image: LyoWave CEO Drew Strongrich (left), principal engineer Steven Pugia (right) and firmware developer Shiv Kothari (center) conduct research in the company’s development facility in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette. LyoWave has received a $304,436 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation.
Credit: (LyoWave photo/Alina Alexeenko)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The National Science Foundation has awarded a $304,436 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to LyoWave Inc. for a project that could increase the availability of lifesaving medicines and reduce pharmaceutical development and manufacturing costs.
LyoWave has also received a Phase I matching grant of $50,000 from the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s Applied Research Institute.
LyoWave commercializes innovative microwave heating technologies developed at Purdue University that improve upon traditional lyophilization — or the process of freeze-drying perishable products — by increasing speed, cost-effectiveness and product throughput.
The company licenses the patented and patent-pending technologies through the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization.
The SBIR-funded project
The funded project is titled “Scaling Up Tunable High-Frequency Microwave Heating for Pharmaceutical and Biologics Manufacturing.” It aims to build the core knowledge needed to successfully scale LyoWave’s heating technology to high-volume manufacturing, paving the way for broader commercial use.
Drew Strongrich, LyoWave co-founder and CEO, said developing the technology will lead to faster, higher-yield manufacturing of injectable pharmaceuticals, vaccines and diagnostic reagents. He is a 2021 PhD graduate of Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he did his doctoral research on sensors operating in a vacuum for applications in spacecraft and lyophilization.
“We are using microwaves at radar and satellite communication frequencies, which are more effective for fast heating of frozen materials than traditional microwave sources operating at 2.45 gigahertz,” he said. “This will translate into significant improvement in manufacturing throughput, which will result in an increased availability of lifesaving medicines and reduce pharmaceutical development and manufacturing costs.”
The Purdue innovation
The technology licensed by LyoWave has been developed by researchers at Purdue led by Alina Alexeenko, the Reilly Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Chemical Engineering in Purdue’s College of Engineering.
LyoWave, founded in 2023, has received a series seed funding from California-based Handshake Ventures. In May 2024, LyoWave entered into a joint development agreement with Millrock Technology, an industry leader in innovative freeze dryers for biotech, pharmaceutical and industrial applications from laboratory to production.
About LyoWave Inc.
At LyoWave, we are supercharging the pharmaceutical freeze-drying process using state-of-the-art, high-frequency microwave heating technology. Our solution accelerates the freeze-drying process while simultaneously improving throughput and uniformity. It is compatible with benchtop to production-scale freeze-drying systems and everything in between, and it seamlessly transfers your freeze-drying process from the laboratory to pilot or commercial scales.
About Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization
The Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university’s academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. In fiscal year 2024, the office reported 145 deals finalized with 224 technologies signed, 466 invention disclosures received, and 290 U.S. and international patents received. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Contact otcip@prf.org for more information.
About Purdue University
Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 107,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 58,000 at our main campus in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its comprehensive urban expansion, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.
Media contact: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org