UVA's Innovator of the Year determined to make food safer, students smarter

Bryan Berger, a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering in UVA's School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named the UVA Licensing & Ventures Group's 2025 Edlich-Henderson Innovator of the Year.

The award recognizes Berger's work translating lab discoveries into ventures that improve food safety while protecting soil and water. Through Lytos Technologies — founded in 2018 — Berger and his collaborators are building green, sustainable alternatives to conventional agrochemical inputs.

Lytos' platform targets microbial biofilms and foodborne pathogens, with applications that span crop protection, animal health, and reducing spoilage across the food system. With help from LVG, the company licensed Berger's patented biofungicide technology and continues to advance inventions developed in his UVA Engineering lab.

For Berger, commercialization is also a classroom. Opening a Waynesboro facility created more room for UVA students to gain hands-on experience — seeing how work at the bench becomes a biotechnology solution for an unmet need.

"It's a great way for students to see how what they're doing in the lab can translate into a biotechnology solution," Berger said. "Getting students to think about how their work integrates into solving urgent problems in critical industries like food and agriculture is essential."

Stories like Berger's sit at the heart of UVA Innovates: connecting faculty inventors with spaces, capital, and partners so discoveries leave the lab and serve the greater good.