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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

University of Pennsylvania

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.

Exergi Predictive

University of Minnesota

Exergi Predictive is a software as a service company specifically focused on the nascent, and rapidly expanding, electrified last-mile delivery truck market. Exergi Predictive’s technology solves a critical range anxiety problem for last-mile delivery fleet operators who intend to implement electrified vehicles (EVs) throughout the US and worldwide. Exergi Predictive has developed a proprietary connected energy management system (C-EMS) consisting of a suite of models and algorithms operating on a cloud server that samples a small set of historical vehicle data from individual vehicles collected every second during a trip. These data are stored in a secure spatial database and are used by advanced algorithms and vehicle simulations developed to more accurately predict battery state of charge, expected range on a future route, and on-route charging requirements than current onboard predictions. This C-EMS is already serving as the backbone to several companies providing solutions in this space.

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

University of Pennsylvania

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

Little is known about how engineered CAR-T cells move through the body and proliferate after they are first removed, altered, expanded in number and, finally, returned to a patient's body. Vellum Biosciences has developed a way to genetically tag CAR T cells that enables them to be imaged via positron emission tomography (PET) scan in combination with a radiotracer specific to that tag.

Pangolin Therapeutics

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.

Pearl Bio

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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.

Cache

Cache is a MIT startup from Prof. Mark Bathe’s lab is seeking an entrepreneur to help lead the next phase of customer discovery/hypothesis validation. Their technology enables massive and low-energy storage, up to millennium timescales, and random access of nucleic acid samples from broad sources including ecological, forensic, or archival DNA data storage. They are seeking a passionate, adventurous, and creative entrepreneur to join their early-stage venture to help launch this technology into the 21st-century biotechnology space. Their immediate aim is to recruit an entrepreneur who will be excited to mature their business plan using market discovery and research on product-market fit. They are ready to test the market’s appetite for this technology, developing partnerships along the way.

Transporter-Z Oncology

The team has developed a first in class family of molecules that target a membrane receptor present in the most common metastatic brain tumors (breast, colon, melanoma, lung and others), as well as in primary glioblastoma. These molecules are: 1) conjugated to chemotherapeutic agents for tumor-specific intracellular release, 2) cross the blood brain barrier, and 3) designed to work as potential SPECT/PET tracers for tumor detection.

geMab Engineering

This technology is an antibody-based gene editing method which only requires co-administration of the 3E10 antibody with a donor DNA carrying the edited sequence. 3E10 is a cell-penetrating antibody that binds DNA and transports the donor DNA into cells, where it binds to RAD51 to alter the function of the RAD51 DNA repair pathway to promote gene editing. The antibody/donor DNA combination can be given by IV injection and could be applied to genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease.

Opti-Peutics

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness, affecting more than 8 million individuals in the United States alone. Although nutritional supplements are recommended for patients with intermediate risk or advanced AMD, there is still no effective therapy for the 90% of AMD patients with the “dry” or atrophic form. The team at Opti-Peutics used a high-throughput screen to identify novel compounds that protect RPE cells from oxidative damage.

TKine Therapies

Therapeutic interventions for Angioimminoblastic T cell lymphoma have limited efficacy. TKine Therapies has identified a promising target CXCR5 which is involved in metastasis and found on the cell surface in T cell lymphomas. They have developed a small molecule inhibitor of CXCR5 which is potent at nanomolar concentrations in vitro and which has demonstrated activity in a mouse model of CXCR5-expressing T cell lymphoma.

Mucosinix Pharm

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.

PAH HDAC Therapeutics

Despite it being a rare disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a costly and deadly condition of the pulmonary artery. Verso therapeutics is pursuing an HDAC inhibitor as a treatment for PAH which restores normal pulmonary vasculature unlike existing treatments which fail to address the abnormal architecture.

MAEGI Medicine