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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.
Trinity Biomedical is a Menomonee Falls, WI-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Be Biopharma is a leader in developing B cells as medicines, treating disease with the human body`s native protein factories. We precisely engineer B cells to harness their intrinsic drug-like properties – remarkable protein production, selective tissue targeting, and fine control of their cellular environment – to forge a new category of cell therapy. These medicines are designed to be durable, allogeneic, re-dosable, and administered without toxic conditioning, creating new avenues to halt or reverse severe diseases like cancer, autoimmune conditions, and enzyme deficiency. Founded by Longwood Fund and B cell engineering pioneers David Rawlings, M.D., and Richard James, Ph.D., Be Biopharma is re-imagining medicine based on the power of B cell therapy. Be Bio was founded in October 2020 by Longwood Fund with a $52 million Series A investment led by Atlas Ventures and RA Capital, joined by Alta Partners and Takeda Ventures.
SHYFT has been an integral part of the life sciences ecosystem for over 10 years and as the market undergoes a dramatic transformation to deliver more personalized and value-based medicine, the role of SHYFT has never been more important. We built the SHYFT Platform to help life science companies integrate clinical and commercial data and translate it into patient-centric intelligence and analytics for use across functional groups, shortening development cycles and commercialization activities while improving the probability of success. With a long history of success and deep client partnerships, we understand the market transformation and the actionable intelligence required for successful launch, growth and maintenance of new therapies. At SHYFT, we collaborate with our clients to ensure their success not only today, but in the future by providing flexible, agile solutions based on deep industry expertise. With an impressive customer retention rate, we`re committed to our client`s success and serve as a true partner in the transformation.
Providence is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering mRNA therapeutics and vaccines with a focus on infectious diseases and oncology. Initially founded as a cancer vaccines company in 2015, in response to a worldwide need for a COVID-19 vaccine, Providence expanded its focus beyond oncology therapies to develop an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. Providence works with multiple industry collaborators, universities, nongovernmental agencies and multiple arms of the Government of Canada to discover and develop vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases and cancer. This has resulted in the development of an mRNA vaccine platform that includes a proprietary design algorithm and proprietary, scalable manufacturing processes.