Consider humans. They get sick and spread disease between each other, and usually take action only after symptoms show up. Last November, five undergrad friends at Caltech wondered: What other industries have a reactionary health care problem?

Six months later, their startup, Nexa Labs, took home first prize at the 2025 UC Davis Big Bang! Competition for a solution designed to give farmers real-time health data on livestock so they can catch diseases early.

Cattle wasn’t the obvious answer at first, says Zarif Azher, co-founder and CEO of Nexa Labs. No one on the team has farming experience. But Azher’s family is from Bangladesh, where most of the population raises livestock. This was a seed that inspired them to reach out to more than 100 U.S. farmers and ask about livestock health. And what they learned was shocking.

“When we talk to farmers here in the U.S., we realize that the vast majority, like 70 to 90 percent, keep up with their animals’ health just by looking at them,” Azher says. “As you can imagine, this doesn’t actually catch disease before it’s too late.”

As a result, farmers aren’t losing money just from animal deaths. Bovine illnesses also drive up prices for beef and milk, contributing to nearly $400 billion each year in global livestock disease losses.

Nexa Labs came up with a biosensor, like a microchip, to put through the ear, inside the animal to automatically collect data: heart rate, respiration rate, blood oxygen and body temperature. This tracking information will keep farmers up to speed on the status of their herds. The technology targets bovine respiratory disease, the most common and costly health issue for cattle. The technology will evolve to detect a wider range of health issues in the future, he says, and may also be something humans can use.

The team — which also includes CTO Alvin Zhang, CFO Kenneth Chan, COO Kyle Berkson and CPO Samuel Xie — won $25,000 from the UC Davis startup competition, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. The money will support validation trials in the upcoming months to test the technology with partner universities.

One of these trials will be overseen by Ondieki Gekara, assistant professor and lead coordinator of the Animal Research Institute at Cal Poly Pomona. Gekara has previously worked with GPS-based systems, such as collars and ear tags, but an internal monitoring device is new territory.

“It’s a good thought,” he says, “but it needs to be tested. We understand this could be a major breakthrough. We’ll wait and see.”

Once the protocol is approved, he says, about four to eight animals will be designated for trials. The tests will then determine if the technology works as expected, collecting data to detect disease early. The team will also be able to evaluate the size of the implant. Does the biosensor need to be smaller? How small can it be and still function optimally?

In addition to technical aspects, Nexa Labs must also navigate responses from animal welfare groups, who may have concerns about animal safety and comfort. Gekara believes educating these groups would be key. Azher notes education also plays a vital role in the team connecting with farmers.

“One of our realizations has been that farming and livestock are conservative industries,” he says. “People are hesitant to adopt new technology — and with good reason. A lot of the technology that people have tried to introduce to the livestock industry has not really worked that well.”

In order to overcome the skepticism, he emphasizes how important it is to “form a personal connection.” Besides reaching out directly to farmers, the team also prioritizes input from industry experts.

“The other thing that we’re really making an effort to do is make sure we have advisors who are really well-versed in agriculture and in livestock,” he says. “To make sure that a) we have the necessary knowledge as a team, and b) we’re able to have more credibility with farmers to ultimately make the connections easier.”

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