BioForce Wins Pitt Wells Competition

Pittsburgh, November 11, 2025 — The neurosurgery team BioForce Spine won the first-place award at the University of Pittsburgh’s 2025 Wells Student HealthTech Challenge for their project designed to immobilize bone morphogenetic protein directly onto interbody fusion devices.

The project was developed by Sam Adida, Joseph Hudson, MD, Joseph Maroon, MD, and Nitin Agarwal, MD, along with collaborators from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Chemistry.

The Wells Student HealthTech Challenge is sponsored by the Michael G. Wells Entrepreneurial Scholars Fund and is for University of Pittsburgh students developing innovations related to the healthcare field.