Discover a new adventure

Cycladex

Northwestern University

(Update: Sept. 2021 - Cycladex has completed construction of a production facility in the US that will use the company's novel gold recovery technology. The company uses a novel, patented chemical process to recover precious metals by cutting leach time from 30 hours to 6 hours on average. The development of the technology was supported by the National Science Foundation SBIR program and from investors in the UK.) Gold mining has been a historically low innovation industry. The industry standard is to use a cyanide process to isolate gold, which is expensive and potentially dangerous. Cycladex has created a method to isolate gold in an inexpensive, environmentally-friendly way.

OT Bio

George Washington University

OT Bio aims to apply our patented intranasal oxytocin therapy to treat sleep apnea and protect patients from associated heart disease. The scientific leaders have complementary bench and clinical expertise that has enabled both understanding of oxytocin's mechanisms in the brain and human studies showing improved respiratory and cardiac functions.

Qunnect

Leveraging proprietary hardware and the quantum mechanics properties of photons to enable quantum communications. Quantum-secure networking leverages the physical-encryption of photons to enable unprecedented sensitivity and speed of detecting eavesdroppers/hackers. Several barriers exist to broad implementation of scalable quantum networking in the real-world. Foremost, devices supporting quantum transactions, analogous to digital telecom, need to be invented. These devices must be deployable in the real-world and, ideally, also compatible with existing infrastructure, like optical fiber beds.

Innerworld

Vanderbilt University

Innerworld offers a safe, immersive virtual platform designed to enhance patient engagement and facilitate the exploration of emotions and behaviors. Through our interactive therapy world, users learn life-changing Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™ (CBI) tools. Our aim is to help users navigate their mental health journey and progressively move towards actual social interaction.

Powernet

Stanford researchers have developed an architecture and control scheme for the coordination of distributed energy resources (DER), such as solar and storage, to minimize operation cost, enhance network reliability, and provide DER aggregation. The availability of electric load and generation data in electric grids varies both spatially and temporally due to: the random nature of loads and renewable generation; distributed locations of the loads and DER; and communication delays. Stanford researchers have found that control schemes that utilize local information (within the firmware of the storage unit, or in a home automation appliance) and delayed information to a global controller (e.g., collected from smart meter readings) perform near the ideal, but unimplementable, theoretical limit of performance.

Cayuga Biotech

University of California, Santa Barbara

Cayuga Biotech is a preclinical therapeutics company developing therapies for bleeding disorders. Our lead candidate is a platelet-like drug that accelerates clotting in the presence of injury. Cayuga has already held its pre-IND meeting with the FDA and received guidance on the GLP trials required for IND approval. The Cayuga team is made up of PhD scientists who developed CAY001 during their PhD research. We have two KOLs who are experts in the field of hemostasis and have overseen clinical trials on anticoagulant reversal drugs. Our regulatory strategy is developed by an advisor who spent 23 years at the FDA in CDER. Our manufacturing advisor has overseen 9 drugs reach clinical trials and 4 drugs receive approval. Our business advisors have overseen 4 successful business exits worth over $1 B. Cayuga has raised over $2 MM from DARPA and the Army. We are raising a round to complete the remaining IND-enabling studies, add experienced drug developers to the team, and prepare for the first in man trial.

Rubitection

Carnegie Mellon University

Rubitection is developing a skin health and wellness system to improve assessment and care management of dermatological, plastic surgery, and vascular conditions with an initial application to early bedsores detection. Bedsores are an $11 billion healthcare problem at affects 2.3 million each year killing 60K. If detected early they can be prevented, but low cost early detection tools are not available. Our Rubitect Assessment System (RAS) empowers any caregiver in hospitals, nursing homes, and in home care to detect bedsore early and support care management. Rubitection’s issued patents, and exclusive worldwide license provide barriers to competitors. The RAS’ low risk FDA pathway allows a quick path to a $4.1 billion US bedsore market. Two recurring revenues supports long term sustainability. Within 5 - 6 years of product launch, Rubitection will generate $48 million in sales using a hybrid sales model. Rubitection will exit through acquisition to a wound care company like Hill-Rom, or 3M.

AimRNA

University of California, Davis

AimRNA’s novel RNA bioengineering technology produces a wide variety of biologic RNA molecules through a large yield, cost effective bacterial fermentation process, among them a number of leads have been demonstrated efficacy and safety for the treatment of lung and liver cancer in animal models. We have been awarded with SBIR Phase I grant in 2018, and we are currently raising $500,000 to fund IND-enabling studies and $7 million for clinical investigations.

Respair

University of Pittsburgh

Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is viewed as an inevitable consequence of long-term ventilator support rather than a preventable infection. In fact, VAP develops in 1 out of 3 intubated patients in intermediate care units. Along with the high prevalence, VAP has an average mortality rate of almost 50%. As a result, hospitals utilize procedural steps to prevent VAP in patients (such as head elevation and maintaining oral hygiene), but these actions fail to adequately prevent the root cause of VAP which is that current endotracheal (ET) tubes, or breathing tubes, do not create a long-term and effective seal in the trachea to prevent bacteria from entering the lungs. These tubes fail to create a proper seal because they employ an inflatable cuff that (1) deflates over time, (2) does not maintain consistent contact with the airway surface, and (3) is susceptible to shifting position with every patient movement. These design flaws allow harmful bacteria to pass the cuff and enter the lungs of patients.

AlvaHealth

Yale University

[Update (8.2023): SBIR/STTR funding total - $1.48M, Venture funding total - $0.74M] Getting immediate medical attention is critical after a patient has experienced a stroke. However, stroke symptoms are often not identified by the patient or family members until it is too late to administer treatment. There is currently no wearable-linked mobile app which specifically detects a stroke incident. AlvaHealth is pairing wearable devices with machine learning to detect a stroke incident immediately based on the activity in both arms of the patient. Early detection of stroke can improve the outlook for patient recovery. (Update) Alva Health was part of MassMEDIC's IGNITE 2021 cohort and also participated in the MassMEDIC Startup Stadium during BIOMEDevice Boston 2021. Alva Health is the recipient of the $350,000 grand prize as the winner of its 2021 MedTech Global Competition.

Rixel

Freelance deep learning developers and data scientists creating technical projects and participating in hack-a-thons. Projects include a Medical Gateway Platform to connect medical devices and platforms with real time, secure, and private data. A Health Data Labeling System that helps medical companies integrate new data from smart devices. The software collects, cleans, and labels the data. Finally, a Synthetic NF1 which is a method to solve the MRI data shortage in the field of neurofibromatosis type I.

DeckTherapeutics

[Update (8.2023): Raised seed investment from CH Innovations & Catalytic Impact Foundation & won a $500K grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in July 2022] THDG3 represents a novel, patent protected omega-3 diglyceride emulsion developed by Dr. Deckelbaum’s laboratory at Columbia University. Acute injection of THDG3 emulsion following stroke leads to a marked reduction in brain tissue death (up to 90%, demonstrated in 6 rodent models), with associated preservation and recovery of both short and long term neurofunctional outcomes. Due to the high risk profile and short window of administration, less than 8% of stroke patients receive treatment with t-PA, the current standard of treatment for stroke. DeckTherapeutics is currently developing THDG3 emulsion as a drug candidate for standard emergency treatment for stroke, a global unmet need, with phase 2a trials planned in 2021.

BiomeSense

University of Chicago

[Update (8.2023): The company raised $6 million through a combination of Seed 3, and Seed 4 funding on February 14, 2023] Integrating proprietary technologies, the GutLab, “smart bathroom” technology for continuous patient microbiome tracking & MetaBiome, a cloud-based bioinformatics platform. Novel tools to continuously track, analyze, and store individual microbiome profiles, providing vastly more data than, and at a fraction of the cost of, current practice. Creating the GutLab, a novel “smart bathroom” technology for continuous, at-home microbiome tracking & MetaBiome, a cloud-based bioinformatics platform. This platform is a generational leap over existing measurement tools: (1) much cheaper and more scalable, (2) produces & analyze dense time-series data, unlocking an entire dimension of never-before-accessible biomarkers, and (3) has far higher accuracy & precision, ensuring all data generated can be stored in a single, standardized database – a first for the microbiome field.

Haystack Medical

Haystack Medical is developing microneedles that allow drug delivery into the inner ear. Over 30M US patients need a way to diagnose and treat inner ear disorders - a number that will only grow as the population ages. To date, we've proven Haystack microneedles to be safe, effective, and minimally invasive in guinea pig and human cadaver studies. Our technology is supported by 20+ peer reviewed papers and multiple granted and pending patents. Our team (Aykut Aksit, PhD, Anil Lalwani, MD; Jeffrey Kysar, PhD) has spent a decade developing this technology at Columbia University combining our experience in otolaryngology and surgery as well as in mechanical engineering and materials science.

ViewsML

Dartmouth College

Utilizing artificial intelligence in conjunction with the electrocardiogram to help clinicians identify cardiovascular disease more quickly, more accurately, and at a fraction of the cost. Real time capture of microscope video that is digitized, formatted and stored for AI and ML based use to enhance patient diagnosis. ViewsML uses a machine-learning model to predict biomarker expression in patient samples, both spatially and quantitatively. This reduces a 24+ hour process down to a few seconds, saving time and resources that can be redeployed elsewhere in the hospital or laboratory.

MCW Gene Therapy

The Medical College of Wisconsin Office of Technology Development (MCW’s “Tech Transfer Office”) seeks an experienced biotechnology leader to start a new company, license gene therapy IP described below, raise the funding needed and to bring one or more products to Phase I clinical testing. The ideal candidate will have experience with the earliest stages of gene therapy (or other complex biologic) product development and testing. They would understand how to develop a plan, raise funding (whether SBIR, Angel, VC), work with investors, build an effective team and engage with CROs.

Mucosinix Pharm

Yale University

Mucosinix has a new class of antibiotics which have not been shown to trigger resistance in MRSA culture. This new antibiotic class shows promise as a treatment for multidrug resistant microbes.

Sarxion Biologics

Yale University

The shortage of human tissues for surgical applications has driven the market to identify alternatives, including polymeric and biologic materials. Animal tissue, particularly pig, is closing the gap in the critical shortage of human tissue. Current polymeric and conventional biologics exhibit a high degree of complications, in part due to the lack of adequate integration with the surrounding tissues. Sarcio has developed a superior porcine biologic material that addresses the integration deficiencies of polymeric and conventional biologics. Our material is prepared from pigs carrying a single gene knockout resulting in highly integration-competent decellularized tissues. Sarcio’s decellularized tissues are prepared using routine manufacturing methods and are demonstrably superior to conventional polymeric and biological scaffolds. Sarcio’s first planned application will be for hernia repair, a procedure that is performed up to 1 million times annually in the United States.

Genesis Therapeutics

The company boasts the world’s most advanced molecular AI platform that combines 3D structure-aware deep neural networks, new molecular simulation methods, and a massively scalable molecular generation engine.

VitaScan

Addressing vital nutrient deficiencies, which are surprisingly prevalent and may lead to severe health issues, VitaScan provides rapid, accurate, and affordable testing for vitamins and micronutrients. With our first product, IronScan, we focus on swift identification of iron deficiency, affecting one-third of the global population and causing numerous health complications. Now, VitaScan's portable system allows for not only hospital avoidance but also facilitates convenient testing at a physician's office, clinic, or even at home.

StraDEFY

Yale University

Stradefy Biosciences is developing innovative bioadhesive nanoparticles (BNPs) to deliver therapeutic agents to target tissues at maximally effective doses while reducing systemic toxicities. The Company licensed from Yale technology from the laboratories of Professors Mark Saltzman and Dr. Michael Girardi with high value applications in oncology, autoimmune diseases, and other indications. ESV’s Venture Partner, Brian Dixon, is CEO. Elm Street Ventures led the Peritoneal carcinomatosis is a late stage manifestation of colon and ovarian cancer with a poor prognosis. Intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy is effective, but current methods lead to toxicity, which is not easily tolerated by patients. We propose a new approach, in which the chemotherapy drug is encapsulated in bioadhesive nanoparticles (BNPs) that can be delivered locally by established IP infusion methods. These BNPs are retained for many days in the IP space, and slowly release chemotherapy drugs, maximizing effectiveness, while minimizing toxicity.

Heart I/O

University of Pittsburgh

[Update (8.2023): The company raised $1.03 million of convertible debt financing on November 11, 2022] Utilizing artificial intelligence in conjunction with the electrocardiogram to help clinicians identify cardiovascular disease more quickly, more accurately, and at a fraction of the cost.

LeptoX BioPharma

Yale University

Leptospirosis is the Ebola virus of the bacterial world, difficult to diagnose, and for which there is a 20% mortality rate. Leptospirosis is a global health threat, particularly for travelers and for soldiers. The vaccine for human leptospirosis is unsafe and of unknown efficacy, creating a vast domestic and global demand for an effective vaccine that is currently unmet. Current vaccines are bacterin type vaccines and of limited efficacy, duration, and safety, however LeptoX is offering a first-in-class vaccination (first for animals, to be developed for humans) that outcompetes its competitors in all of these categories.

Bio-Zipper

University of California, Los Angeles

The Bio-Zipper has been developed to improve post-surgical patient outcomes and reduce the frequency of surgical complications following lower urinary tract reconstructive surgeries. Current standard-of-care closures have high complication rates (30-day range from 30-68%), and are limited by surgeon experience with the technology (e.g., robotics) and the complexity of the procedure. Staples or adhesives are currently unavailable alternatives for the urinary tract, as they fail to adhere in moist conditions and/or increase the risk of infections, wound breakdown, or stone formation. There are currently 680,000 annual urologic reconstructions performed in the U.S. which would be the initial market for this device. Within this context, the Bio-Zipper has been designed to reinforce suture lines in these complex surgical reconstructions. By doing so, it will decrease 30-day complications (with a mean hospital cost of nearly $30,000 per incidence) by 20%. This will result in a mean savings of $5,600 per procedure. 

Milo Sensors

University of California, Santa Barbara

Millions of people all over the world face challenges with alcohol. One of the more traditional solutions people first consider is Alcoholics Anonymous. Through market research, we have learned that more and more non-traditional solutions are being sought out to supplement the recovery journey and we, at Milo Sensors, believe we can provide an option for the supervised or self-monitoring of alcohol consumption. Unlike other existing alcohol monitoring tools such as ankle bracelets, ION™ is designed for the wearer first, with discretion, comfort, and usability at the forefront. Common industries that benefit from similar monitoring devices, such as the criminal justice system or family law, seem to follow only after the recovery support network has failed and act as a punitive measure. In contrast, we aim to help anyone who seeks to improve their general wellness by focusing on their relationship with alcohol and then help rebuild trust with surrounding family members and supporters.

Trivie

Trivie is a SaaS company that offers an on-demand gamification platform to improve knowledge retention for employees. The platform employs retrieval practice, micro-learning, and adaptive learning that help companies considerably reduce training costs, increase sales, and provide better customer service.

CDR3 Therapeutics, Inc.

University of California, Los Angeles

CDR3 Therapeutics is a pioneer in developing stem cell-based immunotherapies to revolutionize cancer treatment. The company's unique, patented technology overcomes the limitations of current CAR-T therapies, such as reduced functionality and persistence. By using hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) sourced from patients and adding either CAR or TCR genes, CDR3 creates a self-renewing source of gene-targeted immune cells. The modified cells engrafted into the patient's bone marrow, maintain their performance over time, thus addressing the challenge of solid tumors, an area currently unmet by FDA-approved therapies.

FloraPulse

The FloraPulse system is a microchip tensiometer (microtensiometer) that is embedded into the tree woody tissue and directly measures the water status, known as water potential. Because the measurement is taken directly inside the water-carrying tissue, readings are very accurate and reliable. You receive daily midday stem water potential readings, along with science-backed irrigation recommendations. Since 2017, we raised $1.2M in non-dilutive SBIR research awards to develop microT, and successfully field tested the product in almond, grape and prune commercial orchards and vineyards. In 2019-2020, we received $50k in customer deposits and sold the first 60 subscriptions ($90k) to 15 customers in the US, Chile and Australia. Customer feedback has been very positive. We are looking to hire a seasoned CEO to help the company raise funds, build partnerships, and continue increasing product sales in the US and abroad.

My Gene Counsel

Yale University

[Update (8.2023): Venture funding total - $3.38M] My Gene Counsel has created scalable, digital technology that pairs specific genetic test results with accurate, continuously updating information for clinicians and consumers. By helping patients and doctors become aware of the implications of genetic testing results, My Gene Counsel can help improve patients' lives and avoid unnecessary risky medical procedures.

Siege Pharmaceuticals

University of California, Irvine

At least half of the US adult population is predicted to have obesity by 2030. While new drugs are coming to market and even more are in the pipeline, they focus on satiety without doing anything to treat the root causes of metabolic disease. Siege’s compounds act through a novel mitochondrial mechanism to not only induce weight loss but also directly address drivers of obesity’s lethal co-morbidities including type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease. Templated off of natural molecules, our compounds hit a unique constellation of targets to safely and effectively treat multiple facets of metabolic disease. These same targets have been validated in cancer, where we have shown that daily administration reduces growth of an autochtonous prostate cancer model by 82%.

Pearl Bio

Yale University

[Update (8.2023): The company raised $4.11 million of seed funding from Khosla Ventures on October 7, 2021] Pearl Bio is an early-stage venture pioneering design and production of next-generation therapeutics and biomaterials for medical applications and beyond. Biology is constrained to the 20 natural amino acids, limiting the ability to site-specifically modify therapeutic proteins to improve half-life, tissue targeting, or assembly. In contrast, chemical synthesis of therapeutics enables access to greater functional diversity, but template-directed synthesis is challenging. Pearl Bio unites the precision of biology with the unlimited diversity of chemistry in a transformative platform that produces therapeutics and biomaterials with tunable properties for applications in oncology, immunology, and rare disease.

WiLO Networks

WiLO Networks bridges the gap between passive RFIDs and high power Long Range (LoRa)/Sigfox to enable precision agriculture, military surveillance, fire mitigation, smart highways, and other IoT applications. Currently, WiLO Networks focus is to provide solutions for precision agriculture. WiLO Networks is building a novel physical layer communication technology based on low-power integrated circuits (ICs), which can be embedded in sensor nodes and gateways at very low cost. This physical layer technology combined with novel network architecture and protocols, as well as intelligent machine learning techniques promises a 10 year lifetime for sensor nodes powered on millimeter-scale batteries. These ultra-low power sensor networks are the key to precision agriculture, monitoring the health of buildings/bridges, and military surveillance. WiLO's solutions can reduce waste to promote sustainability and carbon neutrality.

Entelechy

Entelechy’s business-focused approach ensures they design, develop, and deliver the most effective performance change possible. Whether it’s world-class training, job aids, documentation, coaching, consulting, web-based training, or user help, the solution you get from Entelechy is guaranteed to help you achieve your business goals. They provide a training module with training materials and access to a team of learning and development, and instructional design experts to help execute your program flawlessly.

Pangolin Therapeutics

Yale University

[Update (8.2023): The company raised $350,000 of seed funding from Connecticut Innovations and others on May 26, 2021] Numerous clinical trials in amyloidosis have failed as a result of misdirected focus on amyloid states of disease-causing proteins. Pangolin Therapeutics’ (PTx) small-molecule platform, termed Pangomers™, was developed to address this deficiency. The Pangomer™ core structure enables selective targeting of pre-amyloid, toxic oligomers (PAOs). Here, we seek to address Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), an aggressive, orphan-indicated form of Parkinson's for which there are no approved therapeutics. Our pilot efforts have identified and validated a strategy for development of Pangomer™ analogues that neutralize PAOs from MSA. Additional funding will allow execution of this strategy delivering a lead molecule for pre-clinical advancement.

Allagium Therapeutics

Yale University

Modulation of MAP Kinase Phosphatases in Targeting Liver Disease. A novel platform for allosteric targeting of MAP kinase phosphatases to achieve nodal regulation of signaling pathways that can be leveraged for therapeutic purposes.

Arqit

Enables any device to download a lightweight software agent of less than 200 lines of code, which can create encryption keys in partnership with any other device. The keys are computationally secure, one-time use and zero trust. TRL: 9

AddGraft Therapeutics

University of Chicago

There are over 900k cocaine addicts in the USA alone while worldwide cocaine usage rates have been growing at over 2% a year over the last decade. In the USA this results in over 15k deaths, 505k ER visits and $21B lost annually. Despite all of this, there is currently no FDA approved treatment for cocaine abuse disorder. AddGraft Therapeutics aims to be the first FDA approved treatment for cocaine abuse disorder utilizing our revolutionary gene delivery platform. Our treatment promises to be long lasting, minimally invasive and highly effective at treating the challenging aspects of addiction. AddGraft's technology is a novel skin-based gene delivery platform for treating cocaine abuse. Patients receive an autologous skin graft of genetically modified skin-stem cells which produces a dual molecule solution to effectively break down cocaine, preventing lethal overdose, and to behaviorally prevent frequent use, relapse, and developing of new addictive behaviors.

Nanochon

George Washington University

(Update: The company raised $2.7M Series 1 venture funding from Mountain State Capital, Kyto Technology, and Wealthing VC Club on August 10, 2022.) Knee cartilage injuries in young active people have unique challenges that do not face older patients. The treatments need to be able to withstand intense activity and last for years. There is currently no gold standard treatment, with all solutions having significant drawbacks in price, recovery time, and/or longevity of treatment. Nanochon has developed a 3D printed synthetic cartilage replacement which is inserted with minimally invasive surgery and encourages new tissue growth, extending the lifetime of the treatment.

SOMA

Brown University

The prevalence of chronic pain is currently on the rise, however, there are few effective and accessible cognitive-behavioral interventions that are widely available to the population experiencing chronic pain. Limited healthcare system capabilities and high treatment costs prevent many patients from receiving or even seeking non-pharmaceutical care. Therefore, there is a need for a more accessible, affordable, and efficacious technology that will allow individuals with acute or chronic pain to track and manage their pain symptoms and triggers. The SOMA Pain Manager is a smartphone application that allows acute and chronic pain patients to track and predict pain. Further, a digital therapeutic program is currently being integrated into the application that will deliver cognitive-behavioral interventions. Overall, the SOMA app provides an easy and accessible option for individuals seeking to manage and treat their pain symptoms.

Carver Biosciences

Princeton University

(Update 9.22 - Closed $3M seed round by Khosla Ventures). Broad-spectrum antiviral therapies do not exist, tragically hindering our ability to respond to viral outbreaks and pandemics. We need new approaches to treat these diseases, as existing therapeutics are very narrow-spectrum and take many years to develop. Carver Biosciences is a startup company developing CRISPR-based therapies for RNA viruses that infect humans. Carver’s approach is a programmable, platform technology that could offer a generalizable solution for treating many viruses, as targeting is dictated by a guide RNA sequence. The underlying technology, CARVER, was developed by founder Cameron Myhrvold during his time as a postdoc at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and was published in Molecular Cell in 2019.

Rhenium Chemotherapeutics

About half of treated cancer patients receive platinum-based drugs (eg. cisplatin, carboplatin) alone or in co-administration with other anticancer agents. Despite their efficacy, their use is limited by toxic side effects and inherent or acquired resistance to platinum-based drugs by tumor cells. To address this challenge, a Cornell team lead by Prof. Justin Wilson have developed rhenium-based chemotherapeutics for treatment of platinum-resistant cancers.

SOVE

University of North Carolina

SOVE is making a new approach for orthodontics. Traditional braces have never been comfortable or attractive, therefore there has been a large movement in the market towards invisible braces. However, many current 'invisible' alternatives suffer from a range of compromises that can make them under-perform. SOVE is developing the 2Insight, a two-stage orthodontic system that eliminate the problems associated with esthetic orthodontic appliances.

ERLY Antivirals

Carnegie Mellon University

Our lab has developed novel broad-spectrum antivirals for treatment of all nine human and several animal herpesviruses that overcomes drug resistance. We have shown that the pressurized state of the viral packaged genome is a target for antiviral therapies. This pressurized DNA state in herpesvirus capsid shell (exerting tens of atmospheres of pressure) is responsible for DNA ejection into a cell nucleus, causing infection. Several lead compounds that "turn off" capsid pressure and block viral genome ejection into a cell have demonstrated superior efficacy and safety in testing conducted at the NIH/NIAID. Although high activity has been shown with all human herpesviruses and several animal herpesviruses, our focus will be on treatment of human cytomegalovirus and MDV (Marek’s disease virus in poultry). For HCMV treatment, the market is dominated by generics, such as ganciclovir and foscarne, that have low efficacy and safety profiles. For MDV, no treatments are available.

Nanopath

Dartmouth College

(Aug 2022- Nanopath announced that it has closed $10 million in Series A funding, co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and the Medtech Convergence Fund, a SV Health Investors venture fund, with participation from Gingerbread Capital and Green D Ventures.) Nanopath has developed a platform for rapid, point-of-care biomarker purification and characterization from a patient sample. Our technology is using advances in bioengineering and nanotechnology to reduce noise and improve signal in diagnostic systems. This allows for an integrated system that takes a complex patient sample, isolates key biomarkers, and analyses them without the need for lengthy clinical workflows. We believe that this new diagnostic paradigm has applications to a range of disease indications including bloodstream infections, cancer liquid biopsy, urinary tract infections, respiratory infections, and wound infections. It also finds use cases in fields of environmental monitoring and biosecurity.

SomaTx Design

KneeMo addresses problems associated with musculoskeletal disorders including sports related injuries and chronic disease such as osteoarthritis (OA). The potential market is substantial since musculoskeletal disorders affect more than one out of every two persons in the United States over age 18 and three out of four over age 65. Osteoarthritis alone accounts for 242 million people in the world who live with activity limiting symptoms. Pharmaceuticals, often used to alleviate the musculoskeletal pain come with side effects that can include addiction. KneeMo takes a novel mechanical approach to engage multimodal sensory pathways that signal pain using cutaneous mechanical stimuli (e.g., vibration) where over stimulation in one mode of the system (e.g., vibration) can gate response in other modalities (e.g. pain). KneeMo was shown in a placebo controlled clinical trial to provide an effective and safe alternative to pharmacological interventions to reduce pain and enhance function.

ArrePath

Princeton University

(UPDATE 4.22) ArrePath, an anti-infective drug discovery company addressing the global health challenge of drug resistant infections, announced today that it has raised $20 million in seed financing to advance its proprietary, machine learning (ML)-based platform for the discovery of new classes of anti-infectives to overcome antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Insight Partners, and Innospark Ventures co-led the financing, which also included Viva BioInnovator, Arimed Capital, PTX Capital, and Nor’easter Ventures. ArrePath also announced that Dr. Lloyd Payne has been named President and CEO. Dr. Payne, who serves on the Novo REPAIR Impact Fund Scientific Selection Board and the AMR Action Fund Scientific Advisory Board, brings more than 25 years of scientific and business leadership in the discovery and development of anti-infectives. Dr. Zemer Gitai published proof-of-concept for the approach in the journal Cell in June 2020.

Enviar Therapeutics

Current delivery platforms for RNA and gene editing technologies induce off-target effects and fail to specifically target tissue types. Led by Columbia’s Dr. Fatemeh Momen-Heravi and Dr. Akiva Mintz, the Enviar team has recently developed a novel customizable delivery platform—called SafeExo—based on engineered exosomes. Exosomes naturally carry biomacromolecules including different RNAs (mRNAs, regulatory miRNAs, etc.), DNAs, lipids, and proteins and can deliver their cargoes to the recipient cells, elicit functions, and mediate cellular communications. SafeExo is the first engineered exosome platform capable of eliminating endogenous nucleic acids, which greatly reduces off-target effects. SafeExo is further optimized to enhance RNA stability, CRISPR efficacy, target uptake and specific cell/tissue delivery of large payloads, such as targeted CRISPR/CAS gene editing machinery and RNAi therapeutics. This platform has the potential to treat new diseases and improve current therapies.

Episteme Prognostics

Dartmouth College

Cancer patients, after the first diagnosis often ask, “how bad is my tumor and what should I do if it is bad?” In about half of all cancer patients, the first line of chemotherapy fails, disease recurs, and patients die. Episteme has succeeded in targeting a specific epigenetic signature of pancreatic cancer patients, which could potentially be reverted by epigenetic drugs making the tumors amenable to chemotherapy. Episteme invented a novel microarray-based platform technology called “ATAC-Array”. This proprietary technology avoids the time and cost of next-generation ATAC library sequencing – the only microarray that reads chromatin accessibility. No other test provides such a comprehensive, cost-effective and clinically useful epigenetic summary. Episteme offers a personalized theragnostic test utilizing ATAC-array, histopathology and immunohistochemistry, to predict chemotherapy response and stratifying cancer patients to epigenetic (reprograming) therapy for better outcome and better quality of life.

SPARKBio

George Washington University

Over 30% of such withdrawals are due to cardiac toxicity (pro-arrhythmic effects mediated by cardiac ion channels), therefore regulatory agreements mandate the testing of all new drugs for cardiac liability. GW researchers developed the first scalable automated all-optical system for high-throughput cardiac electrophysiology and electromechanics. The system includes a method for combined optical pacing and optical recording from a variety of primary and stem-cell-derived cells and tissues. This platform allows for active dynamic interrogation, such as robust pacing protocols that can reveal Vm, [Ca2+]i or contraction’s frequency response (restitution) and temporal instabilities. The researchers also developed “spark-cell” spheroids which can be used as a reagent that can be frozen, transported, and deployed on-site to confer optical pacing of cardiac cells.

LiMAX Biosciences

Harvard University

Update 10.22 - Limax has raised $2m in funding, which supported the launch of topical and internal hemostat programs. The company is seeking $6m in seed funding to support first human trials, followed by a $12m series A round to support clinical trials and commercial launch. Limax Biosciences has developed a biodegradable adhesive hydrogel for advanced bleeding with strong and rapid adhesion to wet tissue surfaces. According to Limax CEO Ben Freedman, 30% to 50% of surgeries today are associated with bleeding-related complications, costing the health system between $10,000 and $15,000 per case in hospitalization and prolonged hospital stays.Wounds outside and inside the body are common and can be devastating. Wound adhesives have not been able to compete with suturing due to lack of strength and flexibility. LiMAX has developed a gel adhesive using biomimicry which is able to outperform existing medical adhesives in strength and flexibility.