Life Magnetics Inc., led by CEO Dr. Kevin Hagedorn, has won an influential competition as part of Michigan Tech Week in 2022.
Michigan Tech Week is a two day roster of events designed to highlight Michigan’s burgeoning tech scene and Michigan startup collaboration. It includes sponsors and speakers with a prominent impact on the community exhibiting both innovation and initiative. A special highlight includes those entrepreneurs and forward-thinkers who are making a big splash by showing breakthroughs in the world of tech, medicine, science, and more.
One of the greatest parts of MTW is a competitive pitch competition. The winning prize for the Michigan Tech Week Pitch Competition in Detroit, MI was $100K in funding and visibility. What makes MTW stand out is its novel partnership between companies. Along with two other partner companies – JustAir and EvenScore, who jointly participated in the winning of the pitch competition and Michigan startup collaboration, Life Magnetics captivated the judges with their innovative technology used in wastewater surveillance. Together with JustAir and EvenScore Life Magnetics showed how with their technologies, they can improve the lives of the individuals in Detroit.
The pitch itself is a plan to collaboratively conduct air and water testing for the Justice 40 Initiative which was allocated funding through the recent Inflation Reduction Act. The purpose of this funding is to address air and water pollution in low income areas. The plan also includes a direction to address funding opportunities for the air and water testing sections of the program. JustAir (https://www.justair.co/) is set to help with the air testing portion while Evenscore (https://www.evenscore.us/) will help with the application for these opportunities.
The Development of Critical Clean Water Infrastructure found within White House documentation around the initiative lists reducing respiratory viruses in drinking water as one objective. This is where Life Magnetics leads the way by identifying viruses and the source. Additionally, the Clean Transportation section lists the reduction of exposure to harmful transportation-related emissions as another objective. This JustAir’s area of expertise, which will include tracking vehicle emissions.
The win is likely to draw substantial attention to Life Magnetics and its partners in the industry, which has been making waves in RNA isolation by significantly improving RNA extraction from dilute solutions like COVID-19 detection in wastewater with its unique specialized carbon prep RNA isolation kits. Life Magnetics also offers free consultation requests and can help labs, universities and more benefit from these innovations. The impact of these developments puts Life Magnetics on the leading edge within this space.
Life Magnetics, Inc. has contributed to the life sciences ecosystem by pioneering the next generation of RNA sample preparation. Through a partnership with Opentrons, an open source liquid handling robot, and the innovative new carbon-based RNA isolation process – Life Magnetics is poised to expand in the Michigan business community and beyond.
Kevin graduated from the University of Michigan where he received a Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Chemistry with a focus on Semiconductor Surface Chemistry. In 2015, Kevin started Life Magnetics, Inc. with Saravana Murthy. Kevin developed the manufacturing method used to create Life Magnetics’ products and currently oversees manufacturing and business development. Kevin also has five peer-reviewed publications, and seven issued patents.