Students and Faculty Continue to Rack Up Awards with Life-Saving Technology and BioLegacy

Mechanical Engineering Assistant Teaching Professor Dr. Shen Ren and Seattle University students Vincent Rettinger, ’25 ME, Simon Sharples, ’27 (Finance) and Karin Stoddart, ’26 (Chemistry) have plenty to celebrate after recently winning the grand prize at the Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge at the University of Washington. The team also won second place at Baylor University’s New Venture Competition with BioLegacy, the latest evolution of a technology that helps preserve organs intended for transplantation.

“Working with Professor Ren and the BioLegacy team has been absolutely pivotal to my Seattle University experience,” explains Stoddart, who in addition to chemistry studies biology, mathematics and physics. “My research work for the project has enabled me to apply concepts from my classes directly to a societally beneficial goal and every week it gives me more motivation to learn.”

BioLegacy is the entrepreneurial vehicle of the technology Dr. Ren invented, known as Single-Mode Electromagnetic Resonance, or SMER. SMER found its winning stride last fall when it won the Harriet Stephenson Business Plan Competition, put on by Seattle University's Albers School of Business and Economics. The $20,000 grand prize from that victory allowed Dr. Ren to establish his own research lab on campus, springboarding his ability to make significant strides in his work. Since then, the team continued their innovative work collaboratively with organ procurement organizations and transplant surgeons to advance the potentially life-saving SMER technology. The SMER technology targets extending organ transplant viability and biological functions from the current 24 hours to months, significantly improving organ transplantation accessibility. 

“It is challenging for an engineering faculty to participate in business competitions, especially pivoting the mindsets between scientific heavy terminologies and business plans,” says Ren. “However, I’ve been amazed and inspired by the passionate and creative ideas that our students have brought to BioLegacy. We would’ve never reached this far without their hard work and dedication. It is a hidden benefit of working at a university—you never feel old when you work with younger generations.”

Next up for Dr. Ren and the BioLegacy team? The Dempsey Startup Competition later this month, another opportunity for Seattle University’s current and future academic leaders to shine.

For media inquiries, contact Lincoln Vander Veen at vanderv1@seattleu.edu or 425-830-2448.

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