Henry Palfrey, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and his business startup team, PulseArk Technologies, reached the semifinals and earned a Best Presentation Award in the Bangkok Business Challenge, one of the world’s leading student startup competitions.
Palfrey is a third-year postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of John D. Imig, Ph.D., and a trainee in the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s T32 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Training Program.
The event, held May 22-24 at the Sasin School of Management in Thailand, marked a milestone for PulseArk and its five-member team.
“The competition in Bangkok gave us valuable feedback and momentum as we continue advancing VoluSense toward market entry,” Palfrey said, referring to the startup’s device designed for the early detection of internal bleeding — often before changes in traditional vital signs occur. The technology is being developed and tested through a collaboration between engineers at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and medical professionals at UAMS.
“It’s one thing to develop promising science but quite another to translate it to the clinic,” said Palfrey, PulseArk’s chief technology officer. “This experience reinforced our progress on both fronts.”
Selected from over 300 applicants representing 82 institutions across 16 countries, PulseArk was one of only 20 teams invited to the semifinals—and one of just four from the United States.
In Imig’s lab, Palfrey investigates radiation-induced kidney injuries and explores pharmacotherapeutic strategies on how to mitigate such injuries. As part of the two-year HSIE fellowship, he completed a year-long New Venture Development course at UA’s Sam M. Walton College of Business, where students build startups around innovative technologies — an experience that led Palfrey to join PulseArk Technologies.
VoluSense’s development is supported by a $1.9 million grant awarded in 2024 by the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. The project is led by principal investigator Morten Jensen, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at UA. Hanna Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Surgery, is overseeing the device’s translational and clinical phases. Co-investigators Jingxian Wu, Ph.D., and Robert Saunders, Ph.D., both faculty members in electrical engineering at UA, round out the research and development team.
The device is designed to detect subtle changes in blood volume by analyzing venous pressure waveforms. Using proprietary algorithms, these waveforms are converted into a blood loss score that indicates the presence or absence of hemorrhage. This approach enables clinicians and first responders to identify bleeding earlier than current methods allow.
The technology is protected by two pending U.S. patents, and PulseArk currently holds exclusive development rights granted by BioVentures LLC at UAMS.
Since last fall, the PulseArk team has competed in several pitch competitions, including the 2025 Ivey Business Plan Competition at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada; the 2025 Heartland Startup Challenge in Bentonville, Arkansas, where they took first place in the elevator pitch event; and the final round of the 2025 Arkansas Governor’s Cup in Little Rock.
The team’s next steps include finalizing the prototype and initiating preclinical studies this summer, while also securing additional seed funding to support product development, Palfrey said. PulseArk plans to begin pilot deployments in Arkansas hospitals in preparation for a targeted market launch in 2028.
“Entrepreneurship training gave me the toolkit to navigate regulatory, financial and clinical challenges all at once,” Palfrey said. “Now we’re applying those lessons.”
“Dr. Palfrey and the PulseArk team have demonstrated extraordinary vision and determination in bringing global recognition to this technology,” said Imig, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy and director of the T32 program. “Their success in Bangkok is a testament to their innovation and teamwork, and it highlights the impact of their interdisciplinary training.”
Other members of the PulseArk team include BreeAnna Scott, chief executive officer and current M.S. candidate in biomedical engineering, as well as recent UA graduates Victoria Bourgeois, MBA, chief strategy officer; Asha Lee, M.S., chief financial officer; and Tanner Moore, M.S., chief product officer.
The Translational Research Institute’s T32 program is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Clinical and Translational Science Award #T32 TR004918.