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# Innovative UW Students Develop Life-Saving Technology to Detect Jaundice in Newborns Across All Skin Tones
- URL: https://venture-block.com/innovative-uw-students-develop-life-saving-technology-to-detect-jaundice-in-newborns-across-all-skin-tones/
- Published: 2025-03-07T19:02:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T11:17:48.000Z
- Author: Venture Block
- Tags: Science

Three University of Washington students claimed top honors at this year’s Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge for developing innovative technology to detect jaundice in newborns across all skin tones. The team behind Luminovah, consisting of Tejoram Vivekanandan, Lillian Tran, and Nana Wang, secured both the $15,000 Hollomon Family Grand Prize and an additional $2,500 Naturacur Wound Healing Best Idea for a Medical Device award.

The breakthrough technology addresses a critical gap in current jaundice detection methods, which often struggle to accurately identify the condition in babies with darker skin tones. “The whole motivation is we are saving lives,” explained Vivekanandan, who serves as the startup’s tech lead. The team is currently concluding animal testing and has established a partnership with Seattle Children’s to conduct human trials as they pursue FDA approval.

The competition, now in its tenth year, attracted a record-breaking 69 applications from across the Pacific Northwest region, including Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Idaho, and Alaska. The field was narrowed to 22 finalists who presented their innovations to judges at the event hosted by the University of Washington’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship in the Foster School of Business.

The $10,000 WRF Capital Second Place Prize was split between two UW ventures. General Molecular Electronics, led by Xavi Guitart, is developing a genetic diagnostic tool for Lipoprotein(a), an  
underexplored cardiovascular disease risk factor. The other  
second-place winner, VISTA, represented by Nicole Gunderson, Pengcheng Chen, and Jeremy Ruthberg, is creating computer vision technology for image-guided surgery.

The University of Victoria’s Revyn Medical Technologies secured both the $5,000 R1 Third Place Prize and a $2,500 Population Health Initiative award for their work on improving gynecological examination technology. Their team, including Keeley McCormick, Joshua Latimer, Zoe Crookshank, Samantha Sperling, and Devon Carmichael, focuses on enhancing provider efficiency while prioritizing patient comfort.

The competition has a strong track record of launching successful ventures. Notable past winners include A-Alpha Bio, which secured $20 million in funding three years after their 2018 victory, and Nanodropper, which raised $1.4 million following their 2019 win. Another success story is Spira, the 2020 third-place winner, which was acquired by New York-based healthcare company Galileo.

Luminovah’s success builds upon a history of jaundice-related innovation at UW, following a smartphone app developed by computer science researchers over a decade ago for jaundice screening. The team sees significant potential for their device in healthcare facilities and plans to explore a rental model for parents of affected newborns, addressing the serious risk of brain damage that can result from untreated jaundice.

“Our device is super special and really significant,” said team member Lillian Tran, highlighting the potential impact of their innovation on newborn health care. The team’s focus on developing technology that works effectively across all skin tones represents an important step forward in addressing healthcare disparities and improving patient outcomes in neonatal care.