Cleaved Diagnostics Wins 2026 BioChallenge

The New Orleans biotech startup took first place and the crowd favorite award among six finalists competing for $100,000 in prizes.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Biotech

Clear glass lab flasks with faint amber liquid sit on a pale steel bench, with a window showing a warm brick street in humid haze. — Cleaved Diagnostics, a New Orleans startup adapting CRISPR for faster, cheaper diagnostic tests, took first place and the crowd favorite award at the 2026 BioChallenge on October 29. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Cleaved Diagnostics, a New Orleans biotechnology startup founded in 2024, won first place and the crowd favorite award at the 2026 BioChallenge on October 29. The competition was hosted by the New Orleans BioInnovation Center and drew 240 applicants from 35 countries and 31 U.S. states.

Why it matters

The win spotlights a local startup adapting CRISPR gene-editing technology for faster, more sensitive and affordable diagnostic tests, with its first product, CLEVR, designed to detect cytomegalovirus. For New Orleans, it highlights the city's growing role in biotechnology development.

The competition drew 240 applicants from 35 countries and 31 U.S. states, with six finalists sharing $100,000 in cash prizes. Details on CLEVR's testing performance and regulatory status were not disclosed.

The players

Cleaved Diagnostics

A New Orleans biotechnology startup founded in 2024 that applies CRISPR gene-editing to diagnostic testing, and whose first product, CLEVR, targets cytomegalovirus.

PathMaker Neurosystems

A Boston-based company that placed second at the BioChallenge with MyoRegulator, an investigational ALS device that received FDA breakthrough designation.

New Orleans BioInnovation Center

The New Orleans institution that hosted the BioChallenge and the broader brain health innovation program.

The details

Cleaved Diagnostics is adapting CRISPR technology, drawing on research from Tulane University, to build diagnostic tests intended to be faster, more sensitive and more affordable. The win closed a two-day brain health innovation program that began October 28 with a Brain Health Summit, hosted by the New Orleans BioInnovation Center.

2024: Cleaved Diagnostics founded in New Orleans.
December 2025: FDA grants breakthrough device designation to PathMaker's MyoRegulator.
October 28, 2026: Two-day brain health program begins with a summit.
October 29, 2026: BioChallenge held; Cleaved Diagnostics wins first place.

Big Picture

Cleaved Diagnostics applies CRISPR gene-editing, the technology behind recent gene-therapy approvals, to diagnostic testing rather than treatment. Its approach points toward a broader shift in which programmable gene-editing tools expand into rapid, low-cost disease detection.

If CLEVR reaches the market, it could offer patients and clinics a faster, lower-cost option for detecting cytomegalovirus. The extraction does not confirm when or whether the test will be available.

The takeaway

Gene-editing tools originally built for therapies are increasingly being adapted for diagnostics, a shift that could make testing faster and more accessible. Watching whether startups like Cleaved move from competitions to clinical validation will show how quickly that promise is realized.