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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.
Brain Cells is a San Diego, CA-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Inflammatix, Inc. is a venture-backed startup located in the San Francisco Bay Area that is building novel diagnostics for acute infections and sepsis based on our unique immune biomarkers. Approximately $10 billion / year is spent trying to diagnose acute infections, but current technologies that focus on `finding the bug` are (1) slow and (2) effective in fewer than 30% of cases. Inflammatix has developed a statistically rigorous, extensively validated diagnostic method that `reads` the immune system. Our HostDx™ tests report clinically actionable information on the presence, type (bacterial or viral), and severity of infection in all patients. They have been extensively validated and published in top-tier medical journals. After this initial product, Inflammatix plans to develop and commercialize additional novel diagnostic tests to address significant unmet clinical needs.
BioVir Laboratories is a Benicia, CA-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Vor Biopharma is pioneering engineered hematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) to dramatically change the treatment paradigm for hematological cancers. Vor`s eHSCs are designed to generate healthy, fully functional cells with specific advantageous modifications, for example to protect the blood and bone marrow from the toxic effects of antigen-targeted therapies, protecting healthy cells from depletion but leaving tumor cells vulnerable. Vor`s platform could potentially be used to change the treatment paradigm of both hematopoietic stem cell transplants and antigen-targeted therapies such as antibody drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and CAR-T cell treatments. A proof-of-concept study for Vor`s lead program has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vor is based in Cambridge, Mass. and has a broad intellectual property base including in-licenses from Columbia University, where foundational work was conducted by inventor and Vor Scientific Board Chair Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil. Vor was founded by Dr. Mukherjee and PureTech Health and is supported by leading investors including 5AM Ventures and RA Capital Management, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and Osage University Partners.