NEXXUS's third cohort gave their final presentations at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center on April 10, 2026.
On Friday, April 10, 2026, NEXXUS™, a cross-disciplinary partnership at The University of Texas at Austin launched between the College of Pharmacy, McCombs School of Business and Dell Medical School, held final presentations from its third cohort, demonstrating student mastery and evaluation of healthcare and bioscience innovations.
The culmination of the program's hands-on learning, teams of graduate and professional students from each school collaborated to explore the most valuable uses of emerging technologies and presented their learnings to the NEXXUS Advisory Board at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. The following teams participated:
- TEAM #1: Prostatic Bleeding Device
- TEAM #2: Bacterial Therapeutic Delivery Platform
- TEAM #3: Inhalable Excipient-Free Azithromycin
- TEAM #4: AI-powered, Lossless, Compression Method
The Prostatic Bleeding Device Team won the NEXXUS Team Award as evaluated by the NEXXUS Advisory Board, with each of its four team members receiving a $2,500 award. The team presented in the Texas Health Catalyst Roundup and Rodeo on Thursday, April 30 at Capital Factory to showcase their project alongside key players in the Central Texas life sciences community.
Three learners from the third cohort were honored with a funded NEXXUS Apprenticeship Experience, a cornerstone of the program. Beginning in May, each of these students will spend three weeks embedded in international and local host companies and complete immersive apprenticeships to gain firsthand exposure to product development processes.
"Through NEXXUS, we provide nascent healthcare entrepreneurs with the tools, mentorship, and early network necessary to evaluate promising research concepts for healthcare product development," says Professor of Business Practice and NEXXUS Creator/Director, Cindy WalkerPeach, Ph.D. "By connecting learners from various disciplines and industry professionals, NEXXUS empowers learners with experiential entrepreneurship expertise for healthcare product evaluation."
For more information about NEXXUS, visit pharmacy.utexas.edu/about/nexxus.
Photos by Sandy Carson.