BioHealth Innovation Weekly for May 7, 2024

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May 7, 2024

Washington DC's Nanochon closes $4M Series Seed Prime

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nanochon, a Washington, DC-based orthopedic device biotech company has raised $4 million in its series seed prime fundraising round.

The round was led by The University of Virginia Licensing and Ventures Group Seed Fund, with participation from Cultivate (MD), Alumni Venture Group, and Mountain State Capital, among others.

Nanochon intends to use the funds to initiate its first in human clinical trials in the US in 2024, deepen research and development efforts, expand the company’s patent profile and grow its team.

BISNOW: Maryland Life Sciences Seeks To Shift Away From ‘A World Of Office Parks’

May 2, 2024, Emily Wishingrad, Washington, D.C.
Maryland’s life sciences market, one of the largest in the country, has a lot of things going for it — a hearty talent pipeline, federal research agencies and relatively cheap real estate prices.

One thing that it doesn’t have pinned down quite yet: the urban, mixed-use, flexible developments that are most attractive to today's tenants.
Local leaders and industry executives at Bisnow’s Mid-Atlantic Life Sciences and Biotech Summit last week said that for the area to keep up with its peer markets like Boston-Cambridge and San Diego, developers need to start thinking outside the traditional life sciences box.

ARPA-H Sprinting toward solutions for women’s health

The ARPA-H Sprint for Women’s Health is a funding opportunity to address critical unmet challenges in women’s health, championing transformative innovations and tackling health conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women. ARPA-H is committing $100 million to this effort and is using two funding tracks, spark (early-stage research) and launchpad (later-stage development), to foster transformative research and development efforts.

ARPA-H had an unprecedented response of submissions, representing 45 states, the District of Columbia, and 34 countries, received from a mix of scientific visionaries from across the globe and sectors. More than half of those submissions came from organizations with less than 50 people. Proposals covered the six topics, including the wild card, and innovative ideas ranged from novel, groundbreaking research to opportunities to accelerate and scale tools, products, and platforms with potential for commercialization.

Meet with... Johnson & Johnson's Immunology Team on May 21st

Join us for Meet With…Johnson & Johnson’s Immunology Team at JLABS @ Washington, DC on May 21.

During Digestive Disease Week 2024, our Johnson & Johnson Immunology Team will present our strategic priorities in the space as part of our search for promising scientific innovations in the following areas: differentiated MOAs with potential for gut barrier restoration, patient stratification or use in combination regimes, and orals for clinically validated targets.

Bethesda's AsclepiX Therapeutics Completes Enrollment in DISCOVER Trial for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration (nAMD)

BETHESDA, Md., May 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AsclepiX Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging computational biology from Johns Hopkins to identify and develop peptides for improved treatments of retinal diseases, today announced the completion of enrollment into the DISCOVER trial (NCT05859776). Fifteen patients have completed enrollment in the trial for AXT107 (gersizangitide). The objectives of the trial are to evaluate the safety and tolerability of three dose strengths of AXT107 [125 µg (n=3), 250 µg (n=3), and 500 µg (n=9)] and to determine the bioactivity and duration of action when injected suprachoroidally. Secondary endpoints will include efficacy as assessed by central subfield thickness (CST) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Following a single injection of AXT107, to date, no patient has shown any remarkable safety findings.

BioSolution Designs & RoosterBio Announce Collaboration on Genetically Modified MSCs for Biotherapeutic Development

Frederick, MD, May 2, 2024 – BioSolution Designs (BSD), a biotechnology invention studio developing proprietary platforms for multigenic gene and cell therapies, today announced its ongoing strategic collaboration with RoosterBio, a leading provider of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), highly engineered media solutions, and bioprocess development services.

This partnership leverages BSD’s multigenic design and assembly platform, Bird of Prey^™, and cell engineering expertise along with RoosterBio’s cutting-edge MSC and exosome bioprocessing products, manufacturing protocols, and analytical services to simplify the development and manufacturing of engineered MSC derived therapies.

Publication Announcement: Welldoc Shares Clinical Research on AI and Weight Management

welldoc® recently presented a new clinical research paper at the 14th annual Conference on Health IT and Analytics (CHITA) in Washington, D.C. This research focuses on the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and weight management, areas of significant interest across the healthcare industry.

Hosted by the Center for Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence (CDHAI) at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business, CHITA explores innovative developments in the design, implementation, and management of health information technology and analytics.

Welldoc's presentation, authored by Abhi Kumbara, Anand Iyer, and Mansur Shomali in collaboration with their colleagues from Johns Hopkins CDHAI, is now available on their website.

NIH Entrepreneurship Bootcamp

The NIH Entrepreneurship Bootcamp is designed to equip life science investigators and nascent companies with specialized innovation and entrepreneurship training. The course requires no prior experience and uses a life science-focused customer discovery process to assess customer and stakeholder needs, and teaches participants to develop stronger business models, market strategies, and commercialization plans in advance of their initial SBIR/STTR application.

The Bootcamp places teams on a path to take advantage of other NIH innovation programs, particularly the I-Corps and SBIR programs. Critically, this course will improve the commercialization potential of a project no matter what direction teams ultimately pursue. The program is differentiated from I-Corps@NIH as it targets teams who have not yet been awarded an SBIR or STTR for their technical innovation and who may not yet have formed a company. More information is available through NOT-OD-24-103.