Second Place:
NeuroLife, Pittsburgh

If a surgeon needs to monitor the brain pressure of a patient, he must drill into the skull, a risky procedure. The two doctors who started NeuroLife (www.neurolifemed.com) have a better idea - monitoring brain pressure through a patient's eye using fiber-optic technology. The company, launched by MBAs from Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, won $25,000 in a competition at the University of Texas at Austin, and raised another $100,000 from the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. The firm plans trials on animals this winter.