The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation today announced the winners of its annual Innovation Awards.

One winning team is developing a diagnostic test to detect colon cancer at an earlier stage, while the other team is using solar energy to transform biomass into a highly prized industrial molecule. Both earned $5,000.

“The Innovation Awards showcase the people and ideas that make the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the leading edge of scientific research in the nation and world,” WARF Managing Director Carl Gulbrandsen said in a statement.

An independent panel of judges selected the winners from a field of six finalists, who came from more than 380 entries.