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miRagen Therapeutics is a biotechnology company advancing new treatments for patients with diseases that are underserved by today’s therapies.
Sera Prognostics is a leading proteomic and bioinformatics company dedicated to improving the lives of women and babies through precision biomarker-based tests designed to enhance pregnancy care. Sera’s vision is to deliver pivotal information in early pregnancy to physicians, to help them to improve the health of their patients and reduce costs of healthcare delivery. Sera’s PreTRM® Test reports to a physician the individualized risk of a pregnant woman to deliver prematurely, enabling earlier proactive interventions in patients with higher risk. Rigorous clinical validation of PreTRM® Test performance (accuracy of predicting premature delivery) was reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 2016 in a U.S. cohort of 5,501 patients across 11 centers. Preterm birth is defined as any birth before 37 weeks gestation and is a leading cause of illness and death in newborns. The 2020 March of Dimes Report Card shows that of nearly 4 million babies born annually in the U.S., more than one in ten is born prematurely. Prematurity is associated with a significantly increased risk of major long-term medical complications, including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, chronic respiratory illness, intellectual disability, seizures, vision and hearing loss, and can generate significant cost throughout the lives of affected children. The annual U.S. health care costs to manage complications of prematurity were estimated at $31.5B for 2015. Sera is also developing a robust pipeline of innovative tests focused on other complications of pregnancy. Using its advanced proprietary mass spectrometry and bioinformatics platform technologies, Sera detects biologically important protein expression differences to build high performing predictions of risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes (including preterm birth, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, growth restriction, and others).
Sengenics is a functional proteomics company that leverages its patented KREX technology to discover autoantibody biomarker signatures for prediction of drug response and severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs). KREX™ was invented and patented by Professor Jonathan Blackburn whilst he was a member of the faculty at the University of Cambridge. Jonathan is the CSO of Sengenics. The key application of KREX™ is the discovery of autoantibody biomarker signatures for prediction of drug response and severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs). KREX™ can also be used to identify autoantibody biomarkers that may be used to diagnose cancer, autoimmune or neurodegenerative conditions years before conventional diagnostic tests. Some autoantibodies that are identified as diagnostic biomarkers may be protective and have potential in themselves as therapeutic biomolecules.
Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines by targeting cellular nutrient signaling pathways. The companys proprietary drug discovery platform targets mTORC1, which responds to and integrates the cells response to nutrient availability and plays a key role in protein synthesis and cellular growth. Navitors therapeutics are designed to selectively modulate the cellular signals that are aberrant in disease processes caused by the dysregulation of mTORC1 activity to address a wide range of diseases, including metabolic, neurodegenerative, autoimmune and musculoskeletal diseases, as well as several rare disorders. The companys founding intellectual property is based on the groundbreaking discoveries related to the mTORC1 pathway and nutrient signaling mechanisms by Dr. David Sabatini at The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The company is backed by leading financial and corporate investors, including Polaris Partners, Atlas Venture, Johnson and Johnson Development Corporation, SR One and The Longevity Fund.
Joule has pioneered a CO2-to-fuel production platform, effectively reversing combustion through the use of solar energy. Free of feedstock constraints and complex processing, this platform can achieve unrivaled scalability, volumes and costs without the use of any agricultural land, fresh water or crops. Unlike products derived with complexity from petroleum or biomass, Joule Sunflow® products are produced in a direct, continuous process from abundant resources. The novel CO2-to-liquids conversion requires only sunlight, non-potable water and engineered bacteria that function as living catalysts to produce specific products, including ethanol and hydrocarbon fuels that are inherently compatible with existing infrastructure. Joule’s highly efficient process and production system are well suited for deployment around the world, unhindered by land or resource constraints. This uniquely modular system can achieve replicable productivity, whether installed across 100 or 1,000 acres, mitigating scale-up risks and ensuring stability of supply. At full-scale commercialization in ideal locations, the company ultimately targets 25,000 US gallons of Joule Sunflow®-E (solar ethanol) or 15,000 US gallons of Joule Sunflow®-D (solar diesel) per acre annually, for approximately $1.20/US gallon ($50/barrel). Joule has successfully pilot-tested its platform for over two years, initiated demonstration-scale operations, and assembled a specialized team to lay the groundwork for commercial deployment. The company is moving rapidly to commercialize Joule Sunflow-E, with Joule Sunflow-D and additional hydrocarbon fuels to follow. Joule is privately held and has raised approximately $200 million in funding to date. The company was founded within Flagship VentureLabs™, and operates out of Bedford, Massachusetts and The Hague, The Netherlands, with production operations in Hobbs, New Mexico.