The Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention recently announced its 2025 Cade Prize for Inventivity winners, with Quornix, a biotechnology startup from Bloomington, Indiana, being awarded the grand prize for “developing pioneering therapeutic technologies to treat bacterial diseases.”
Named after Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, “the Cade Prize for Inventivity celebrates early-stage companies with innovative ideas and commercial potential,” according to a press release.
Quornix was among 15 finalists who gathered at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville on Oct. 14 for final rounds of judging and the awards ceremony.
On top of winning the grand prize, the all-female team also won the Environmental category, taking home $60,000 in prize money. Quornix will also receive additional benefits like legal counsel, marketing support and product development consulting, at no cost.
“We are deeply honored to have been awarded the Cade Prize for Inventivity,” said Dr. Julia van Kessel, president and co-founder of Quornix, in the release. “We’re incredibly proud to be a part of a promising future shaped by science, creativity, and meaningful impact that is supported by the Cade Museum.”
Kessel was asked how the team plans to spend its winnings.
“We plan to put the prize money toward some important (and big) experiments to further develop our technology that would not have been otherwise possible,” she said.
The winning teams of the remaining categories also didn’t leave empty-handed, with each one receiving $10,000 in cash, as well as legal, marketing and product development services.
The other category winners are listed below.
- Sports Winner ($10,000 prize): Mud Rat (Storrs, Connecticut) – for developing eco-friendly biomaterials for the marine and action sports industries.
- Healthcare Winner ($10,000 prize): NanoNeurosciences (Alachua, Florida) – for NanoGlaucoOut, a platform for advanced peptide-based nanomedicines to treat conditions such as glaucoma, epilepsy and depression.
- Technology Winner ($10,000 prize): Immunogenik (Gainesville, Florida) – for 8R-70CAR, a CD70-targeted CAR T cell therapy designed to treat aggressive, treatment-resistant cancers such as GBM, pediatric high-grade gliomas and brain metastases.
- Wildcard Winner ($10,000 prize): Floe (New Haven, Connecticut) – for their automated ice and snow prevention system for commercial and residential buildings.
Local college and high school students present for the award ceremony also chose Mud Rat for the Student Choice Award.
Now in its 16th year, the Cade Prize has selected 87 teams as finalists and awarded $981,000 to date.
“It’s Cade Prize’s DNA to elevate inventors and entrepreneurs in their earliest stages, when they need it the most,” Bradley Gamble, Cade Museum CEO, said in the release. “Our 15 finalists were very impressive, and I am so grateful for all our expert judges that contributed their time, and our sponsors and donors that made this event possible with their generosity.”