Atul Butte
Company Competition
PMWC 2026 Silicon Valley – March 4-6
We have brought back the PMWC Most Promising Company Competition—now the Atul Butte Company Competition—to honor the late Dr. Butte, who championed evidence-first, data-driven translation and inspired the PMWC community and beyond. This competition celebrates builders who turn data into care. Launched in 2009 to spotlight “rising star” startups in Diagnostics, Therapeutics, and Health Tech, it provides visibility and a platform to present before leading investors, potential clients, and partners, helping them accelerate their path forward.
Privately held precision medicine startups from Seed to Series A stage across these categories:
- Diagnostics
- Therapeutics
- Health Tech
- AI & Computational Medicine (new category)
- Semi-finals (morning): 3-minute presentation + 5-minute Q&A per company.
- Finals (afternoon, main stage): Top-3 present.
- Judging criteria: clinical impact/unmet need, science/evidence, team/ability to execute, traction & regulatory path, IP/defensibility, business model/market potential
- No application/competition fees
- Selected companies must purchase PMWC conference passes for their presenter(s); travel/lodging not covered.
- In-person only
- Applications open on November 4, 2025 and close on February 4, 2026.
- Selected companies will be published and promoted in February 2026.
- Semi-finals will take place in the morning, with finals in the afternoon.
- Finalists will be announced after lunch on March 6, 2026.
- The winner will be announced at the end of the day on stage.
Previous Winners
ABREOS BIOSCIENCES
Abreos Biosciences is a precision medicine company in San Diego, CA developing laboratory-based and near-patient tests for precision dosing of biologic drugs. Abreos has cultivated a diverse portfolio of Veritope™ tests that allow for direct monitoring of blood concentrations of monoclonal antibody drugs (novel or biosimilar). Website: abreos.com
IMMUSOFT
Immusoft’s mission is re-program patient cells into miniature drug factories that engraft and survive for decades in the body. Website: immusoft.com
TWO PORE GUYS
Two Pore Guys created a solid-state nanopore-based diagnostic testing platform that can detect nucleic acids, proteins and other analytes with comparable performance of lab equipment, in a glucometer-style system. Website: twoporeguys.com
GRITSTONE ONCOLOGY
Every patient’s tumor is molecularly unique – Gritstone Oncology deploys a proprietary tumor antigen prediction model based upon patient tumor sequencing/mass spectrometry to deliver antigens as personalized therapeutic vaccine alongside checkpoint inhibitors. Website: gritstoneoncology.com
HEALTHMYNE
HealthMyne is an imaging informatics company dedicated to transforming patient care by enabling image data mining within the clinical workflow. Built on an FDA-cleared diagnostic platform, HealthMyne tools will increase radiologist efficiency by automating both data capture and structured reports. Website: healthmyne.com
INSILICO MEDICINE
Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a bioinformatics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore. It utilizes advances in genomics, big data analysis and deep learning for in silico drug discovery and drug repurposing for aging and age-related diseases. Website: insilicomedicine.com
ACCEL DIAGNOSTICS
AccelDx’s technology enables patients and healthcare providers to perform lab-quality medical diagnostic tests at any time and any place. The patented pScreen™ platform technology employs a single-use blood test the size of a credit card in tandem with a smartphone application to quickly detect disease-specific biomarker levels. Website: acceldx.com
T2 BIOSYSTEMS
T2 Biosystems is an in vitro diagnostics company that has developed an innovative and proprietary technology platform that is designed to offer a rapid, sensitive and simple alternative to existing diagnostic methodologies. Their new class of clinical diagnostics powered by T2MR is the world’s first direct detection technology that delivers superior sensitivity at unmatched speed to guide more effective clinical decision-making. IPO, Aug. 2014. Website: t2biosystems.com
ELMINDA
ElMindA has developed the BNA™ technology platform, which for the first time allows high resolution visualization and evaluation of the complex neuro-physiological interconnections of the human brain at work, capturing information on the composition, connectivity, synchronization and operation of brain networks. Website: elminda.com
HORIZON DISCOVERY
Horizon Discovery Limited has developed a translational genomics platform and drug discovery toolbox that enables the development of new therapies targeted at the genetic features that drive an individual’s cancer. IPO, March 2014. Website: horizondiscovery.com
QUANTALIFE
QuantaLife provides advanced genetic analysis systems for research. QuantaLife has commercialized the Droplet Digital™ (ddPCR) system, the most accurate genetic analysis platform available today. The system is the first cost-effective, high-resolution platform available for the validation of next-generation sequencing discoveries. With the ddPCR system, researchers can explore complex genetic landscapes in high-definition, discover new disease associations, and define a new category of improved molecular diagnostic tests. Acquired by Bio-Rad, October 2011. Website: bio-rad.com
APPLIED IMMUNE TECHNOLOGIES
Applied Immune Technologies’ (AIT) core technology platforms encompass the identification and validation of novel MHC-based targets, as well as development of therapeutic Human Recombinant T-Cell Receptor-Like (TCRL) antibodies with the unique ability to bind with these intracellular peptide/MHC complexes with the specificity of cytotoxic T-cell killer cells. Acquired by Adicet Bio, January 2016.Website: tcrl.co.il
APPLIED IMMUNE TECHNOLOGIES
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