Discover a new adventure

University of California, Santa Barbara

Neurodegenerative diseases are a large group of progressive and eventually fatal diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). These diseases – including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), and Huntington’s disease – are taking an increasingly heavy toll on individuals and the society as the human population ages, yet they remain incurable. Evergreen seeks to develop novel therapies for several neurodegenerative diseases based on AAV-mediated gene transduction.

Bioada

Rutgers University

The scientific community is continuously trying to improve their understanding of genetic mechanisms in biological systems and finding biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. With growing accessibility, still, only the minority of investigators in the life and medical sciences has the means to analyze and leverage this enormous treasure of data. Bioada is an integrated, easy to use and interactive genomics data analysis platform for the broader community of life scientists.

Stretchable Electronics

Conventional electronic devices based on flexible or rigid printed circuit boards (PCBs) cannot conform to curved surfaces or stretch to accommodate new requirements of disruptive technologies. Additionally, existing methods for the production of stretchable electronics are unable to produce devices with high integration densities achievable with conventional methods. These methods also rely on processes that cannot be implemented at scale. This technology overcomes these limitations and enables practical applications of stretchable electronic devices for health monitoring, wearable computing, medical devices, and beyond.

WhiteBox

Carnegie Mellon University

VDIs cannot protect sensitive data unless remote users can securely operate the VDI client on their computers. If users’ computers are compromised, hackers can screen capture and view confidential data on VDI servers, and sniffer users’ keystrokes (e.g., passwords), etc. Attackers gain same VDI data access as users despite perfect network and VDI server security. Most existing products are insecure, because they assume commodity OSes (e.g., Windows 10, Mac OS) and applications have no security flaws. Other products violate users’ experiences as they cannot run user-chosen applications locally to process insensitive data. In short, no usable secure VDI client exists to-date. We built *the only usable secure VDI client*. Our on-demand isolation technique protects users’ operations even when OS and users’ locally installed tools are compromised, and maintains users’ experience. Also, our solution eliminates IT admin labor to maintain VDI client security.

Intervir

Our ultimate goal is to develop novel small molecule, broad-spectrum therapeutics against viral infections caused by filoviruses, arenaviruses, rhabdoviruses, and others that depend on the PPxY L-domain motif for virus egress and spread of infection. Some of these viruses, including Ebola (EBOV), Marburg (MARV), and Lassa fever (LAFV) viruses, are highly pathogenic and classified as Category A, bioterror pathogens. Importantly, we have identified an analog capable of blocking in vivo activity in a Marburg virus challenged mouse model, providing essential proof of concept for this novel class of anti-viral therapeutics. We predict that the novel class of anti-viral products targeting EBOV, MARV, and LAFV will be used for treatment of infected individuals as well as in prophylactic treatment of soldiers, healthcare workers, or others at high risk. Emergency administration of such an antiviral therapeutic during an outbreak could potentially inhibit virus dissemination in infected individuals.

M^3

We treat faces as if they were feet, and that’s absurd. Unlike feet, faces are 3D, yet we still measure them using 2D objects such as paper cutouts in the massive $6b market to fit people with masks. This doesn’t cut it, and the data backs it up: 50% of Americans don’t wear the CPAP masks they’ve been prescribed because of these fit, comfort, and convenience issues. The only reason we’ve tolerated this is that until recently there has been no better way to get good 3d measurements of your face without lots of specialized tools. We solve this problem by making it as easy as taking a selfie to get precise 3D measurements of your face.

Macroscopic 2D Materials

Dr. Xiaoyang Zhu’s research team at Columbia University developed a method for high-yield production of macroscopic 2D materials. The technique produces macroscopic 2D materials that are comparable in quality to microscopic monolayers formed by Scotch tape exfoliation, with the significant advantage of achieving high-yield production. This technology has potential to catalyze manufacturing of 2D materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers for use in many applications.

Seven Biosciences

Washington University in St. Louis

Seven Biosciences is a GPCR targeted drug discovery company which engineers and uses cutting-edge technology. Seven’s proprietary technology are fluorescent sensors based on any GPCR, which enables the functional visualization of the conformational change of the receptor in response to the binding of a given compound in real-time. The technology can be used for high throughput screening of compound libraries against GPCR targets, including orphan GPCRs, as well as for profiling the physiologically relevant effects of candidate molecules. Additionally, Seven’s GPCR sensors can be expressed in vivo –enabling the monitoring of compound effects at the site of action in awake behaving animals and in disease models undergoing treatment with unmatched spatial and real-time temporal resolution.

MedGyde

MedGyde develops ligand and antibody directed products which bind to antigens specific to various cancer subtypes. MedGyde’s pipeline includes antibodies and single-chain variable fragments which have demonstrated cytotoxic properties. The products have therapeutic as well as diagnostic applications (theranostic). MedGyde has also developed a radio-sensitization technology that targets and sensitizes cancer cells. The lead therapeutic antibody to inducible neoantigen, TIP1, binds specifically to cancer. It has been conjugated to both radiopharmaceuticals and chemotherapy which markedly improved cancer cures in pre-clinical cancer models. The planned clinical trial will be in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. MedGyde has been awarded several NIH small business grants to further develop antibodies and nanoparticle drug delivery systems. Venture capital is needed for GMP manufacturing and IND enabling safety testing.

Keidar PlasmaTech

George Washington University

Keidar PlasmaTech aims to apply our non-invasive cold plasma device to treat brain tumors. The scientific leaders have complementary bench and clinical expertise that has enabled both understanding of the mechanisms of action of cold plasma to selectively kills cancer cells and the development of a plan to reach human patients in just 1 year.

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.

NanopathDx

Dartmouth College

Nanopath has developed a platform for rapid, point-of-care biomarker purification and characterization from a patient sample. Our technology was originally developed at Dartmouth College as part of our PhD research, and 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.

Nerve Repair Technologies

University of Pittsburgh

Long gap peripheral nerve injuries (i.e., gaps >3cm) remain a clinical challenge. When there is a long gap nerve injury, the standard of care is transplanting a nerve from one place in the body to the area where the defect is, a technique known as autografting. The use of an autograft requires a second surgical site resulting in longer operating times, and typically a sensory nerve is used to replace a motor/sensory nerve, which leaves an area of the body with permanent numbness. There are a handful of nerve guides on the market available to regenerate nerve gaps less than 1 inch. However, there are no synthetic guides available having an FDA-approved indication for use in nerve gaps greater than one inch. Our patented technology utilizes a biodegradable tube containing a controlled drug delivery system supplying the cues necessary to promote the growth of nerves over large gaps, thus fulfilling this clinical unmet need.

Stork AI

Cornell University

Stork.ai is leveraging its strong foundations in reproductive medicine, big data, and artificial intelligence to create next-generation fertility products that ultimately help people have babies. It is commercializing a decision assessment tool comprised of patent-pending, AI-based software (“STORK”) that reliably assesses embryo (blastocyst) quality. STORK was developed using a proprietary, multi-focal embryo image dataset from Weill Cornell’s Center for Reproductive Medicine. STORK can also predict genetic defects such as aneuploidy, which involves an abnormal number of chromosomes in the embryo.

Cognivive

Cognivive develops FDA-registered, personalized, evidence-based, prescription digital therapeutics used by patients at home to treat neuromotor and neurocognitive impairments resulting from stroke.

Gateway Bio

Duke University

Gateway Bio is developing an innovative “PEG-like” drug conjugation technology that eliminates the antigenicity issues surrounding PEGylation today. Gateway Bio was specifically formed to translate several scientific breakthroughs from the lab of Professor Chilkoti at Duke University into commercially viable products and processes by combining the expertise of the academic scientists closest to these technologies with the business acumen of experienced start-up professionals. The initial core technology of Gateway Bio is based on several key patents on POEGMA conjugates that have been successfully licensed from Duke by Gateway Bio. Our novel method of creating PEG-like conjugates could be applied to generics, existing drugs, newly developed drugs or any of the PEGylated pharmaceuticals currently on the market. There are currently 15 FDA-approved peglyated drugs, with dozens more in clinical trials. Sales of the two most successful pegylated products, Pegasys and Neulasta, exceeded $5 billion in 2011.

Spirair

University of California, Los Angeles

Spirair is addressing the unmet need for a minimally-invasive, office-based treatment for NSD. While there is high demand among ENT physicians for office-based procedures (e.g. Acclarent, Arrinex, Spirox, etc), NSD is one of the few common pathologies that does not have any office-based innovations. Spirair is filling this gap in the marketplace with a needle-based delivery device that correction NSD with local anesthetic in under 15 minutes. The estimated US/European TAM is $2.3B. Spirair will be regulated under a 510(k) pathway, and FDA clearance can be achieved by 2023 with minimal clinical data (30 patients, 6 months of follow-up).

Intraocular Robotic Intervention

Ever since the advent of robot‐assisted surgery in 1985, the value of using robotic systems to assist in surgical procedures in the modern operating theatre has been demonstrated repeatedly. However, most intraocular surgical procedures continue to be performed manually by surgeons. One of the most common procedures is cataract surgery, which is performed approximately 2.5 million times a year in the United States alone. The team has developed a novel robotic system — the IRISS— aimed at remotely operated and fully automated intraocular mechanical manipulations and therapeutic surgery.

Articulated Rigid Traction System

University of California, Los Angeles

In orthopaedic surgery, procedures commonly include fixation of bone and soft tissues. Currently, surgical manipulation of these bones and soft tissues is accomplished by the application of manual force either directly on tissue or through devices that transmit forces to the tissue including pins, screws, bolts, straps, and clamps. These methods of performing orthopaedic surgery have several disadvantages: Manual force is limited by the strength and endurance of the surgeon and surgical assistants, manual manipulation has limited precision, reliance on manual manipulation exposes the surgeon and surgical assistants to increased radiation exposure when intra-operative fluoroscopy is used to confirm position during manipulation of bone. ARTS is developing the Robotic Surgical Assist Arm (RSAA), a motorized rigid traction system which standardizes and facilitates the correct placement of the bones. Focusing on long bone repair the initial market would be in the area of 100,000 cases annually in America.

Tissue Oracle

The Tissue Oracle addresses an unmet need to identify which regions of excised breast tissue should undergo histopathological assessment to diagnose breast disease. Our envisioned product deploys optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging and artificial intelligence image analysis to achieve the microscopic-level resolution, large field of view, and fast throughput necessary for integration into clinical workflow. The value proposition is that our image-guided sample selection can reduce the number of tissue blocks submitted for histopathology, and the associated cost and workload, by 30-50%. The target customers are pathologists and administrators seeking greater efficiency for a key step in breast cancer care.

Aethergen Biosciences

Dartmouth College

Fungal bioproduction makes up 50% of the industrial enzymes market, a $10B market with a CAGR of 7.1% yearly. Fungal production of enzymes requires that large, dense cultures of cells be aerated properly. Dense cultures, however, become very viscous; stirring these cultures to provide oxygen can damage cells. Aethergen introduces mutations into fungi which convey morphology beneficial for fermentation processes, and lower oxygen consumption by half. This alleviates the need for a tradeoff between culture density and oxygen transfer. Aethergen can thus offer both enzyme manufacturers and strain improvement companies a more efficient process, lowering raw material costs and increasing margins.

TAIRIS

There are 230 million surgeries performed per year worldwide. Surgical experience is the primary factor dictating outcome of each operation. However, surgical experience is not quantifiable, not accessible as a data source, and not easily distributable between users. This leads to variability in outcomes, complications, inefficiency, and high costs in surgical care delivery. What if an artificial intelligence (AI) platform could be designed that would quantify and learn from surgical experience, then customize and distribute tailored information back to all surgeons in real-time?

AquaROS

Researchers at Stanford have developed a new water-based disinfectant with the potential to destroy a wide variety of pathogens and significantly improve healthcare settings. AquaROS, a novel and broad-spectrum disinfectant, is based on the formation of micron-sized water droplets that cause the spontaneous generation of highly reactive oxidant species (ROS). Access to safe and effective disinfecting solutions like AquaROS is more critical than ever – in the U.S. approximately the same number of people die from healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) as from AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined. Inexpensively produced by atomizing water, the new disinfectant has been shown to outperform other commercial methods at inactivating Salmonella typhimurium and E. coli. Based on these and other promising results, the researchers anticipate AquaROS can kill bacteria, fungi, mycobacteria and bacterial spores on critical surfaces such as medical instruments.

Zeit Medical

Zeit Medical develops a platform health monitoring technology that enables continuous neurophysiological assessment for a wide gamut of neurological diseases affecting Americans of all ages. Our first target is stroke (severe cerebral ischemia). Stroke is a devastating disease. In the United States alone, it is the leading cause of long-term disability and cognitive impairment, as well as the fifth leading cause of death. Someone in the United States suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and an estimated $72 billion are being spent annually on direct medical care of stroke patients. Our alert system is capable of reliably recognizing neurological events within minutes and alerts the patients, caregivers and 911.

HeroWear

Working men and women lift every day. They do it in warehouses and on production lines. In offices and combat zones. Every day, they lift the economy worldwide. Whether it’s the day-to-day grind or responding to a crisis, their strength supports us all. And they deserve gear that sustains their strength, for work and for life. That makes their job safer. The HeroWear Apex means that their weight is over. The world’s first exosuit for all, built from the ground up for both men and women, the Apex is a back-assist exosuit that uses a proprietary band-based mechanism to reduce strain on the back without getting in the way.

SkyNano Technologies

Using patent-pending technology developed at Vanderbilt University, our technique overcomes cost and scaleability limitations associated with traditional manufacturing techniques, while also giving commercial viability to carbon conversion technologies through the introduction of a high-value secondary material produced from greenhouse gas inputs. Our technique relies on electrochemistry, rather than solely catalysis, and results in a highly efficient process to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into useful functional nanomaterials.

AbSeek Bio

The human immune system participates in complex interactions with virtually all other systems in the body. In particular, the B-cell component of the adaptive immune response plays a role in various disease settings, including infectious disease, cancer, autoimmunity, cardiovascular, hematologic, neurologic diseases, and others. In addition, antibodies (a product of B cells) are effectively used in diagnostics, therapy, and prevention. To address these significant challenges with current technologies for B cell characterization and antibody discovery, we recently developed a novel technology that, for a given sample, enables the mapping of antibody sequence to antigen specificity from a single high-throughput experiment for a large number of antigens and B cells at a time.

OrcoGuard

With Gates Foundation funding, Dr. Larry Zwiebel at Vanderbilt University has created a powerful insect repellant technology that repels all insects. Testing, so far, indicates no adverse affects to people, animals or the environment. Vanderbilt is forming a company to commercialize the technology. The first field for which the company will develop a product is the facility perimeter treatment market in the US. This includes homes, buildings and other structures. The annual market for the perimeter treatment products (without service cost) is about $10 billion. The annual growth of the market is about 4%, and the demand growth is considerably higher for products that are "green".

Optimer Biotech

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Designer biopolymers have numerous biotech applications due to their superior specificity and efficacy. However, their large size and complexity hindered the development of effective engineering methods, leaving developers with suboptimal molecules. This is most prevalent in drug discovery and diagnostics: patients routinely develop strong adverse reactions to biologics (e.g., many SARS-CoV-2 IgG tests have weaker specificity and affinity, leading to dubious results). Optimer is changing the status quo through its hybrid computational and experimental biopolymer engineering platform capable of designing DNA, RNA, and proteins with superior properties - especially target activity and specificity - for a broad range of biotech solutions. Optimer is currently rigorously testing and aggressively pursuing patent protection for its methodology and won a pilot award from Columbia’s Translational Therapeutics (TRx) Lab-to-Market accelerator program.

Veramorph

Veramorph is developing a polymer-based pre-formed oral dosage technology as a more effective drug delivery vehicle for poorly soluble small molecule drugs. Our technology is capable of improving oral drug delivery performance of a much broader range of small molecule drugs the existing formulation methods. Our product, disintegrating polymer oral dosages (DPODs), can enable more effective drugs to be brought to clinical trials that will improve success rates and reduce the overall cost of successfully commercializing a drug product. Veramorph is developing an internal pipeline of reformulated products and is also seeking product development partnerships through licensing agreements with pharmaceutical companies.

Keren Therapeutics

Keren Therapeutics is focusing on pre‐clinical and early clinical development of recently discovered hormone osteocalcin as treatment for sarcopenia, cancer cachexia, and cognitive impairment due to aging. Osteocalcin is a biological construct that can be synthesized on commercial scale and delivered via depot administration. Development of osteocalcin benefited from more than $7 million in grant support. Columbia patented the composition of matter and its utility through 2034 and 2031, for muscular and cognitive impairment indications, respectively. KEREN intends to file an IND within 18 months from funding. Cost of development through completion of first-in-man studies is expected to be $8,200,000. Osteocalcin is addressing blockbuster market with unmet medical need in case of sarcopenia. We anticipate selling KEREN or executing a co‐development agreement with pharma within 6 years from funding. The Company’s value at that time could exceed $50 million, providing investors with 6x ROI.

Theranostec

Theranostec have developed a novel, nanoparticle treatment platform allowing for targeted and effective chemotherapy, which can be enhanced with phototherapy, while also lowering toxicity.

Orthogonal Biologics

University of Illinois

Viruses engage receptors on a host cell to initiate infection. Soluble versions of the receptors act as decoys that bind and block receptor-binding sites on the virus. However, human receptors often bind viruses weakly and in most cases also interact with endogenous factors in the human body as part of their normal physiology. These competitive off-target interactions adversely impact safety and efficacy. There is therefore an affinity and specificity problem that must be solved before soluble receptors can achieve their therapeutic potential. Orthogonal Biologics uses deep mutagenesis to resolve these challenges, engineering receptors that are orthogonal to normal human biology and with affinities that rival monoclonal antibodies. At this time, the company has lead biologic drug candidates for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus responsible for COVID-19) and human cytomegalovirus (the leading non-genetic cause of birth defects), as well as ongoing interests in zoonotic pathogens with pandemic potential and herpesviruses.

AimRNA

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.

Sierra BioPharma

Sierra Biopharma is developing therapeutics that selectively neutralize, remove, and destroy immune components that lead to autoimmune diseases, starting with the orphan indication myasthenia gravis (MG). Sierra Biopharma has developed an antigen-specific therapeutic for MG that targets pathogenic antibodies (Abs) and the memory B-cells (mBCs) that lead to their production. This biologic compound currently binds to and neutralizes the main immunogenic region (MIR) in directed pathogenic Abs and should eliminate their mBCs.

VasoBio

George Washington University

VasoBio is startup company focusing on vascular disease treatment & medical devices. VasoBio has developed a proprietary ligand-based coating technology, VasoCoat, to improve vascular grafts and other blood contacting devices. Our technology overcomes the major barriers of currently available vascular grafts and possesses optimal functionality. The current focus of VasoBio is to apply VasoCoat to improve patency of hemodialysis vascular graft and reduce thrombosis, stenosis, and infection.

UV-C N95 Sterilization

University of Chicago

Currently there are several solutions under consideration for disinfecting N95 respirators for re-use, with UV-C as the preferred solution because of ease of deployment and widespread applicability. Problematically, present UV-C disinfection solutions are limited by shadowing, which prevents exposure of the masks to the required effective dose of UV irradiation. The inventors utilized UV-C light field modeling and extensive test measurements to develop a proprietary arrangement of lamps for disinfecting. The configuration eliminates shadowing, allowing for full irradiation and disinfecting of the contaminated N95 respirator surface in the shortest amount of time.

HL BioTherapeutics

HL BioTherapeutics aims to apply our unique immunotherapy platform that functions like a T cell receptor, to treat multiple types of solid and liquid cancers. The scientific founders, Catherine Bollard and Eric Yvon, have clinical and technical experience in designing and delivering novel immunotherapies to patients. The advantage of the HL BioTherapeutics platform is the extremely high specificity for tumors due to targeting of a specific MHC-displayed peptide from SSX2 protein. This targeting platform may be commercialized as an engineered T cell or NK cell, or as a therapeutic antibody. Our most advanced preclinical data uses T cell therapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

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.

Bone-Rad Therapeutics

University of California, Irvine

Bone-Rad Therapeutics, Inc. is a Delaware corporation whose objective is to develop and market Spine-Rad (TM) Brachytherapy Bone Cement as an innovative, improved, and cost-effective treatment paradigm for the management of cancer tumors in the spine which affect over 230,000 patients per year in the U.S. and a similar number in the E.U. Four patents covering this technology have been issued and exclusively licensed to Bone-Rad Therapeutics. An additional patent is pending. Developed at The University of California Irvine, Spine-Rad Cement delivers internally-targeted radiation therapy directly to the tumor as it simultaneously treats existing or impending vertebral fractures, restoring strength to the bone. Administered in a single procedure, Spine-Rad Cement will eliminate the 10-20 hospital visits typically needed for external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) as well as the significant side effects of EBRT.

Bacchus Therapeutics

Bacchus Therapeutics is a biotech company that exploits cancer’s hypermetabolic state by targeting specific cancer metabolic pathways. The aberrant expression of MYC is virtually unmatched, making MYC one of the most frequently deregulated oncogenes in human tumors, including, liver, kidney, CNS, hematopoietic, breast, prostate, lung and GI tumors. Human studies and animal models have established that dysregulation of MYC underlies the pathogenesis and aggressiveness of numerous cancers. Our founders, Drs. Gouw and Felsher, discovered that MYC regulates the aberrant lipid metabolism of tumors and that inactivation of key lipid enzymes results in regression of tumors.

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.

HAVA

Each year millions of people suffer from symptoms of sore throat, laryngitis and cough due to colds and inflammation of the upper aerodigestive tract. Current methods of treatment are suboptimal and rely primarily on throat gargles, sprays, and lozenges, which treat only the mouth and part of the upper throat. They completely miss 50% of the inflamed area. This product is an OTC inhaled liquid mist that is inexpensive, portable, disposable, natural, tastes good, and is more effective because it treats the entire upper aerodigestive tract. The target market would be everyday people with cough, voice and sore throat complaints, as well as singers and voice professionals.

Sharper Sense

Sharper Sense, spun out of Professor Wang’s Neural Engineering Lab at Columbia University, is commercializing noninvasive neuromodulation technology that improves tactile, auditory, and visual sensory acuity by enhancing the brain’s ability to process sensory information. The technology has great potential to help individuals suffering from sensory loss as well as sensory processing disorders.

IRIA Pharma

University of Illinois

IRIA Pharma is an Illinois- based preclinical stage startup dedicated to developing targeted therapeutics and diagnostic solutions to antibody-untargetable disease. IRIA is translating its proprietary cell labeling and targeting technology, Active Tissue Targeting via Anchored ClicK Chemistry (ATTACK), into cancer treatment as its primary focus to develop first-in-class small molecule- based cancer labeling and targeted therapeutics for ovarian cancer. Treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer remains an unmet medical need due to lack of novel targeted drugs and immunotherapies. IRIA’s proprietary ATTACK technology will provide an effective treatment option to those patients with significantly improved efficacy and minimal side effects.

Vellum Biosciences