A company working to derive cancer therapies from milk is the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council’s top entrepreneur of the year.
The council selected Tiny Cargo and its leader, Spencer Marsh, for its Hart of the Entrepreneur Impact Award during Wednesday’s TechNite 2024 celebration. The council also added Virginia Western Community College’s president, Robert Sandel, to its hall of fame.
RBTC honored 11 other researchers and tech businesses from the state’s GO Virginia Region 2 at a ceremony at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center that featured a speech from tech-in-humanities pioneer and artificial intelligence leader Rishi Jaitly from Virginia Tech.
Marsh and Tiny Cargo are corralling milk exosomes — which serve as cells’ cargo-delivery system — to carry drugs to humans dealing with radiation’s effects in cancer treatment. The exosomes might also treat other diseases. The award’s name honors the late Roanoke-based tech businessman Bonz Hart.
Sandel, who has been at Virginia Western for more than two decades, has been part of multiple changes during his tenure. The Fralin Center for Science and Health Professions has arisen at the college, as has a student life center and the STEM Building. Due to fundraising efforts Sandel established, the college’s educational foundation provides up to two years’ tuition to the region’s high school graduates.
Other award winners, from an RBTC news release:
The Stem-H Educator Award went to Virginia Western professors Heather Lindberg and Kristylea Ojeda. The honor recognized them as teachers promoting math, science and technology in creative ways that help develop future tech leaders.
Mark Levy of the Roanoke Valley Governor’s School for Science and Technology received the K-12 STEM-H Educator Award. Levy is the Governor’s School director and former Patrick Henry High School science department chair. He’s a Governor’s School alumnus and founded Patrick Henry’s forensics team.
The Rising Star in Technology Award went to Fermi Energy Inc. The Blacksburg startup, founded by a Virginia Tech battery scientist/engineer and one of his students, is developing low-cost and sustainable cathodes for electric vehicle batteries, using materials that can be found in Southwest Virginia.
RBTC honored Sarah Snider of Beam Diagnostics Inc. with the Rising Star in Biotechnology Award. Snider’s digital health company is working to destigmatize substance abuse screening and use a proactive approach to patient care. The company co-founder and CEO has translated her lab research into the exam room.
The Innovator Award went to Read Montague of Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. Montague directs the Center for Human Neuroscience Research and is a world leader in computational psychiatry, a field he helped develop. His lab work uses artificial intelligence, and he has become a leading AI expert.
Rob Day received the council’s Regional Leadership Award. Day is chief operating officer at TECHLAB, which creates and distributes rapid infectious disease tests worldwide. He is a board leader for Virginia Bio and RBTC’s umbrella organization Verge, and he provides industry leadership and mentorship to early-stage entrepreneurs in the region.
[Disclosure: Verge is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
The Entrepreneur Award, which exemplifies risk-taking, went to Adam Donato, CEO of Card Isle. His company helps people sell personalized paper greeting cards through ecommerce, grocery delivery or curbside pickup sites. Donato has led his team through change to establish a well-respected and long-tenured company.
RBTC selected CytoRecovery its Leading Small Tech Company. The company, which is working to commercialize new cell separation and recovery technologies, demonstrates excellence in people, programs and projects within its industry while advancing understanding of disease initiation, progression and treatment.
Elbit Systems of America — Night Vision is the RBTC’s Leading Large Tech Company. Elbit’s products focus on defense, homeland security, commercial aviation and medical instrumentation markets. The international company, whose corporate predecessors included ITT Night Vision, is Israeli-owned with facilities throughout the United States.
The Ruby Award went to Hal Irvin of Fralin Biomedical Institute at VTC. The award recognizes an RBTC member who is a valuable asset to the Roanoke-Blacksburg region. Irvin is associate vice president for health sciences and technology outreach at the institute and serves on the board of the Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program, or RAMP, among other leadership positions.
RBTC Director Taylor Spellman said that anyone in the region’s tech community may submit nominations online during an open nominating period. From there, RBTC works with a panel of leaders from the valleys, reviewing nominations during multiple meetings.
They weigh the applications by regional impact, novel technology development, approach to innovation, company culture and number of employees, among other criteria, she said. The nomination committee members vote anonymously for the winners.
