Michigan’s First Female Unicorn: Dr. Zhen Xu – MTW 2026
This post is part of the series “MTW 2026 Session Rewind,” where we recap key sessions from Michigan Tech Week. We’re sharing session highlights, key take-aways, words of wisdom, and next steps for advancing your company and Michigan’s startup community.
Session Summary
“Michigan’s First Female Unicorn” was a keynote presented by Zhen Xu, Ph.D., co-inventor of histotripsy and co-founder of HistoSonics. This session dove into the journey behind building Michigan’s first female-founded unicorn, from groundbreaking medical technology research and commercialization to scaling a globally recognized healthcare company.
Following her presentation, Dr. Xu was joined on stage by Jim Adox, Managing Partner of Clarevia Ventures and lead investor of HistoSonics, and moderator Kelly Sexton, Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation Partnerships at the University of Michigan, for further discussion about her journey as a startup founder.
Key Takeaways
Histosonics was a 25 year journey of research, engineering, and building.
You never know when life-changing inspiration will strike. In 2001, Dr. Xu was in the biomedical engineering department at the University of Michigan when she attended a talk from a pediatric cardiologist who described the limitations of current technology and challenged the audience to invent the first noninvasive technology that can perform real surgery.
Dr. Xu was deeply inspired and began her work in the lab. In 2002, she discovered the histotripsy phenomenon, but no commercial device at the time was advanced enough to use it effectively. Next, she began working with colleagues on the technology aspect as well.
In 2009, she cofounded Histosonics to commercialize the research and technology that was showing highly promising results.
Dr. Xu said, “I came to the realization early on that if you don’t form a company to do this, your technology can be a great technology but it will always be a technology in the lab. You will never be able to help patients.”
Fast forward to 2025: HistoSonics was acquired for $2.25 billion, making Dr. Xu the first female founder of a unicorn startup in Michigan.
Histosonics is now improving patient outcomes worldwide.
Using external ultrasound, histosonics generates bubbles inside the body that target and destroy tumors without incision, radiation, or injury. It is highly precise (within a millimeter accuracy), doesn’t damage healthy surrounding tissue, causes minimal to no pain, and patients recover quickly.
Additionally, doctors can use histosonics to treat tumors in high risk areas that are historically surgically inoperable. It also has been shown to stimulate a potent immune response.
After strong clinical trial results, the FDA approved histotripsy for the treatment of liver tumors in 2023.
“So far, we have treated 4000 patients worldwide,” said Dr. Xu. “We have over 100 centers in the United States with additional centers in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the UAE treating cancer patients with histotripsy.”
Startup founders must determine their role and their trusted collaborators.
“I”m really good at engineering and I’m a great scientist,” said Dr. Xu. “I came to my personal compromise that I will lead a team on the university side but when we transfer that to the company and when they have to do the commercial device, I won’t intervene. They know what they need to do and I will let them do their job and be supportive. I feel this approach was helpful.”
Investor Jim Adox began working with Dr. Xu when histotripsy was still in development in her lab. He helped to build the company and team, and led the Series A round that launched the company itself.
Throughout the journey, Jim kept in close touch with Dr. Xu which led to his high confidence level in the research and potential of the company.
“I kept in touch with Zhen and every 4-5 months I’d come up to the lab and she’d show me the latest technology and we’d have a real hard core discussion about how it works,” he said. “I understood it well. Twice the company was within weeks of running out of money. Entrepreneurs know that’s pretty nerve-wracking. We kept investing and we kept believing. I always saw something good and what was working.”
Build contingencies and pivot when faced with failure
The first clinical trial undertaken by HistoSonics was focused on using histotripsy to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). This trial was viewed as a failure and some thought that it was the end of the company.
However, histotripsy still demonstrated promising signs as a non-invasive treatment option. The company decided to pivot from treating BPH to liver tumors, a focus that was not entirely new as the research team was already hard at work.
“We had done six years of liver cancer research already,” said Dr. Xu. “So even though HistoSonics was focusing on BPH, the research lab was also diversifying and working on different projects to have things ready as alternatives.”
Post-acquisition, the research continues for Dr. Xu and her team
With the success of liver tumor treatment, HistoSonics is now focused on trials for treating renal tumors.The research team is also working on pancreas applications as well as refining BPH treatment.
As HistoSonics and the field of histotripsy has seen success, Dr. Xu has received numerous noteworthy accolades including in 2026 receiving both the Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature and being named to the the TIME100 Health list which honors the 100 most influential leaders in global health.
However, she is continuing to think about the next applications of histotripsy and the real potential of the groundbreaking technology in things like brain surgery and even curing cancer.
“If we are able to do noninvasive surgery in the brain some day, that can have a big impact,” said Dr. Xu. “We’re not talking about just brain tumors. We’re also talking about stroke and epilepsy. We can combine histotripsy with new drugs and drug delivery so that we can really enhance the therapeutic effect. And if we want to cure cancer we need to combine things like histotripsy with drug delivery. I think that’s even sooner than we envision.”
Jim added, “We’re expanding the indications to be able to treat more patients. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
Words of Wisdom
Dr. Xu shared her leadership philosophy as CEO of HistoSonics:
“For founders, your company is your baby. This was my baby for 25 years. We want to make sure that our baby is getting the right care. But we have a team. We need to trust our team and let each team member do what they’re good at.”
Action Steps
Hug a scientist!
Kelly reminded the audience that the current funding environment for scientists and engineers is challenging. “Give them a hug or prop them up,” she said. “They’re incredible.”
