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PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Abilitech Medical St. Paul, Minnisota
Abilitech Medical develops and markets assistive technology
to restore independence to individuals compromised by Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Muscular Dystrophy (MD).
Parkinsons and Stroke patient needs will be addressed by this platform technology. Abilitech’s suite of orthotic devices will support and assist the arms in functional tasks required for
independence in daily life. The product design augments patient’s strength to enable volitional control of the arm to complete activities of daily living (ADLs), including eating,
using the phone, self-care, and interfacing with a computer. The portability, low profile, and ease-of-use enables the Assist
to be used in the home. The company’s initial product, the Abilitech™ Assist, a Class I, 510K exempt device, will receive
FDA clearance in 2020, followed by a hand device in 2022, and a robotic device that uses voice commands in 2023.
https://abilitechmedical.com/
Angie Conley | [email protected]
Acclinate Genetics Huntsville, Alabama
We help contract research organizations (CROs) and
biopharmaceutical companies achieve the most representative research sample by expanding their genomic
research and clinical trials. Our healthcare platform, Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion in Clinical Trials (e-DICT), provides
CROs and biopharmas with a more effective way to identify, recruit, and retain diverse and willing participants for their
genomic research and clinical trials.
http://www.acclinategenetics.com Del Smith | [email protected]
Advanced Scanners Austin, Texas
Advanced Scanners' mission is to use our uniquely capable 3D Optical scanner as a platform upon which we build surgeon-
guided standard-of-care solutions that improve outcomes for patients undergoing high-risk neurosurgical procedures. We are developing applications on this platform to sequentially
solve significant and ubiquitous problems, i.e. errors in registration, changes in the shape and position of anatomical
features, and tissue differentiation. Our device has been tested in a cadaveric lab and we have an approved IRB at an
HCA hospital to test on patients being treated for brain cancer, stroke, and epilepsy.
http://www.advancedscanners.com
Jeff Levine | [email protected]
AgilVax Albuquerque, New Mexico
AgilVax is a biopharmaceutical company developing xCT
antibody-based products to treat multiple types of cancer in combination with chemotherapy, checkpoint and KRAS
inhibitors. The Company has two products in development; AX09, a VLP-based immunotherapeutic currently in cGMP
production and targeted to begin human clinical trials for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in the 2H 2020, and
M5, a monoclonal antibody currently in preclinical in vivo studies.
http://www.agilvax.com
Joseph Patti | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Altoida Houston, Texas
At this point, Altoida Inc. is the leading Digital Health
innovator utilizing active Digital Biomarkers and cutting edge technology in Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Augmented Reality
(AR) to collect functional and cognitive data to classify a patients’ risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Altoida Inc. has developed a
disruptive technology – the Altoida Neuro Motor Index (NMI) – a Medical Device offering the world’s first cognitive
measurement of micro errors with active digital biomarkers for the early detection of MCI due to AD Validated by 12 peer-
reviewed publications and in clinical studies with more than 4,000 patients, this FDA & CE cleared Medical Device detects
patterns of cognitive decline with 94% diagnostic accuracy between 6 to 10 years prior to the onset of symptoms.
http://www.altoida.com
Richard Fischer | [email protected]
AlgometRx Washington, DC
Founded in 2015, AlgometRx Inc. is a digital health mobile device startup spun out from Children’s National Medical
Center, Washington, DC, by a pediatric anesthesiologist. The AlgometRx device represents a fundamental paradigm shift in
drug detection, pain assessment, and analgesic prescribing/monitoring.
http://www.algometrx.com
Dan Gura | [email protected]
Allterum Therapeutics Houston, Texas
Allterum, a Fannin company, is developing anantibody therapy
for the treatment of pediatric T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-Cell ALL). Although a majority of T-cell ALL is
considered curable, a subset of patients experience relapse. Unfortunately, no standard effective therapies exist for
relapsed T-cell ALL; therefore prognosis remains poor. Our antibody is designed to degrade T-cell ALL cells through a
mechanism which appears to be up-regulated in chemotherapy-resistant leukemia. Our goal at Allterum is to
provide a standard therapeutic option for relapsed pediatric T-cell ALL patients, with the aim of allowing patients to become candidates for potentially curative bone marrow transplants.
http://www.allterum.com
Christopher Foley | [email protected]
Amplified Sciences West Lafayette, Indiana
Imagine a world in which devastating disease such as cancer or organ loss is detected sooner; thus, providing doctors the
ability to treat patients earlier with better outcomes. Amplified Sciences is a startup life science diagnostics
company focused on accurately detecting and pre-empting the risks of debilitating diseases. The company leverages
technology licensed from Purdue University and has developed a platform that can scale to point of care. The lead diagnostic test in pancreatic cancer is at prototype stage and has published proof of concept data. The company is raising
their Seed round to complete clinical validation.
http://linkedin.com/company/amplifiedsciences
Diana Caldwell | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Aperta Biosciences Austin, Texas
Aperta Biosciences develops safe and effective therapies for
chronic inflammatory diseases of the ocular surface and eyelid margin. Our lead program, APT-001 for the treatment of chronic blepharitis, is a “protected repurposing” with the
potential for a rapid initial approval via the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway, in an indication that is void of satisfactory
treatment options and that represents a multi-billion-dollar peak revenue opportunity. APT-001 is currently in pre-clinical
development, with a patent-pending formulation, ongoing studies, and an anticipated pre-IND meeting in early 2020, with the commencement of clinical studies later in 2020.
https://www.apertabio.com
Carlos Santos | [email protected]
Articulate Labs Dallas, Texas
Articulate Labs develops wearable medical devices that accelerate joint rehabilitation by augmenting a patient’s
everyday muscle usage with electrical muscle stimulation. By leveraging everyday activity to actively combat muscle atrophy and inhibition related to chronic conditions or surgery, our devices make physical rehabilitation more
accessible, convenient, and effective. Articulate Labs' first device, KneeStim, will assist with quadriceps strengthening
and re-education to save time and money for the 14M coping with chronic knee conditions and the 1M recovering from
surgery.
http://www.articulatelabs.com Josh Rabinowitz | [email protected]
Artidis Basel, Switzerland
Artidis has developed a nanomechanical biomarker
technology using precise tissue measurement in combination with data analytics to personalize cancer diagnosis and
treatment.
http://www.artidis.com Marija Plodinec | [email protected]
Atropos Therapeutics Missouri City, Texas
Founded in 2018 and based in CA (and potentially TX), we are an early-stage/discovery company with a screening platform to identify potential drug compounds that can modulate the
formation of senescent cells. The screening technology is high-content, high-throughput and molecular phenotypic; and has
already identified several hit compounds that are being refined further into lead compounds. Our initial target
indications will be aging syndromes and resistant cancers. We announced a joint venture with an AI company Atomwise to focus on undisclosed cancer targets and are working toward
alliances in aging and skin aging.
Thomas Nguyen | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Audubon Bioscience Houston, Texas
Audubon Bioscience is an innovative provider of Cancer tissue and fluid biospecimens, their clinical data and laboratory tests to Pharma and Biotech companies for R&D of new drugs and diagnostics. Human biospecimens are an essential foundation for effective genomics-based Cancer research. They are critical for the development of cutting-edge medicines. The demand for high quality and well annotated biospecimens as well as
the challenge of finding them has grown rapidly in last years. We cooperate with an extensive network of 80+ clinics in
Europe, Asia and Africa under Ethics approved contracts to respond to growing demand and to accelerate research.
http://www.audubonbio.com
Rostyslav Semikov | [email protected]
BetterConsult Houston, Texas
BetterConsult solves the needs of patients, practitioners and
health care enterprise through structured engagement before patients' see their doctor. Our solutions optimize patient
outcomes without adding to already inflated health costs and create a future where providers of healthcare will do more of what they love (treating patients) and little of what they hate (administration). Our first solution, is a pre-consultation tool
that captures patients' presenting symptoms, medication and other relevant clinical information. It then translates the data
into medical notes, ready for review.
http://us.betterconsult.com Chris Barakat | [email protected]
CareSnap Software Houston, Texas
CareSnap connects Patients and Caregivers with a dual-app "ride-sharing” model technology, helping Patients get the
services they need while creating jobs in the community for Caregivers. In-app Onboarding delivers paperless sign-up, and allows Patients to choose any home care agency for services.
Caregiver in-app onboarding, scheduling, & skills training are a few of our features that promote safe and quality services. At CareSnap, we’ve made Home Care a Snap, Putting Home Care
on the Map! ™
https://www.caresnap.com/ Eric Mora | [email protected]
Castle Biosciences Friendswood, Texas
Castle Biosciences develops and commercializes diagnostic
and prognostic tests for dermatologic cancers. Our tests provide clinically actionable, tumor-specific genomic information to enable more accurate treatment plan
decisions. We believe that the traditional approach to developing a treatment plan for dermatologic cancers using
clinical and pathology factors alone is inadequate, and can be improved by incorporating personalized genomic information.
https://castlebiosciences.com/
Derek Maetzold
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Cemvita Factory Houston, Texas
Cemvita Factory creates economical solutions for a
sustainable future. We engineer microorganisms for capturing CO2, producing industrial chemicals, and polymers for energy sustainability using synthetic biology. We strive to reduce the CO2 liability and create new revenue sources for energy and
chemical companies.
https://www.cemvitafactory.com Truong Nguyen | [email protected]
ClearCam Austin, Texas
ClearCam is dedicated to providing clinicians with innovative tools and technologies that maximize their vision and skill in the Operating Room. We accomplish this through our core
values of intellectual honesty, speed of light execution, direct communication, and simple, elegant design. ClearCam creates
products that improve today and tomorrow’s surgical visualization platforms; platforms that employ cutting edge
technology and open doors to new and exciting surgical procedures that provide better patient outcomes. Our first product is a windshield wiper for a laparoscope and will be
available in Spring 2020.
http://www.clearcam-med.com Douglas Stoakley | [email protected]
ColubrisMX Houston, Texas
ColubrisMX, Inc. is a medical device company that designs and
develops next-generation surgical robotic devices that hold unparalleled promise for providing novel surgical treatment.
Our surgical robots are capable of completing minimally invasive surgeries and endoluminal surgeries. Led by a
Research and Development Team comprising expert engineers and internationally-recognized surgeons, ColubrisMX is
located in Houston, Texas, at the heart of the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex of its kind in the world.
http://www.colubrismx.com
Daniel Kim | [email protected]
Cord Blood Plus Galveston, Texas
The purpose of Cord Blood Plus is to commercialize our
unique, patent pending human umbilical cord blood stem cell expansion technology. Our primary mission is to provide stem
cells, hematopoietic progenitors, immune cells, and mature blood cells for breast cancer chemotherapy patients to reduce the risk of infections, accelerate recovery rate, and decrease
hospitalization time, thereby saving lives and money. Our subsequent missions are dedicated to the production of stem
cells for protection from radiation and in patients with leukemia and lymphoma. We will provide frozen, off-the-shelf
expanded cells for these and other regenerative medicine needs.
Larry Denner | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
CorInnova
Houston, Texas
CorInnova is developing a non-blood contacting biventricular cardiac assist device for the treatment of heart failure that
would eliminate many adverse events associated with existing cardiac assist devices due to blood contact. The device,
initially for the fast-growing short-term cardiac assist market (up to 7 days’ use), will expand the addressable market to
$6B+. The self-expanding, pneumatically driven device consists of collapsible thin-film polyurethane chambers with a nitinol wire frame that deploys within the pericardial sac and surrounds both ventricles. The device gently compresses the
heart to increase output using a pneumatic driver that operates in synchrony with the heartbeat.
https://www.corinnova.com
William Altman | [email protected]
DosentRx Houston, Texas
DosentrX' ReX device tracks patient medication from the
pharmacy and dispenses it directly into the patient's mouth only when it is time for dosing, eliminating andy errors or
overdose. ReX reminds and empowers patients to be 100% adherent through our smart personalized reminders. ReX engages with patients through our smart touch screen by
asking patient survey questions in order to give caregivers a holistic picture of the patient's treatment at home. All of the
data is loaded to the cloud in real-time to be used at caregivers fingertips.
https://www.dosentrx.com
Edan Razinovsky | [email protected]
Droice Labs Brooklyn, New York
Understanding clinical data is a complex process because most of the information is hidden in free text patient notes, which are noisy and messy. Droice technology understands the free
text, messy, noisy data and delivers insights to the stakeholders in real-time. Droice Labs uses novel Natural
Language Understanding (NLU) methods while working with some of the largest hospital systems, health insurance
companies, life sciences companies, and government bodies across the United States and Europe.
https://droicelabs.com
Mayur Saxena | [email protected]
EmGenisys Houston, Texas
We have developed three technologies to improve outcomes of assisted reproductive technologies. These technologies are
applicable to humans and animal species, though we are initially targeting the livestock industry for early adopters
because there is instant applicability, demand and less regulation. 1. We have developed an automatic device that enables a controlled freezing rate of semen, which can be
tailored to specific species. 2. We have developed a semen thawing device which provides controlled-rate thawing of
different species semen. 3.We have designed a noninvasive embryo selection technology to evaluate embryo health,
developmental potential and sex.
http://www.emgenisys.com Cara Wells | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Forbius Austin, Texas
Forbius is a clinical-stage protein engineering company that designs and develops biotherapeutics for the treatment of
cancer and fibrotic diseases. Forbius was founded in 2011 as a management-led spin out from YM BioSciences, prior to YM's
acquisition by Gilead. Clinical Pipeline: AVID100: anti-EGFR ADC in Phase 2 clinical trials in solid tumors over-expressing
EGFR AVID200: first-in-class TGF-beta trap in Phase 1b trials in fibrosis and oncology
http://www.forbius.com
Ilia Tikhomirov | [email protected]
Geneos Therapeutics Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania
At Geneos Therapeutics, we believe that personalized
therapies are the future of cancer treatment. Our approach is to target unique neoantigens (abnormal mutations produced
by cancer cells) from individual patient tumors to develop novel treatments for cancer. Geneos’ GT-EPIC™ technology is designed to identify, design, manufacture, and deliver tumor specific neoantigen-targeted personalized immunotherapies.
We have an experienced management team with a track record of success in building immunotherapy-based
companies. Geneos Therapeutics’ GT-EPIC™ Neoantigen-Targeting Platform is based on a clinically-validated DNA
vaccine platform exclusively licensed from Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: INO) for use in developing
personalized, neoantigen-targeting immunotherapies.
http://www.geneostx.com Niranjan Sardesai | [email protected]
Ictero Medical Houston, Texas
Over 200K Medicare patients undergo gallbladder surgery
every year. Unfortunately, 1 out of every 4 patients of these patients will experience a perioperative complication, leading
to a $500M impact to the US healthcare system every year. Ictero Medical is developing the first minimally invasive
ablation solution to treat high-risk patients with gallstone disease. Our device, the CholeSafe System, can be inserted
percutaneously inside the interventional radiology suite, under only mild sedation and analgesia, to defunctionalize the
gallbladder without having to remove it. The CholeSafe System allows clinicians to offer their patients the benefits of
surgery without the risk.
http://www.icteromedical.com Matthew Nojoomi | [email protected]
Immatics US Houston, Texas
Immatics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company active
in the discovery and development of T-cell redirecting immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Our
transformative product candidates are - best in class - Adoptive Cell Therapies and Bispecific TCR molecules TCER®. These products are directed against tumor targets that have been identified and validated by Immatics' proprietary and world-leading XPRESIDENT® technology. Our mission is to deliver the power of T-cell redirecting immunotherapies to
cancer patients.
http://www.immatics.com Harpreet Singh | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
ImmunoGenesis Houston, Texas
ImmunoGenesis is a Texas-based biopharmaceutical company
developing an integrated pipeline of complementary therapeutic assets for the treatment of cancer. The drug candidates have been designed to restore the immune system's innate ability to eliminate cells involved in the
propagation of "cold" tumors, cancers for which currently available therapies exhibit limited effectiveness. The company
is currently engaged in activities critical to the successful commercialization of the therapies including clinical testing
and drug manufacturing.
http://www.immunogenesis.com Bill Tanner | [email protected]
ImmunoMet Therapeutics Houston, Texas
ImmunoMet is a clinical stage biotech utilizing cellular metabolism to develop novel anti-tumor and immune-
metabolism therapies. ImmunoMet was founded in 2015 as a Spin-off from HanAll Biopharma, a mid-sized public Korean
pharma company and is headquartered at the Houston JLABs near MD Anderson. We have raised $20 M post spin-off
including $10 M from VCs. Our lead molecule, IM156, is an OXPHOS inhibitor which has demonstrated impressive in-vivo
efficacy in resistant solid tumors and is in Phase 1. ImmunoMet owns a large biguanide library which forms an engine to develop new products and has initiated a second
development program in fibrosis.
Benjamin Cowen | [email protected]
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals The Woodlands, Texas
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals is a fully integrated
biopharmaceutical company that is applying a unique approach to gene science based on Nobel Prize-winning
technology to discover and develop precise medicines for people with serious, chronic conditions. Using a patient driven approach, we are working to discover and develop innovative medicines to safely and effectively treat disease and improve
patient lives.
http://www.lexpharma.com Jeffrey Wade
MAIA Biotechnology Houston, Texas
MAIA Biotechnology is dedicated to developing novel,
targeted cancer therapies for patients with a high unmet need. By focusing our efforts on DGD1202, an
activated/mutated EGFR degrader with a strong body of preclinical data in non-small cell lung, head and neck, and
pancreatic cancers, while maintaining a pipeline of early stage assets, MAIA seeks to enhance its opportunities for success.
We plan to create value by rapidly advancing DGD1202 through early clinical development. In the meantime, data
generated on other pipeline compounds will provide a potential upside for investors and additional options for
acquisition or licensing by pharma.
http://www.maiabiotech.com Frank Perabo | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Maxwell Biomedical San Diego, California
The concept of left-atrial cardioversion and/or pacing for
termination of atrial fibrillation has been proposed in the past, it has even been demonstrated in patients to have a very high
level of success. The issues has always been the amount of energy required causes the patient “pain”. This is in part due to the impractical nature of such a pursuit using traditional
ICD/Pacemaker technology. The Maxwell approach is a completely new & innovation technology; based on the
concept that placing multiple pacing electrodes in a minimum requirement of tissue coverage to asymmetrically pace the
left atrium from AFib back to sinus rhythm. The Maxwell technology will be placed into the hearts vein (outside) to
monitor ECG, analayize & if AFib is detected, restores patients to Sinus Rhythm (active recovery of atrial electrical &
structural functions), reducing AF burden, slowing disease progression, reducing stroke risk and is a safer procedure over
ablations (venous-placement). Randy Werneth | [email protected]
Medic.Life Provo, Utah
Our mission is to build the infrastructure and products that
enable health and wellness monitoring passively, continuously and comprehensively. We believe bathroom is a great place to
further the mission because of the health insights hidden in human waste and because visiting bathroom is part of human routine. Leveraging this routine eliminates friction in gathering
the necessary data. As a first step, we have developed a smart toileting platfom (145 patents filed and 55 granted) that uses IoT sensors to collect various health metrics from human waste and different body systems during each bathroom visit. We analyze this data using Artificial Intelligence and create an
up-to-date trending picture of an individual's health. We identify any abnormal trends much earlier than when
symptoms show up, helping users address many preventable conditions or outcomes. The trends are accessible to users
through an app.
http://www.medic.life Vivek Garg | [email protected]
Medicenna Therapeutics Houston, Texas
Medicenna is a clinical stage immunotherapy company
focused on oncology and the development and commercialization of novel, highly selective versions of IL-2,
IL-4 and IL-13 Superkines and first in class Empowered Cytokines™ (ECs) for the treatment of a broad range of
cancers. Supported by a US$14.1M non-dilutive grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas,
Medicenna's lead IL4-EC, MDNA55, has completed enrolling patients in a Phase 2b clinical trial for rGBM, the most
common and uniformly fatal form of brain cancer, at top-ranked brain cancer centres in the US. MDNA55 has been
studied in five clinical trials involving 132 patients, including 112 adults with rGBM. MDNA55 has demonstrated compelling efficacy and has obtained Fast-Track and Orphan Drug status
from the FDA and FDA/EMA respectively. For more information, please visit www.medicenna.com.
http://www.medicenna.com
Chandtip Chandhasin | [email protected]
Mesogen The Woodlands, Texas
Mesogen is a tissue engineering company with the mission of
growing custom human kidneys for transplant. Our patent pending process will be used that will allow for kidneys to be grown using a patient’s own cells that will not require long term immunosuppression. Using our process, the custom kidneys will be grown utilizing an animal as the bioreactor
allowing for the kidneys to go through all the normal embryonic stages of development. Using our process will
allow us to thoroughly test the engineered kidneys for function and Human DNA content ensuring compatibility
before it is transplanted into the patient.
http://www.Mesogen.com Michael Riddle Jr. | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Neuraptive Therapeutics Louisville, Colorado
Neuraptive is a pre-revenue company developing novel
surgical products to address the peripheral nerve surgery market. The Company’s franchise product is a therapeutic for
administration during surgery to improve outcomes for patients undergoing acute nerve injury repairs and
reconstructive surgical procedures involving peripheral nerves. The Company has raised $11.5M to date and is
seeking additional investors to participate in a priced Series A financing.
http://www.neuraptive.com
David Jackson | [email protected]
Opsin Biotherapeutics Bedford, Texas
Opsin Biotherapeutics is a pain management company
focused on providing a non-opioid alternative for chronic pain. Greater than 100M Americans suffer from chronic pain. In
2016, 11.5M people misused prescription opioids leading to 42,000 deaths and $504B in economic costs. Our solution to
access the $60B pain market is to provide a non-opioid alternative for chronic pain by commercializing our patented light receptor (opsin) episomal gene therapy that activates an
in-situ drug to inhibit pain transmitting neurons. Opsin Biotherapeutics has an experienced, strong management team and advisory board that will bring this technology through regulatory approval and commercial success.
http://ww.opsinbio.com
Robert Benkowski | [email protected]
Pegwin Bellaire, Texas
Lack of real-time information results in uncertain and
ambiguous conditions that frequently lead to preventable patient harm. Pegwin Insights™ assists caregivers with actionable data needed to make informed and timely
decisions at the point of care. The solution addresses clinical risk factors and optimizes staff workflow. This is critical, especially in places where the pathophysiology and the
etiology of multiple clinical conditions are unclear. The output is individualized, near real-time critical alerts based on
probability risk assessments providing early identification of patient deterioration. These risk assessments are generated
from millions of data points identified from patterns and trends in similar patients.
http://www.pegwin.io
Chris Melson | [email protected]
Pharmalto Plano, Texas
The health of the entire population must be managed to
address unstainable health care costs. MedLife provides a suite of solutions that address the entire population and
achieves improved health outcomes and lowers costs. MedLife enables disease screening and provides engagement tools to asymptomatic individuals. Individuals with a chronic disease are monitored for compliance and efficacy through MedLife’s platform. In addition, MedLife provides Chronic
Care Management and Remote Patient Monitoring services to Medicare beneficiaries with chronic diseases. The solution suite is available as a turnkey service and a SaaS offering.
http://www.Pharmalto.com
Charles Neagle | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Pocket Naloxone Bethesda, Maryland
Pocket Naloxone Corp.'s vision is to disrupt the opioid
overdose antidote market with its game-changing, differentiated, low-cost product. Pocket Naloxone will be the most affordably-priced ($10 vs. $125+) and widely accessible
option on retail shelves via the newly opened FDA OTC pathway. With 130 people dying daily from opioid overdoses,
this is a $1.1+ billion opportunity with great social value, answering the FDA’s unprecedented call from January, 2019
for an OTC Naloxone product. The company's female co-founders have 70+ years of healthcare and pharmaceutical
experience.
https://pocketnaloxone.com Ashanthi Mathai | [email protected]
Raptamer Discovery Group
Houston, Texas
We offer a turnkey VelociraptamerTM process wherein a fast, single-cycle process we quickly develop next-generation aptamers (RaptamerTMs) against molecular and cellular
targets. This process generates a set of RaptamerTM candidates for each target. RDG uses next-generation
sequencing technology in tandem with our sophisticated bioinformatics platform to rank RaptamerTM candidates by
their predicted sensitivity and specificity. We then synthesize the 24 highest-ranked RaptamerTM candidates for each target
at a 50 nmol scale and test each RaptamerTM candidate for binding affinity using biolayer interferometry (BLI).
RaptamerTMs and study results are shipped to the client within four weeks.
Dhane Stomp | [email protected]
Regen Therapies Houston, Texas
Regen Therapies, Inc. provides novel pharmaceutical
formulations to treat osteoarthritis and moderate to severe joint pain. Three clinical trials evaluated over 300 joints ages
with severe arthrosis or cartilage compromise. Regen Therapies, Inc.'s lead formulation RTI002 was safe and
significantly improved life quality. One year post treatment follow up by radiological analysis showed cartilage
regeneration of 10-43%. RTI002 is better or as good as joint replacement surgery without complications, costs and risks.
Benjamin Adler | [email protected]
Reveal Technologies Houston, Texas
$16 billion are spent every year on the retinal degeneration
market with no cure or long-term solution for retinal degeneration. At Reveal Technologies, we have built a
proprietary electronic device that recreates and optimizes eyesight for these patients. Our device is unlike anything on
the current market because it recreates depth perception, 3D structure, and contrast for individuals who have lost it. Our
device can be worn like glasses by the user at all times without causing dizziness or imbalance. Individuals can regain
participate in functional activities again, like they once used to!
http://www.revealthevue.com
Asma Mirza | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Salarius Pharmaceuticals Houston, Texas
Salarius Pharmaceuticals is an emerging biotechnology
company developing targeted therapies to treat pediatric and other cancers, including advanced solid tumors. The lead
compound Seclidemstat represents a potential paradigm shift in the treatment of cancer and we are initially targeting Ewing sarcoma, a devastating pediatric, adolescent and young adult
bone cancer where no targeted therapies are currently available.
http://salariuspharma.com
Mark Rosenblum
Saranas Houston, Texas
Saranas is an early stage commercial company focused on the
development and commercialization of novel technologies that assist clinicians in the identification of potential
endovascular access related bleeding complications prior to patients becoming symptomatic via early detection and real-
time monitoring of bioimpedance changes associated with vascular access procedural bleeding events.
http://www.saranas.com
Zaffer Syed | [email protected]
Solenic Medical College Station, Texas
Solenic is leveraging the unique properties of alternating magnetic fields generated by external coils to eradicate
biofilm on the surface of medical implants. This non-invasive treatment addresses a major complication of surgeries such as
(1) knee and hip replacements and (2) trauma related implants such as plates and rods. This is particularly important
given an aging population and the rapid increase in the number of these procedures being performed every year.
Solenic has the potential to completely replace the current standard of care which is the expensive and risky two-stage revision surgical procedure used for chronic infections on
medical implants.
http://www.solenic.com James Lancaster | [email protected]
Spanios Houston, Texas
Spanios provides cancer researchers in academia and industry a service platform to test multiple FDA approved orphan drugs
and compounds for drug efficacy and safety in an expedited and cost-effective manner. Spanios is addressing the unmet need for reliable and effective model systems to accelerate
research and treatment options for rare cancers. We are currently a JLABS TMC resident company for 1 year.
https://spanioslab.com
Bhuvanesh Dave | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Stream Biomedical Houston, Texas
Stream Biomedical, Inc. is an early stage company founded to address unmet therapeutic needs for individuals suffering as a result of neurological trauma and/or degeneration. Stream is
developing a therapeutic protein which has been shown in preclinical models to be significantly neuroprotective and
neuroreparative, resulting in dramatic functional improvement when administered after neurological insult.
The initial target therapeutic application is for the treatment of acute stroke. Later targets include traumatic brain injury
(TBI) and Alzheimer's/dementia.
http://www.streambiomedical.com Gary Gage | [email protected]
Tessa Therapeutics Houston, Texas
Tessa’s R&D is based on over three decades of research and
development by our Scientific Co-Founder, and internationally recognized clinical scientist, Dr. Malcolm Brenner. His research has shown that the body’s anti-viral immune response can be harnessed as a potent therapy for cancer treatment. Our core
platform technology uses a specific subset of immune cells known as Virus-Specific T cells (VSTs) – it has shown
compelling results in the treatment of solid tumors in clinical trials.
https://www.tessatherapeutics.com
Geoffrey Stephens | [email protected]
TeVido BioDevices Austin, Texas
TeVido BioDevices uses a patient's own living cells and
proprietary manufacturing techniques to create pigment cell grafts to treat loss of skin color from disease or scarring. Loss
of skin color is difficult to treat and no solutions have been proven clinically effective. This treatment will primarily be
used by plastic surgeons and dermatologists in aesthetic clinics and is not subject to the whims of reimbursement.
TeVido’s serviceable market in US & Europe is conservatively estimated at~ $5B. The company is capital
efficient, projects profitability in 2020 and is well positioned for an early exit.
http://www.tevidobiodevices.com
Laura Bosworth | [email protected]
Treventis Corporaiton Bernville, Pennsylvania
TREVENTIS™ Corporation is a biotechnology company focused on diseases associated with protein misfolding. Treventis uses a computational platform to rationally design small molecule
therapeutics for protein misfolding diseases. Our lead program in Alzheimer’s Disease therapeutics is now the
subject of a robust collaboration with Les Laboratories Servier. We have a team of chemists and biologists with leading
expertise in this area and are expanding on our proprietary pipeline in Parkinson’s, ALS, an undisclosed oncology target and in rare diseases. We also have a diagnostics division for
the early identification of Alzheimer’s disease.
http://www.treventis.com Mark Reed | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Tvardi Therapeutics Houston, Texas
Tvardi is focused on the development of orally delivered, small molecule, STAT3 inhibitors. STAT3 is a key signaling
molecule positioned at the intersection of signaling pathways controlling gene networks integral to the survival and immune sequestration of cancer cells as well as to the pathogenesis of many inflammatory and fibrotic conditions. The company’s lead product, TTI-101, is currently being studied in a Phase I trial of patients with advanced solid tumors who have failed
all lines of therapy. To date, TTI-101 has demonstrated excellent safety, and promising clinical activity.
http://www.tvardi.com
Sofia de Achaval Wied | [email protected]
VenoStent Houston, Texas
VenoStent is medical device and biomaterials company that is developing a smart, resorbable polymer with many biomedical applications, the first of which is as a vein wrap to reduce vein collapse in dialysis patients. While hemodialysis serves as the primary lifeline for 460,000 kidney disease patients in the US, 40-60% of their access sites collapse and fail within the first year. This increases patient mortality to 50%, a coin flip, and costs Medicare billions each year. We're here to stop that.
http://www.venostent.com
Timothy Boire | [email protected]
VisionSR Sugar Land, Texas
VisionSR is a digital health company that strives to make sense of medical information in order to better tell a patient’s story and foster new discoveries. Electronic medical records (EMR)
have fallen short on these promises, but our ViSion technology solves the problem by relating information in meaningful ways using a proprietary ontology. Vision’s
structured data organized in timelines efficiently communicates knowledge and supports the calculation of
medical outcomes for pay-for-performance reimbursement.
http://www.visionsr.com David Vining | [email protected]
Vitanova Biomedical Kerrville, Texas
Vitanova Biomedical, Inc. (VNB) is a San Antonio, Texas-based preclinical stage biotechnology firm utilizing patented (patents
pending) technology fully-licensed from the University of Texas. The company’s cancer therapy platform called Light-
Activated Intracellular Acidosis (LAIA), is based upon the ability to focally induce rapid acidity inside the cancer cell by activating our injected compound with a specific wavelength
of deep penetrating light. Our data support that LAIA effectively induces rapid, early apoptosis resulting in 81-100% cell death in less than 2 hours across five different cancer cell types including triple negative breast, pancreatic and prostate
cancer cells.
http://www.vitanovabiomedical.com Tom Roberts | [email protected]
PRESENTING COMPANIES | 2019 TEXAS LIFE SCIENCE FORUM
Volumetric Biotechnologies Houston, Texas
Founded in 2018 out of Rice University, Volumetric is developing tools to predict patient outcome to cancer
therapies before treatment begins. Our tissue fabrication technology enables personalized predictive drug capability due to our vascularized tissues that contain patient specific
cells for high throughput testing of various medicines before a treatment option is offered to a patient, empowering doctors
to know the exact drug and dosage to employ to maximize patient outcome.
https://volumetricbio.com
Bagrat Grigoryan | [email protected]