BioUtah Announces 2025 Life Sciences Award Winners Recognizing Utah's Healthcare Innovation Leaders

BioUtah announced its 2025 Life Sciences Awards, with five awards to be presented during the 2025 Mayer Brown Utah Life Sciences Summit on November 12 at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center Hotel. The annual awards recognize leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and companies who have made significant contributions to Utah's life sciences industry. Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah, stated, "We are proud to recognize this year's award winners. These honorees exemplify the innovation and dedication that define Utah's life sciences community, and their work continues to deliver transformative healthcare solutions to patients in Utah and the world over."

The awards ceremony will occur during the summit's morning plenary session. Mark Paul, executive director of the University of Utah Health Center for Medical Innovation and chair of the BioUtah Board of Directors, emphasized, "These awards reflect the dynamic leadership and culture of healthcare innovation we have here in Utah. I look forward to celebrating these distinguished individuals and companies at the summit." Registration for the summit is available at https://utahlifesciencessummit.com.

Wesley Sundquist, PhD, Samuels Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah, receives recognition for his decades-long contributions to Utah's life sciences industry. His research on human immunodeficiency virus assembly and replication led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of Lenacapavir in June 2025, a drug Gilead Sciences created using his findings for HIV prevention. Sundquist holds a BA in Chemistry from Carleton College, a PhD in Chemistry from MIT, and completed postdoctoral research with Sir Aaron Klug at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. His numerous honors include the Horwitz Prize for Biochemistry, TIME100 2025 list of most influential people, Bhaumik Breakthrough Prize, World Laureate Association Prize for Life Sciences, and Alpert Foundation Prize in Biomedicine, with memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences.

Fred Lampropoulos, Executive Chairman of Merit Medical Systems in South Jordan, Utah, is honored for his outstanding leadership, vision, and determination in founding and guiding the company since 1987. His dedication to developing life-changing medical technologies resulted in more than 500 domestic and international patents and applications on medical devices. Under his leadership, Merit Medical Systems grew to over $1.5 billion in revenue through organic product development and strategic acquisitions, expanding from Utah to Texas, Virginia, Ireland, Mexico, Singapore, Netherlands, and France. Lampropoulos supports employees with on-site medical and dental clinics and community gardens, and his awards include the 2003 and 2018 Utah Governor's Medal for Science and Technology and the 2016 BioUtah Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shawn Fojtik, CEO of Distal Access in Park City, Utah, is recognized for his bold, inspiring spirit and constant drive for innovation to improve patients' lives. His work resulted in 100+ combined issued and pending patents and the founding of multiple companies including Axiom, CIRCA, Distal Access, Fluidx, Pinyons, PolyEmbo, Transit, and VentiV. His intellectual property contributions include cardiovascular angioplasty and delivery catheters, embolic liquids and plugs, blood-clot filters, guidewire controllers, thrombectomy systems, and electrophysiology mapping, ablation, and sensing systems, with more than one million safe-patient uses anticipated to grow tenfold soon. Fojtik's technology led to more than 10 exits to third parties who commercialized or incorporated his inventions, drawing on his senior-level experience at GE, Boston Scientific, and Black & Decker.

Nusano, based in West Valley City, Utah, is awarded for developing a new class of targeted therapies using radioisotopes that deliver precise, high-energy radiation directly to tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue. Their proprietary platform can produce more than 40 different isotopes, enabling advanced diagnostic imaging and next-generation cancer therapies. Nusano has attracted top talent from national labs, universities, and leading life-science companies, bringing world-class expertise to Utah and fostering an ecosystem of innovation. Their work is drawing other life sciences and radiopharmaceutical companies like Ratio Therapeutics and PharmaLogic to expand operations in the state, accelerating the fight against cancer, fueling job creation, and cementing Utah as a destination for breakthrough science.

Taylor Randall, President of the University of Utah, is honored for his partnership and support in advancing Utah's life sciences ecosystem. He has been deeply involved with initiatives such as the Life Sciences Workforce Initiative to ensure a pipeline of skilled workers, focusing on transforming university research into practical applications that benefit society and the economy. His administration oversaw the construction of the University of Utah Eccles Health Campus and Eccles Hospital in West Valley, the completion of the James LeVoy Sorenson Center for Medical Innovation, and the establishment of the University of Utah Venture fund in partnership with EPIC to help bring technologies through the valley of death. In late 2024, Randall joined leaders on a discovery tour to Galway, Ireland, leading to life sciences training programs funded by the Utah legislature in 2025, and he is the first university alum in 50 years to hold the position of President.