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Cleave Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of novel protein homeostasis inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.
ChromaCode is a molecular diagnostics company with a bioinformatics focus and pedigree from Illumina, Google[x], Luminex, and Caltech.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a chronic, life-threatening disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States, 30,000 new cases are estimated every year with half of those cases diagnosed in young children. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the patient`s immune system goes awry and attacks and destroys the pancreatic beta cells. Beta cells are responsible for regulating blood sugar (glucose) levels by producing precise amounts of the essential hormone insulin. The discovery of injectable insulin in the 1920s changed T1D from a uniformly fatal disease with a life expectancy of months to one that could be carefully managed for decades through multiple daily blood glucose measurements and insulin injections. However, insulin injections are not a cure and patients face a lifetime of difficult disease management and serious complications including kidney failure, blindness and nerve damage. Despite nearly a century passing since the discovery of insulin, insulin injection remains the only treatment available to patients. Semma Therapeutics was founded to develop transformative therapies for patients who currently depend on insulin injections. Recent work in the laboratory of Professor Douglas Melton led to the discovery of a method to generate billions of functional, insulin-producing beta cells in the laboratory. These cells develop in islet-like clusters grown from stem cells. Initial preclinical work in animal models of diabetes has shown that transplantation of these cells are sufficient to control blood glucose levels. This breakthrough technology has been exclusively licensed to Semma Therapeutics for the development of a cell-based therapy for diabetes. Ongoing research at Semma Therapeutics is focused on combining these proprietary cells with a state-of-the-art cell delivery and immune protection strategy that can protect these cells from the patient`s immune system and allow the beta cells to function as they do in non-diabetic individuals. Implantation of the beta cell-filled device has the potential to provide a true replacement for the missing beta cells in a diabetic patient and would not require patient immunosuppression. Semma Therapeutics is working to bring this new therapeutic option to the clinic and improve the lives of patients with diabetes.
Arvinas is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing new small molecules ‒ known as PROTACs (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras) ‒ aimed at degrading disease-causing cellular proteins via proteolysis. Based on innovative research conducted at Yale University by Dr. Craig Crews, Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, the company is translating natural protein degradation approaches into novel drugs for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. The proprietary PROTAC-based drug paradigm induces protein degradation, rather than protein inhibition, using the ubiquitin proteasome system and offers the advantage of potentially targeting “undruggable” as well as “druggable” elements of the proteome. This greatly expands the ability to create drugs for many new, previously unapproachable targets.
Chromatin is unlocking the potential of plants to produce greater value and meaningful products for consumers, growers, seed producers, and processors. At the same time, the company's technology can benefit the environment through decreased use of pesticides and fertilizers. The company's mini-chromosome technology simultaneously introduces multiple genetic traits into plants, reducing the time and cost required to develop improved and novel crop-based products, such as medicines, biomaterials, textiles and nutritionally improved foods. These products are enabled while allowing growers to enjoy the benefits of the most up-to-date agronomic traits, such as herbicide tolerance, pest resistance, and diseases resistance. Mini-chromosomes also provide unprecedented precision and control of new traits at every point in a plant's life cycle, from seed to field and beyond. Crop stewardship is at the core of Chromatin's values, and the company is equally focused on using its technology to introduce sustainable, healthy agricultural practices while enhancing commercial value and quality of life.