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Pillar Biosciences aims to "Make precision medicine the first option for every patient" by developing and manufacturing targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based assays and software for today`s high-throughput specialty NGS laboratories. Through our SLIMamp technology (a multiplex overlapping PCR chemistry) Pillar offers a streamlined, robust and economical workflow with high mapping and on-target metrics. In conjunction with the SLIMamp assay technology, Pillar Biosciences has an informatics pipeline called the Pillar Variant Analysis Toolkit (PiVAT) that is not only highly accurate, enabling somatic variant calls down to 1% allele frequency without use of Unique Identifiers (UIDs), but also fast and efficient, returning valuable sample data quickly. For higher-sensitivity applications such as cell-free DNA analyses, Pillar Biosciences has developed a dedicated assay technology for cell-free DNA that uses UID methodology, to work with the PiVAT pipeline to drive sensitivity down to 0.1%-0.2%. Current as of May 25, 2021.
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.
Founded in 2009, Celmatix is a personalized medicine company focused on fertility and women’s health. Our technology-enabled products empower people, through better data, to dramatically improve their chances of conceiving.
Inovio is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat, cure, and protect people from diseases associated with HPV, cancer, and infectious diseases. Inovio is the first and only company to have clinically demonstrated that a DNA medicine can be delivered directly into cells in the body via a proprietary smart device to safely produce a robust immune response to destroy and clear high-risk HPV 16 and 18, which are responsible for 70% of cervical cancer, 90% of anal cancer and 69% of vulvar cancer. In addition to HPV, Inovio`s optimized plasmid design and delivery technology have been demonstrated to consistently activate robust and fully functional T cell and antibody responses against targeted cancers and pathogens. Inovio`s most advanced clinical program, VGX-3100, is in Phase 3 development for the treatment of HPV-related cervical pre-cancer. Also in development are Phase 2 immuno-oncology programs targeting HPV-related cancers, GBM, and prostate cancer, as well as externally funded vaccine development programs in Zika, MERS, Lassa, HIV, and COVID-19. Partners and collaborators include Advaccine, ApolloBio Corporation, AstraZeneca, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, GeneOne Life Science, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC), National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Plumbline Life Sciences, Regeneron, Roche/Genentech, University of Pennsylvania, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and The Wistar Institute. Inovio also is a proud recipient of 2020 Women on Boards “W” designation recognizing companies with more than 20% women on their board of directors.
It is widely accepted that enzyme delivery technologies are the wave of the future, they require little to no additional energy, they are widely available, and are extremely efficient. However, their use in many of today’s industrial processes is lim...