Anush Lingamoorthy, 30
Anush Lingamoorthy is addressing two public health crises — opioid overdoses and diabetes — through medical device startups built on his research.
Serial medical device entrepreneur Anush Lingamoorthy has made it his mission to solve two of the most pressing public health crises facing society — the opioid and diabetes epidemics. During his undergraduate and doctoral careers at Drexel, the electrical engineer helped build a device that detects an overdose and calls for help in real time, saving precious seconds. Initially, he considered it a compelling engineering problem, Lingamoorthy says.
“But as I worked with different faculty members and actual people who would need the device, it seemed about more than finding a solution to a problem.”Anush Lingamoorthy
That led to making sure the device, known as DOVE, actually got to market. In 2021, Lingamoorthy co-founded AltruMed in Philadelphia with the goal of helping the millions affected by opioid overdoses. A 2021 Drexel Coulter Foundation grant “propelled us forward, helping to bridge the gap between lab innovation and a product-ready medical device,” he says. Clinical studies, including a first-of-its-kind testing of the device with 23 people who use opioids, demonstrated 92% accuracy, he says. As a graduate student, Lingamoorthy also built a glucose monitoring device called Lumos that’s affordable and noninvasive, eliminating the need for needle pricks and blood draws for the 500 million people affected by diabetes worldwide. Notably, he pioneered a skin tone correction mechanism that adjusts for inaccurate readings by optical sensors in people with darker skin tones. In 2023, he co-founded a second company, Luminosity Wearables, to lead development of the tool. The two-time co-founder leads the engineering work for both spinoffs, has three pending patents and has raised $1.3 million in federal funding, including $804,000 in National Institutes of Health small business grants, foundation awards and innovation competitions. The Philadelphia Department of Health has shown support for DOVE, which is seeking FDA approval, Lingamoorthy says. Meanwhile, Lumos is being tested in a 1,000-patient clinical study that includes screening populations in his native India. What drives him? “I saw firsthand how diabetes silently claimed lives due to stigma, lack of screening and unaffordable monitoring tools,” he says. “I also have lost a loved one to addiction and hope to help people in this space with the second chance that technology could offer.”
In his own words…
My Greatest Accomplishment:
Our team’s greatest accomplishment has been helping turn DOVE from a research question into a real, wearable overdose detection and alert system. As CTO and co-founder, I’ve led the engineering work across sensing hardware, signal processing and decision-making so the device can operate reliably in real-world conditions, not just in a lab. The part I’m proudest of is building a cross-disciplinary effort with clinicians and community partners, because the goal is not just finding a solution to the opioid problem but actually solving it with a tool people will use. That translation from idea to deployable has been the most meaningful milestone of my career.
How Drexel Shaped My Path:
Drexel shaped how I think about engineering by showing that it is not enough to just prove something works; you have to build it so it works in the real world. Having done my undergrad at Drexel, I already knew the culture valued hands-on learning and practical impact, which is a big reason I came back for my PhD. That mindset pushed me toward an industry-focused thesis and translational research that could become an actual device, not just an academic result.
Where I Hope To Be in Five Years:
I want DOVE to be past the “promising technology” phase and firmly in the proven and deployed phase, FDA cleared, manufactured at scale and implemented with partners who can show real outcomes. I hope to be leading DOVE’s national rollout so it reaches people at highest risk through hospitals, community programs and harm reduction organizations. My goal is for DOVE to be a tool people know and trust when every minute matters and as recognizable in overdose response as Narcan is today. DM
