WED AM News: CellTrack founder raising funds, running pilots for early-stage startup; Bank figures signal ‘strong performance’ midway through 2026

August 26, 2026

— The founder of CellTrack, who won this year’s Pressure Chamber pitch contest in Madison, will use an upcoming trip to Silicon Valley to “warm up investors” for a coming $5 million seed funding round.

Victor Santoro Fernandes is a postdoctoral fellow in UW-Madison’s Medical Physics Department and CEO of the early-stage startup, which has developed technology for assessing the likelihood that cell therapies will work for cancer patients. It’s based on a PET scan approach, offering a platform that can essentially act as a companion diagnostic for clinicians.

“In the field of radiopharmaceuticals, they call this radiotheranostics,” Santoro Fernandes said in a recent interview. “So we’re calling this cell theranostics for the field of cell therapies, that’s where we’re going.”

CellTrack is currently running pilot projects for its first clients with an eventual goal of clinical application, but the way to get there is “of course through drug development,” Santoro Fernandes explained.

“A companion diagnostic, before it becomes a clinical tool, it is a drug development tool with the clinical trials … what comes before clinical trials is pre-clinical trials, right, and that’s the path we’re taking,” he said. “Our first customers are the drug developers, and our product [will] aid them to develop their cell therapies.”

The company is currently raising a $600,000 pre-seed round with $400,000 already committed to fuel initial efforts and get the business off the ground.

By taking the win during last week’s Pressure Chamber competition, Santoro Fernandes earned a spot on the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s fall trip to Silicon Valley, where he’ll sit down with venture capital firms.

“So when I go there, I’ll start to warm up investors for our next round, which is going to be a $5 million investment round … the money we’re raising will go to co-sponsoring clinical trials with one of our partners and prove CellTrack’s technology in humans,” he said.

He’s been a part of the Madison startup community for about four years, and had started connecting with organizations like the startup accelerator gener8tor, BioForward and the chamber while finishing his PhD. Santoro Fernandes was actually in the audience for last year’s Pressure Chamber, where he realized he wanted to take part himself.

“I was sitting there in the audience, I was like ‘Okay, I need to prepare to come up here next year and try my best hand at this thing,’” he said, adding “I’ve been planning for this competition for over a year, so having won it felt really good.”

He added: “I was running alongside some great startups with a lot of potential. I was really impressed by what they were presenting there, so it makes for a high-level competition.”

CellTrack was a “direct outcome” of the Medical Physics Department’s entrepreneurial fellowship initiative, a two-year postdoctoral program awarded to Santoro Fernandes to help commercialize IP and research coming out of the department.

“I think that program needs to be in the spotlight, because it’s really allowing young, savvy entrepreneurs to have the space they need to go and pursue bigger and bolder ideas,” he said.

See more on the company.

— Total assets at Wisconsin banks rose 11.99% over the 12-month period ending June 30, signaling a “strong performance” for the financial sector midway through the year.

That’s according to the latest FDIC figures released by the Wisconsin Bankers Association, which shows total deposits also grew by 11.52% over the same period.

“Strong deposit levels are encouraging as these resources allow Wisconsin banks to make loans back out in their communities to consumers and business owners,” WBA President and CEO Rose Oswald Poels said in a statement on the figures.

Meanwhile, residential real estate loan volume had an “impressive” growth rate of 17.29% over the quarter, while year-over-year growth was 7.24% at the end of June. Farm lending also got a boost of 17.01% over the quarter and 12.96% over the year. And commercial lending rose 6.44% over the quarter and 14.01% over the year.

While Oswald Poels referenced the “ongoing economic challenges and geopolitical uncertainty” shaping the market, she noted capital levels at Wisconsin banks are strong, “positioning the industry well to protect against any potential losses.”

See the release.

— Microsoft and consumer advocacy groups say a transmission utility’s proposal to federal regulators doesn’t do enough to shield ratepayers from paying infrastructure costs tied to data center development.

American Transmission Company last month filed plans with state and federal regulators that would modify how it bills We Energies for the cost of new transmission lines serving Microsoft’s Mount Pleasant data center complex.

Two transmission projects serving the Mount Pleasant campus are currently under construction after being approved by the Public Service Commission earlier this year. They’re expected to cost around $1 billion.

ATC’s proposal before regulators is meant to ensure that Microsoft pays for the infrastructure needed to serve its campus, the costs of which could otherwise be borne by existing customers.

But Microsoft and watchdog group Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin in filings Friday argued the proposed billing structure does not accurately reflect the cost of the transmission upgrades and could lead to other customers paying part of that cost – something Microsoft says would violate the terms of the nonbinding Ratepayer Protection Pledge pushed by the Trump administration.

Microsoft, which says it was left out negotiations between ATC and We Energies, complained the transmission utility’s proposal could also lead to it being double-billed for the new transmission. It also argues a proposed early termination fee would charge the tech company more than the lifetime worth of the new transmission.

“The July 24 Filing lacks sufficient support for its cost-of-service elements and rates, terms, and conditions, and suffers from a foundational lack of input and coordination from the large load retail customer actually developing the load projects that ultimately will be served under the Agreements,” the tech company wrote in its filing.

It’s asking for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to open an administrative hearing to address its concerns in conjunction with the utilities and consumer advocates, or to reject the ATC proposal so it can be renegotiated.

In a statement to WisPolitics, ATC said it was reviewing Microsoft’s filing and would respond through FERC’s process “to demonstrate that existing customers are fully protected by the agreements.”

“We remain committed to cost transparency and protection of existing customers while ensuring reliable transmission service,” the utility said.

CUB and the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group also take issue with the fact that the ATC proposal addresses transmission costs associated with just one data center, versus offering a pro forma transmission cost agreement that would apply to future data center customers.

ATC said it plans to pursue similar agreements with other utilities who take on new data centers or large-load customers.

CUB has asked for ATC’s proposal to be rejected outright.

The Data Center Coalition, a trade association for the data center industry, has also raised issues with Microsoft being left out of the agreement-drafting process and the lack of a pro forma agreement.

The PSC submitted comments earlier this month calling ATC’s proposal an “improvement on the status quo” but saying more work was needed to reach “just and reasonable transmission rates.”

— While dry conditions continue to affect Wisconsin crops, late summer activities at farm fields in the state are proceeding ahead of the average pace.

The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reported corn in the “dough stage,” a measure of crop maturity, reached 70% as of Sunday, just above the five-year average of 69%.

Meanwhile, soybean setting pods reached 91%, ahead of the average of 87%. This is part of the plant’s reproductive stage.

The agency reports oats were 83% harvested, beating the average of 77%. And the season’s third cutting of alfalfa hay was 92% complete, compared to the average of 87%.

See the report.

— Closures of labor and delivery units in Wisconsin are driving up travel times for patients in the state, especially in rural areas, according to a recent report from the nonprofit March of Dimes.

On a statewide basis, these closures have resulted in a 6.6% increase in travel burden for those seeking labor and delivery services, the report shows. That’s based on closures that occurred between Jan. 1, 2024 and May 1 of this year.

At the county level, these recent closures are having the greatest impact in northwestern Wisconsin, report authors found.

“Staffing shortages contributed to multiple labor and delivery unit closures, including in Barron and Taylor counties, where travel times to the nearest unit tripled for residents,” they wrote. “The effects also extended into surrounding counties such as Rusk and Price, where travel times were already nearly one hour and increased by 46% and 19%, respectively.”

And while rural areas are getting hit the hardest by these delays, the report notes suburban and metropolitan areas are facing challenges of their own.

“In the Milwaukee region, for example, hospital consolidations and labor and delivery service changes have shifted where families seek obstetric care, reflecting broader financial and workforce pressures affecting hospitals across Wisconsin,” authors wrote.

See the report.

— Officials have rolled out a new Injury and Violence Prevention Strategic Plan for Wisconsin, the state’s first in more than 10 years.

The report, which comes amid falling violence rates in the state, features five key focus areas to shape prevention efforts between now and 2030. These include: child abuse and maltreatment; intentional firearm injuries; intimate partner assault; self-harm and suicide; and unintentional drug overdoses.

It also lays out strategies for addressing these topics, ranging from ensuring safe environments for children to strengthening community connections and expanding access to various resources.

“Injury and violence are urgent public health concerns in Wisconsin that require commitment of financial resources, public will, and community engagement,” authors wrote.

As part of this effort, the state’s role includes coordinating both federal and state funds to support the plan, creating more public education resources, guiding community-level public health messaging and more.

See the report.

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