CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — University of Virginia Professor Bryan Berger has been named the Edlich-Henderson Innovator of the Year for the work he’s done as part of his biotech startup, Lytos Technologies, on Thursday.

Berger, a professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, started Lytos in 2018 with the aim of finding biological and sustainable replacements to chemical-based inputs in food systems that can lead to foodborne illness and plant pathogens among other consequences.

“By the time you’re sick with a foodborne illness, outbreak or something even worse,” he told Cville Right Now, “the problem actually lies way back in the field. And so, I think to protect our human health is to protect our soil, environment and food, and so that in essence is what we’re doing is creating replacements to all these different inputs that go into food production.”

For its work, Lytos has received a number of competitive grants and industry partnerships over the years. Now, it has netted Berger the Innovator of the Year Award, which has been given out each year by the UVA Licensing & Ventures Group since 1992. It is the highest honor a UVA innovator can receive.

“We are thrilled to recognize Bryan for this award,” LVG Executive Director Richard Chylla said in a release. “Bryan and his company are poised to transform food systems as we know them in multiple ways. His vision for the future is inspiring to our entire team here at LVG.”

Berger said he was surprised to hear he had won the award but was very thankful. He added that many schools don’t give out award for the type of research projects he’s passionate in.

“The fact that they do and the fact that they kind of saw what I was doing as worthy of it was very flattering,” he said.

The award was just another example of the support Berger and Lytos have received from the community since its founding.

“Central Virginia broadly is an area where there’s a lot of awareness about environmental causes and a lot of accumulated wisdom when it comes to organic and regenerative agriculture,” he said, “so, in some sense when I was doing this, I found a lot of people that were really supportive of what we were doing, which I was really thankful for.”

That support, including local investors, the university or other groups helped Berger get his startup off the ground. Now, he hopes his recent award will help inspire others to take similar leaps of faith.

“It means that we’re doing something that people value,” he said of the award, “and I think it is important. So, it’s kind of nice to elevate it in that way because it’ll help encourage others to make take a risk and do something like this too.”

Looking ahead, Berger said it’s an exciting time for Lytos now. With a number of partnerships and interest from different groups like good producers and farmers, the company hopes to begin selling its first products later this year.

“I feel like every we work with someone, I come away learning something new,” Berger said. “Every time I talk to a new farmer, new grower, new food producer, I learned about a problem they have. So, I feel like we’re kind of just at the beginning of all the different things we can develop.”