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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.
Disc Medicine is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with hematologic disorders. We are building a portfolio of innovative, first-in-class therapeutic candidates that affect fundamental pathways of red blood cell biology. Disc Medicine is committed to developing treatments that empower and bring hope to the many patients who suffer from hematologic disease.
RNL BioStar Inc. is a Germantown, MD-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
The spirit of a start-up. The experience of an established biotech. Ichnos (`īk-nōz) Sciences—a name taken from an ancient Greek word for “footprint”—is shifting how the world thinks about innovation in medicine. With a new approach to the research, discovery, and development of breakthrough therapies in oncology, autoimmune disease and pain management, we`re forging a new path forward. We aim to treat disease holistically, seeking to provide curative therapies that extend human life and improve quality of life. Science SHIFTED…from now on. Headquartered in the NYC metro area, with additional teams in Switzerland and India, ours is a mission rooted in purpose and aimed at progress. Ichnos Sciences is fast-paced, forward-looking and visionary—a company where science, creativity, and a diversity of ideas thrive. We move quickly and nimbly, working together, challenging and supporting one another and ourselves to go further, look deeper, take scientific risks, shift perspectives, and drive forward the scientific advances that will leave an imprint on the world around us. At Ichnos Sciences, we dare to imagine a world where cure is possible. And we invite you to join us. Because cure is possible.
MethylGene Inc. is a Saint-Laurent, QC-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.