About Longhorn Life Sciences Inc.

Longhorn Life Sciences (LLS) develops iDetect, a wearable wound monitoring system that detects infections before visible symptoms, enabling timely, low-cost care that keeps patients out of the hospital. Patients wear iDetect beneath standard dressings during at-home recovery while clinicians at hospital systems and surgical practices receive real-time risk alerts. In blinded testing on human tissue wound models, iDetect’s proprietary microneedle sensors captured infection signatures within 18 hours and achieved 100% classification accuracy (n=676 test set results).

Team

Miles Massidda

Founder

Scott Alpard

Founder

Problem statement

One in eight surgeries results in a surgical site infection (SSI), costing the U.S. healthcare system $10 billion annually—up to 55% of which are preventable with earlier detection. Currently, there is no way to detect infection at home. Clinicians rely entirely on patients to self-report symptoms, leading to delayed treatment and costly readmissions averaging $21,000 each.

Longhorn Life Sciences is developing iDetect, a wearable wound monitoring system that continuously samples wound fluid and uses machine learning to predict infection before symptoms appear. By providing clinicians with real-time early-warning alerts, iDetect enables proactive interventions that improve patient outcomes while reducing healthcare costs.

Traction information

LLS has raised $200,000 in non-dilutive funding through pitch competitions and grants, and conducted 145+ customer discovery interviews to validate our value proposition. In 2025, we demonstrated iDetect's proof of concept with 100% infection detection accuracy in human tissue wound models. LLS has filed two patents for iDetect with the University of Texas at Austin, and secured a NASA IP license for our core sensor technology, along with DoD partnership commitments for military applications.

Milestones

January 2026

Intellectual Property & DoD Partnerships

Filed provisional patent application for iDetect with the University of Texas at Austin (U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/943,647). Executed an option agreement with UT Austin granting LLS exclusive licensing rights to the IP.

LLS has also secured a NASA IP license for iDetect’s core sensor technology, along with DoD partnership commitments for dual-use military applications.

December 2025

Secured $200,000 of non-dilutive funding (to date).

Awarded $200,000 of non-dilutive funding from various grants and pitch competitions (Dec. 2022 - Present).

June 2025

iDetect Proof of Concept

In blinded testing on human tissue wound models, iDetect’s proprietary microneedle sensors captured infection signatures within 18 hours and achieved 100% classification accuracy for distinguishing infected vs. non-infected wounds.

April 2025

Customer Discovery

Conducted 145+ key stakeholder interviews (to-date), including surgeons, nurses/PAs, patients, and hospital purchasing admin across a variety of medical practices. Over 85% of physicians supported iDetect’s value proposition, and hospitals indicated willingness to pay for the device if readmissions are reduced and outcomes are improved. (Sept. 2023 - Present)