TITA Seed Grant Program

Title of the Technology: Chemical Defluorination of PFAS Under Ambient Conditions

Proposers and Affiliations: Arjun Venkatesan; Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, NJIT

Partnership Team: Charmi Chande, CEO, PFASolve, Inc.

Company: PFASolve

Mentor: Govi Rao, CEO, Phase Change Solutions and Stewart Abrams, Director of Remediation Technology, Langan Engineering & Environmental Services

Innovation Pitch Competition Winner: TITA-Advance 2026 Seed Grant Award: $100,000

Executive Summary:

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of increasing concern due to their widespread occurrence in the environment and their toxicity to humans and ecosystems, even at very low concentrations (parts-per-trillion levels). Because of the multiple carbon–fluorine bonds in their structures, PFAS are highly resistant to transformation and degradation. Available technologies that can destroy PFAS require extreme conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, and alkaline pH, and requires several hours of contact time for near-complete destruction. Such processes result in high energy consumption and high treatment costs. Additionally, many of these processes do not completely destroy PFAS and results in the generation of partially transformed byproducts of PFAS and the generation of short-chain/ultra-short-chain PFAS.

The technology proposed here addresses and overcomes these important challenges by providing a chemically-mediated complete destruction of PFAS at ambient conditions (i.e., room temperature, atmospheric pressure, and near-neutral pH) within minutes. The chemical reaction is mediated by the presence of sodium metal complexed with naphthalene, that serves as a strong reducing agent that defluorinates all types of PFAS. Laboratory testing revealed that the chemical reaction has the potential to destroy aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) formulations, providing an opportunity to destroy residual AFFF wastes in fire suppression systems.

This project presents a highly innovative approach for the destruction of PFAS that has not been previously demonstrated. The proposed technology can be readily scaled up, as the chemical reactant is commercially available and the process design is straightforward. PFAS concentrates can be efficiently extracted from relevant waste streams using common solvents and subsequently treated with the sodium-metal reactant under ambient conditions. Given the rapidly expanding PFAS management market and the urgent need for effective destruction methods, this technology offers a significant competitive and environmental advantage. The awarded $100,000 TITA-Advanced Seed Grant will support advancing the technology from TRL 5/6 to a pilot- and demonstration-ready stage, paving the way for future commercialization.

Title of the Technology:  n-Fast - A Nanotechnology Approach to Developing Fast Dissolving Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)

Proposers and Affiliations: Somenath Mitra, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, NJIT

Partnership Team: Sai Rangarao, Senior Vice President of Commercialization, Pelthos Therapeutics; Marc Long, Executive Vice President, Research & Development, Clinical & Medical Affairs, MTF Biologics

Company: NEAT Bioscience

Mentor: Marc Long, Executive Vice President, Research & Development, Clinical & Medical Affairs, MTF Biologics

TITA-2026 Seed Grant Award: $75,000

Executive Summary:

The United States maintains a dominant position in the global pharmaceutical industry, accounting for 42.6% of the $1.48 trillion global pharmaceutical market. The country hosts some of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally, and American consumers have access to the most cutting-edge pharmaceutical products worldwide. A significant challenge currently confronting the pharmaceutical industry and drug development pertains to a substantial proportion (40 to 70%) of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) exhibiting low water solubility, resulting in poor bioavailability and often therapeutic ineffectiveness. These hydrophobic molecules fall within the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) categories II and IV drugs. In light of this, the global market for BCS Class II and IV drugs could range from $600 billion to $1.036 trillion. The text later presents selected candidate APIs and their respective market sizes.

We have developed a nanotechnology approach referred to as n-Fast to enhance the bioavailability and effectiveness of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) crystals by improving their water solubility, essentially creating a fast-dissolving version of the drug (1-10). Our technology aims to reformulate various insoluble APIs, falling under BCS Class II and IV, with bioabsorbable, functionalized nanoparticles (FNPs) featuring surface hydrophilization to enhance solubility, and ultimately efficacy. We propose the direct incorporation of FNPs into drug crystals during their formation in a way that preserves the crystal structure, polymorph, and physicochemical properties. The mechanism of fast dissolution

Our initial work involved functionalized carbon nanotubes (fCNTs) and nano graphene oxide (nGO) as FNPs. While fCNTs and nGO showed excellent results, their potential cytotoxicity raised significant concerns. Consequently, with the help of previous TITA funds, we have commenced the development of FNPs using FDA-approved bioabsorbable polymers. We have now formed NEAT Biosciences as an official company with a strong leadership team possessing broad and deep expertise. The main use of the TITA-2026 funds from the proposed award will be to generate data for regulatory (FDA) validation. This will mainly involve in vivo studies in animal models—primarily rat and dog models—using selected APIs over a period of 0 to 18 months. At the same time, the team will engage biotech and specialty pharmaceutical companies to build awareness and interest in the platform. These efforts aim to secure one or two pre-licensing or co-development agreements that can generate early IND (Investigational New Drug)-development revenue.

Title of the Technology:  Settable Bone Allograft Matrix Formulations

Proposers and Affiliations: Murat Guvendiren, Associate Professor, Chemical and Material Engineering, NJIT

Partnership Team: Marc Long, Executive Vice President, Research & Development, Clinical & Medical Affairs, MTF Biologics

Mentor: Marc Long, Executive Vice President, Research & Development, Clinical & Medical Affairs, MTF Biologics

TITA-2026 Seed Grant Award: $75,000

Executive Summary:

Osteoporosis and related conditions affect more than 10 million individuals in the United States, with an additional 40 million at risk due to low bone density. Bone defects resulting from trauma, infection, tumor resection, or degenerative disease remain a major clinical and socioeconomic challenge, contributing to an annual healthcare burden exceeding $5 billion in the U.S. alone. Although bone grafting remains a cornerstone of musculoskeletal repair and spinal reconstruction, current graft materials fall short of clinical demands. Demineralized bone matrix (DBM) putties and particulates exhibit poor injectability, variable bioactivity, and a high risk of migration after implantation. Synthetic cements and ceramics offer improved handling and strength but lack the osteoconductive and osteoinductive capacity required for true regeneration. Cellular allografts, while biologically active, are costly, inconsistent in performance, and poorly suited for minimally invasive delivery. Collectively, these limitations underscore a critical unmet need for a biologically functional, minimally invasive, self-curable bone graft technology that can be precisely delivered through small cannulas, conform to irregular defect geometries, resist washout, and provide immediate mechanical stability while supporting long-term bone healing.

We have developed a self-curable allograft composite technology that leverages human bone allograft (HBA) particles dispersed within a polysaccharide-based matrix (e.g., hyaluronic acid). The gradual release of calcium ions from HBA particles initiates ionic crosslinking, yielding a tunable self-curing mechanism that eliminates the need for external stimuli. In its primary application, the formulation is designed as a minimally invasive injectable bone void filler, providing defect conformity, graft stability, and biologically active integration. Beyond injectable use, this versatile technology can be readily adapted as a moldable putty or formulated for extrusion-based 3D printing, enabling the fabrication of patient-specific grafts with customized geometry and mechanical performance. This adaptability positions the platform as a next-generation solution for bone repair, bridging a critical gap between biologic function and surgical practicality across spine, trauma, and reconstructive applications.

Title of the Technology:  NoirVPAI: The World’s First Private and Secure AI Router

Proposers and Affiliations: Hai Phan, Associate Professor, Data Science, NJIT

Partnership Team: Ruoming Jin, Professor, Computer Science Department, Kent State University; My T. Thai, Professor, Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering Department, University of Florida; Yelong Shen, Principal Research Manager, Microsoft Azure AI

Company: OppyAI

Mentor: Mike Doyle, Professor Fellow and Chair, Department of Biology, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

TITA-2026 Seed Grant Award: $75,000

Executive Summary:

ChatGPT users send 2.5 billion requests daily, with over 750 million active users weekly. This massive number indicates a significant boost in productivity across industry sectors in the use of large language models (LLMs), covering every possible use case, from individual users to enterprises, organizations, and governments. The significant concerns and substantial risks associated with existing frameworks of LLM-based services include data privacy, security, and intellectual property (IP) protection. These concerns and risks are rooted in the fact that an AI service provider (cloud) observes a client’s prompts, which often include confidential information such as legal documents, insurance claims, electronic health records, proprietary software code, and patents, etc., sent to LLMs hosted on the AI service providers’ clouds to generate desired responses for daily and professional tasks. Without proper protection in a complicated LLMs’ operation pipelines, leaks and data misuse have occurred and can occur everywhere. Also, a recent lawsuit spotlights that AI service providers typically store users’ chat history indefinitely, with an uncertain future of whether this chat history can be used against individuals, enterprises, and organizations in legal incidents. Existing technology and solutions, such as data deletion, non-recording, data encryption and decryption, and trusted execution environments (TEEs) frameworks, have not been designed to adequately address these risks, with theoretical guarantees, while inevitably introducing unaffordable costs to users.

We have validated the technology to establish an end-to-end, neural-encrypted communication protocol between users and LLMs at scale, making it deployable to devices, computers, and cloud-based enterprises with significantly lower cost compared with existing competitors.

Our project develops the World’s First Private and Secure AI Router (NoirVPAI), offering an end-to-end neural encrypted communication protocol for individuals and LLMs at scale based on our proprietary IP. In this protocol, the user is the only recipient of their prompt and decrypted response when communicating with the LLM on the cloud through a neural-encrypted message and response. No LLM, and no person can understand the neural-encrypted message and the response, with a theoretical guarantee (the chance to crack it is smaller than 1 in, 100 billion). In fact, the LLM observes meaningless content while it can still generate a response, which only the client can decrypt. The beauty of neural crypto is that it is incredibly lightweight, allowing it to scale to a massive number of users without interfering with the LLM’s operation process. This property enables us to significantly reduce the cost by at least 30% compared with all existing techniques and ~1,000 times compared with operating a local LLM. Neural Crypto-powered NoirVPAI will revolutionize the way humans communicate with AI models, using our secure protocol. We have validated the technology with powerful code generation, coding at an agentic level 3, secure chat with confidential document analysis, and API services using a Qwen3 32B model, yielding highly competitive performance on the market. The TITA-2026 funds seed grant will bring this revolution closer to reality, enabling NoirVPAI to soon be available to a mass market of individual users, enterprises, and organizations.

Title of the Technology:  Skin-Like Cardiac Patch for Personalized and Preventive Heart Care

Proposers and Affiliations: Lin Dong, PhD, Assistant Professor; Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, NJIT

Partnership Team: Huzaifa Shakir, MD, MHA, FACS; Associate Professor, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School

Mentor: Steven Golombek, Managing Partner, Allergy & Arthritis; and Sabbir Rangwala, CEO, Patience Consulting LLC

TITA-2026 Seed Grant Award: $75,000

Executive Summary:

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, driving urgent demand for advanced, reliable, and patient-centric cardiac monitoring solutions that enable early detection, continuous care, and data-driven clinical decisions. Existing ambulatory devices, which rely primarily on electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring, are limited by patient discomfort, rigid connections, poor breathability, short battery life, and inadequate long-term usability. These constraints hinder continuous monitoring, delay timely intervention, and reduce patient engagement, creating a clear gap in the market for next-generation, high performance wearable solutions.

The proposed skin-like dual-functional cardiac patch directly addresses these limitations by simultaneously capturing ECG and seismocardiogram (SCG) signals, providing a comprehensive, real-time assessment of cardiac function. It leverages advanced nanofibrous materials to detect mechanical heart vibrations and nanowire electrodes for robust electrical performance while maintaining skin-like flexibility, breathability, and biocompatibility. Its self-powered design converts cardiac motion into sensing signals, enabling autonomous, continuous monitoring without external power sources. The combination of dual-modal sensing, seamless skin conformity, and long-term wearability establishes a new benchmark for personalized, preventive cardiac care.

The commercial potential is substantial. The global cardiovascular devices market was valued at $57.35 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $128.23 billion by 2034, reflecting a CAGR of 8.4%. Growth is fueled by increasing cardiovascular disease prevalence, rising healthcare expenditures, and adoption of wearable, minimally invasive, and home-based monitoring solutions. By delivering non-intrusive, dual-modal monitoring with superior comfort and usability, the patch provides a distinct competitive advantage over traditional ECG-centric devices. A provisional patent further secures intellectual property and enhances investment and commercialization prospects.

By combining innovative nanomaterials, flexible electronics, and patient-focused design, the dual-functional cardiac patch represents a transformative, investable platform. It supports earlier detection, informed clinical decision-making, improved patient outcomes, and positions itself to capture a significant share of the expanding wearable and home-based cardiac monitoring market, offering a high-impact, commercially viable solution for the future of cardiac care.