drugs like retatrutide, which produced up to 30% body weight loss in Phase 3 trials.
Breakthroughs
Duke School of Medicine researchers published a Nature study showing that β-arrestin proteins form liquid-like droplet clusters that regulate G protein-coupled receptors, the targets of one-third of FDA-approved drugs, potentially pointing toward new approaches in drug design.
Ventures
Upswing co-founder and CEO Melvin Hines, a Duke JD/MBA alum, returned to campus to let Executive MBA students dissect a case study of his edtech startup's toughest choices, sharing lessons on funding, hiring, and building a company without personal wealth.
Ventures
Hannah Wilen (Pratt '20, Fuqua '22) co-founded Capd Period and bootstrapped a menstrual cup designed to be emptied without removal, winning the 2023 Westly Prize's $40,000 award earmarked for distributing 10,000 cups in Uganda.
Ventures
John Antonelli, a 2023 Duke computer science graduate and participant in Duke's Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs program, co-founded the fan-engagement app Real with his brothers. The platform peaked at 1 million daily active users during Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals, capping growth from 9,000 monthly users in late 2021.
Ventures
Duke class of 2023 alum Snehal Verma co-founded NatureDots in December 2019 to help fish farmers combat climate-driven water quality losses using sensor hardware and machine learning; the venture now has a 22-person team and more than 20 international awards.
Innovators
Zack Weaver and Victoria Goldenshtein, the first PhD students in Duke's Tadross Lab, co-founded the Research Triangle Park chapter of Nucleate in 2021 to support early-stage life-science entrepreneurs; the chapter remains active in 2026 with ongoing programming and industry partnerships.
Innovators
Duke PhD graduate Ammara Aqeel adapted ecological DNA metabarcoding to track children's diets from stool samples, won $6,500 in a Duke accelerator, and filed an invention disclosure for a diet-tracking tool aimed at dietitians before completing her degree in May 2025.
Innovators
Five Duke School of Medicine faculty have each been awarded $120,000 per year for three years through the 2026 Physician-Scientist Strong Start program, the first cohort funded under the Nanaline H. Duke Fund's expanded $11.45 million commitment.
Innovators
J. Lloyd Michener, MD, a Duke University School of Medicine professor emeritus who chaired the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health for 22 years, has established the Michener Family Community Health Fund with a personal gift to deepen partnerships between Duke Health and the Durham community.
Impact
Duke University's Climate and Health Research Initiative, backed by a $4.5 million Duke Endowment award, is funding cross-disciplinary research on extreme heat's health and environmental impacts, with projects spanning farm worker kidney disease, urban temperature monitoring gaps, and coral reef resilience.
Impact
Duke alumna Nancy Schlichting and her wife Pam Theisen have made a $250,000 gift to establish the Nursing Innovation Fund at Duke Health, empowering nurses to develop and scale new care models across the health system.
Breakthroughs
Duke's Jonathan Campbell presented evidence at ADA 2026 that glucagon, not just GLP-1, may be a key driver behind the remarkable efficacy of triple-agonist obesity drugs like retatrutide, which produced up to 30% body weight loss in Phase 3 trials.
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©2026 Duke Innovation Digest
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©2026 Duke Innovation Digest
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©2026 Duke Innovation Digest
Powered by Surround Sound Media