Actuated Medical, Inc., of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, has been named the winner of the 2026 BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap Competition, following a live pitch on September 16 at U.S. Pharmacopeia in Rockville, Maryland, during BioHealth Capital Region Week.
Maureen L. Mulvihill, PhD, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Actuated Medical, presented the company’s NeuralGlider® platform, a precision brain-access and deep brain therapy delivery technology designed to improve placement accuracy for increasingly small, sophisticated neurological devices and therapies.
Solving a Precision Problem in Neurotechnology
The pitch centered on a growing challenge: as brain therapies move to smaller probes and cannulas, accurately reaching the intended target gets harder. Actuated Medical is developing NeuralGlider for applications including DBS and SEEG electrode placement, brain-computer interfaces, next-generation brain implants, and longer-term CNS biologics and gene therapy delivery. The company entered the competition with substantial traction already behind it — more than $18 million in NIH SBIR and DARPA non-dilutive funding, 15 issued U.S. and international patents (with more pending), use in more than 41 global brain research labs, and over $500,000 in early preclinical brain research sales. Actuated Medical is now working to move NeuralGlider toward clinical use, with a $10 million Series A planned to fund clinical optimization, studies, and FDA 510(k) activities on a platform it says is already developed and validated.
The Prize, the Field, and the Judges
As winner, Actuated Medical received a prize package totaling $35,000 in cash and services: $15,000 from VIPC and BioHealth Innovation, $10,000 in IT and cybersecurity services from Info Pathways, and $10,000 in CRO services from Noble Life Sciences.
The company was selected from a record 82 Crab Trap applications and a field of six finalists spanning four U.S. states and France — Aidar Health, Cortexx Medical Intelligence, Lisen Imprinting Diagnostics, Liquet Medical, and Phycin. Judges included Matthew Miessau of Epidarex Capital, Brett Shealy of J.P. Morgan, Teddy Gresser of TEDCO, John Newby of Virginia Bio, Tien Wong of Opus8, Tai Mai of VIPC, and Ethel Rubin of BioHealth Innovation, with Rich Bendis, BioHealth Innovation President and CEO, moderating.
Each finalist had seven minutes to pitch, followed by three minutes of judge questions, with companies evaluated on product/technical strategy, business strategy, leadership, financials, and overall presentation.
About the Crab Trap Competition and BioHealth Capital Region Week
The Crab Trap Competition, co-founded by BioHealth Innovation and MedImmune (now AstraZeneca) in 2016, spotlights early-stage biohealth companies working across therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, digital health, and other life sciences innovation areas, giving selected entrepreneurs a chance to pitch in front of investors, industry leaders, and regional ecosystem partners. Past participants and winners include Perfusion Medical, Linshom Medical, Luminoah, Neuroene Therapeutics, Nanochon, BrainScope, Floreo, LifeSprout, and Sonavex. This year’s competition took place during the 12th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Week, held September 15–17, 2026, at U.S. Pharmacopeia in Rockville — the region’s flagship biohealth gathering, bringing together leaders from industry, academia, government, investment, and research institutions across Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and beyond, with programming spanning capital strategy, commercialization pathways, emerging technologies, and public-private collaboration.
About BioHealth Innovation
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) is an innovation intermediary based in Rockville, Maryland, that translates market-relevant research into commercial success by connecting management, funding, and markets.
