BioUtah announced its 2025 Life Sciences 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 awards recognize leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and companies that have made significant contributions to Utah's life sciences industry. To register for the summit and learn more about the award winners, visit utahlifesciencessummit.com.
"We are proud to recognize this year's award winners," said Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah. "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." Mark Paul, executive director of the University of Utah Health Center for Medical Innovation and chair of the BioUtah Board of Directors, added, "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."
The awards and winners are as follows: Wesley Sundquist, PhD, Samuels Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah, for his decades-long contributions to Utah's life sciences industry, particularly his research on HIV assembly and replication that led to the FDA approval of Lenacapavir in June 2025 for HIV prevention. Sundquist received a BA in Chemistry from Carleton College, a PhD in Chemistry from MIT, and postdoctoral research with Sir Aaron Klug at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Horwitz Prize for Biochemistry, the TIME100 2025 list, the Bhaumik Breakthrough Prize, and membership in the National Academy of Sciences.
Fred Lampropoulos, Executive Chairman of Merit Medical Systems in South Jordan, Utah, for his leadership and vision in founding and guiding Merit Medical Systems since 1987. He recently transitioned from President & CEO to Executive Chair. Lampropoulos has more than 500 domestic and international patents on medical devices and has overseen Merit's growth to over $1.5 billion in revenue, expanding operations to Texas, Virginia, Ireland, Mexico, Singapore, Netherlands, and France. He received 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, for his innovative spirit and drive to improve patients' lives, resulting in over 100 issued and pending patents and founding multiple companies including Axiom, CIRCA, Distal Access, Fluidx, Pinyons, PolyEmbo, Transit, and VentiV. His intellectual property contributions span cardiovascular angioplasty, embolic liquids, blood-clot filters, and thrombectomy systems, with more than one million safe-patient uses. Fojtik has senior-level experience at GE, Boston Scientific, and Black & Decker.
Nusano, based in West Valley City, Utah, for developing a new class of targeted therapies using radioisotopes that deliver precise radiation to tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue. Their proprietary platform can produce more than 40 isotopes, enabling advanced diagnostic imaging and next-generation cancer therapies. Nusano's work is attracting other life sciences companies to Utah, such as Ratio Therapeutics and PharmaLogic, building an ecosystem that accelerates the fight against cancer and fuels job creation.
Taylor Randall, President of the University of Utah, for his partnership in advancing Utah's life sciences ecosystem. Randall has been involved with the Life Sciences Workforce Initiative and is focused on transforming research into practical applications, including building the University of Utah Eccles Health Campus and Eccles Hospital in West Valley, completing the James LeVoy Sorenson Center for Medical Innovation, and establishing the University of Utah Venture fund. In 2024, he joined a discovery tour to Galway, Ireland, leading to life sciences training programs funded by the Utah legislature in 2025.
