New Year Celebration and Community Luncheon

Pennovation Works hosted their annual New Year Celebration and Community Luncheon for members and tenants on January 22, 2025.

Managing Director Denita Henderson shared essential community updates and highlighted 2024 achievements. A few of these achievements included the new, dedicated bus service that operates on a continuous loop with six stops around campus, the Penno Provisions food service offered to the complex, various sustainability efforts, and the YES! (Youth, Entrepreneurship, and STEM) Initiative.

Additionally, various companies were highlighted for their outstanding achievements:

  • Dr. Cindy Otto, Executive Director of Penn Vet Working Dog Center, won the 2024 Special Award from The Kennel Club
  • Interius Biotherapeutics raised their Series B round of funding and dosed their first patient with in vivo Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Gene Therapy for B-cell Malignancies
  • Pennovation Center member, Sahay AI, was the Overall Winner of the Pennovation Accelerator and won the 1682 Pitch Competition
  • Goeppert LLC. is an SBIR Phase I NASA awardee for their proposal on nanocomposites for multi-analyte detection and plant health monitoring, that enables smart agricultural and vertical farming which significantly reduces transportation costs of vegetables into ISS and future lunar habitats
  • Opertech Bio announced the publication of their new study researching how much the brain can change in response to early childhood experiences.

Pennovation Works was recognized by the community and ecosystem with awards that included: 

  • Two of the 2023 acelerator companies and Pennovation Center member, Simone Ammons of QuneUp, were listed in Technical.ly’s 2024 RealList StartUps
  • Kirsten King, Associate Director of Experience and Engagement, was recognized as a person you should know in the tech and startup community in Technical.ly’s RealList Connectors
  • The Philadelphia Tribune honored Managing Director, Denita Henderson, as a trailblazer in her field. The 2024 Women of Achievement award acknowledged African-American women who are creating change and paving the way for future generations
  • The Pennovation Accelerator won Technical.ly's Program of the Year 
     

2024 was an exciting year at Pennovation and they're looking ahead to all the exciting innovations 2025 will bring! 

 

Members eating lunch while listening to presenters