Health
For founders pursuing commercial opportunities predicated on translational science and technology innovations that improve human health and wellness.
96
Admitted Ventures
42
Graduate Ventures
213
Mentors
3
Sites
Graduating Health Ventures
AgentT
AgenT is a diagnostics company developing the first blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms develop. Current diagnostics tools available (PET scan and lumbar puncture) are invasive with low sensitivity and specificity for screening Alzheimer’s during pre-dementia stages, when it can be prevented. AgenT’s blood test combines machine learning and multi-omics biomarkers to rapidly and accurately diagnose pre-dementia Alzheimer’s.
agent-biotech.comAlbus Health
Albus Health is a medical device spinout from the University of Oxford that has developed a passive and non-contact nocturnal-symptom monitoring device. There are no tools to objectively monitor nocturnal symptoms at home. This leads to inefficient clinical trials for pharma companies and hundreds of millions of preventable emergencies such as asthma attacks for patients. Patients with chronic respiratory diseases can experience warning signs at night that are usually missed, with higher risks of emergencies such as asthma attacks. The Albus Home RD is a bedside device that does not require patient contact or interaction with the device for continuous, objective, and long-term symptom monitoring.
albushealth.comAltay Therapeutics
Altay Therapeutics (Altay) is developing small molecule therapies to treat chronic inflammation and cancers by targeting disease-causing transcription factors. Preliminary data of the lead candidate, PCE1911, has been shown to treat Ewing’s Sarcoma. Further, mouse data on the second candidate, E46, has been shown to prevent and reverse lung fibrosis.
altaytherapeutics.comApplikate Technologies
Applikate Technologies is a hardware and software company that has developed the first fully automated histology platform with integrated digital imaging. Their patented technology (Clearing Histology with MultiPhoton Microscopy, or CHiMP) is a method of staining and imaging whole samples without the need to slice them (i.e., no physical damage). The platform automates the pathology workflow, reducing processing time, lowering cost, and improving image quality, which reduces the risk of misdiagnosis.
applikatetechnologies.comAriel Precision Medicine
Ariel Precision Medicine has developed decision-support tools that integrate complex genetics into clinical decision making to enable earlier diagnosis and targeted management for complex chronic digestive and metabolic diseases. By leveraging genetic information, AI, and clinical inputs, Ariel creates a risk profile for patients to help clinicians better understand what is driving a patient’s condition, allowing them to focus on treating the biological disease drivers rather than the physical symptoms. With an initial focus on pancreatitis and an expanding product line, Ariel’s platform is currently in the market and being used by more than 250 physicians across 120 institutions.
arielmedicine.com/Arma Biosciences
Arma Biosciences is commercializing a first-in-class sensing technology that represents the foundation for a new collection of portable, wearable, and implantable monitoring devices. The sensors are versatile and adaptable to the analysis of biomarkers for chronic disease, infectious disease, or personal wellness in biological fluids including blood, saliva, or urine. Requiring no reagents or complex fluidics, Arma’s sensor technology enables straightforward product development and scale-up. The initial product line will be for remote monitoring of biomarkers to manage chronic cardiovascular, renal, or metabolic diseases to prevent rehospitalizations and improve patient outcomes.
arma-bio.comDeepSpin GmBH
DeepSpin is developing an AI-powered MRI-imaging machine at a fraction of the cost, weight, and size of existing systems. This technical revolution is made possible through a new antenna technology and its AI-controlled operation. Through their proprietary technology, DeepSpin aims to make MRI the imaging standard of care in a myriad of previously inaccessible medical domains.
deepspin.ioDiadem Biotherapeutics
Diadem Biotherapeutics (Diadem) engineers signalling proteins to display on the surface of cell-derived vesicles (exosomes) to treat cancer, chronic inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. Diadem’s engineered exosomes mimic natural cell signaling in an agonist (activating) manner through clinically validated immune checkpoint receptors that play a role in autoimmune diseases or immune control of cancer.
diadembio.comExogene
Exogene is a biotechnology startup accelerating the discovery of T-cell-receptor- (TCR-) based cell therapies for otherwise untreatable solid tumours. They are building a machine learning platform to comprehensively screen TCRs from tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) derived from cancer patients to rapidly find new cancer targets and target-specific TCRs for therapeutic application. Using novel wet-lab TCR-screening technologies (yeast display combined with mammalian display), Exogene is able to generate data for their machine learning platform in-house by screening billions of TCR-target interactions.
exogene.co.ukFIGUR8
The FIGUR8 technology platform is a versatile set of sensors designed to shift point-of-care musculoskeletal (MSK) diagnostic feedback from the clinic to the home. The platform is the first and only solution for testing the severity and tracking the recovery of MSK injuries via lightweight, low-profile, on-body sensors. FIGUR8 provides an interface that links clinicians to their clients with the precise information and data that enables the full cycle of telemedicine, coupling at-home diagnostics with rehabilitation exercises.
figur8tech.comGoldfinch Health
Goldfinch Health is a surgery- and recovery-focused tech-enabled service to benefit employers and insurance companies. The service provides patients with deep clinical advocacy at all stages of surgery, resulting in a faster recovery from surgery and a dramatic reduction of opioid use.
goldfinchhealth.comGuideStar Medical Devices
GuideStar Medical Devices (GuideStar) has developed a medical device that prevents dural punctures. The device attaches to epidural needles and automatically stops the needle movement upon detecting the epidural space.
guidestarmd.comHeart Input Output
HeartIO is a cloud software company allowing hospital doctors to non-invasively detect the presence and severity of coronary artery disease at the point of care. The platform uses data from common hospital equipment that monitors heart rhythm (12-lead ECG) and a machine learning algorithm built on a database of 10 million patients to accurately predict the risk of coronary artery disease in seconds instead of days.
heartio.aiHyivy Health
Hyivy Health is a medical device and digital health company developing a device for pelvic floor rehabilitation. Their first product is a vaginal wand that measures the vital signs of the pelvic floor (sensation, healthy tissue, muscle control, lubrication, and incontinence) and delivers therapy to improve the strength and function of the muscles, reduce scar tissue, and promote natural lubrication. Their mobile application records real-time data on the pelvic floor, shares the data virtually with doctors, and tracks patient progress over time.
hyivy.comJuvena Therapeutics
Juvena Therapeutics discovers and develops protein-based therapeutics that promote tissue regeneration to specifically target muscle regeneration, sarcopenia, and other rare degenerative muscle diseases. The machine-learning-enhanced discovery platform efficiently identifies lead candidates through proteomics and high-throughput screening for restored cell function to optimize for preclinical development.
.juvenatherapeutics.comLabrador Systems
Labrador Systems (Labrador) designs and develops a new generation of assistive robots for use in homes and care settings that physically bring needed items within reach. This is made possible by fusing robotics, consumer electronics, and augmented reality (AR) to achieve the performance of commercial robots at one-tenth the cost.
labradorsystems.comLiberum Biotech
Liberum Biotech built a benchtop device that combines electronics, microfluidics, and cell-free biology to enable low-cost, programmable, on-demand manufacturing of proteins. This platform can produce small (~1mg) doses of purified proteins 10 times faster than conventional methods (hours instead of days). The proteins can be of various sizes and biological activities, and can include certain post-translational modifications. The target market(s) are academic labs, pharmaceutical companies, industrial biotech firms, and contract research organizations.
liberumbio.comLightspeed Microscopy
Lightspeed Microscopy sells a service that prepares tissue samples, images them in three dimensions (3Ds), and analyzes the resulting data. Due to its design, their high-throughput microscopy platform can image samples 10 times larger than what’s possible with existing solutions and with fewer errors compared to two-dimensional (2D) methods. With Lightspeed, biopsy results are ready in minutes, not days, without destroying possibly rare, difficult, or expensive-to-generate samples.
lightspeedbio.comMindTrace
MindTrace is a medical software company developing personalized 3D brain maps to guide neurosurgeries. One of the challenges for surgeons removing brain tumours is to remove as many tumours as possible without damaging the nearby healthy tissue, which can cause cognitive damage. MindTrace pairs 3D brain maps with machine learning algorithms to simulate surgical resection plans and allow surgeons to predict their patient’s cognitive outcome—all before the first incision.
mindtrace.comModality.AI
Modality.AI developed a software, Nina, to screen and monitor ALS, Parkinson’s, depression, and other neurological and psychiatric conditions. Nina is a conversational remote patient-monitoring software that captures speech and facial responses by a standard webcam and mic. In real time, Modality.AI’s computer vision and machine learning algorithm extract the information clinicians need to evaluate disease state and progression.
hello.modality.aiNanochon
Nanochon is a biotechnology company producing a novel 3D-printed material that replaces lost and damaged cartilage and encourages new tissue growth to treat joint-related issues due to injuries and osteoarthritis. This material will increase the accessibility of treating knee damage and improve outcomes by temporarily replacing cartilage while encouraging the regrowth of natural cartilage.
nanochon.comNavega Therapeutics
Navega is a preclinical company developing a gene therapy that is injected into the patient’s spine. This results in a protein binding to and turning off one place in the genome; this is the same place that is mutated in the genome of humans that feel no pain. Our technology achieves this in a way that is non-permanent and more specific than other approaches by delivering CRISPR/dCas9 or zinc-fingers fused to a repressor via adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to target epigenetic repression of NaV1.7.
navegatx.comNia Therapeutics
Nia Therapeutics is developing a brain-stimulation device to treat memory loss. Nia is initially targeting patients with traumatic brain injuries and plans to target neurodegenerative diseases, both of which cause memory loss that is currently untreatable.
niatherapeutics.comNeurolytic Healthcare Ltd.
Neurolytic Healthcare collects and extracts insights from a combination of genetic and biomarker data to enhance diagnosis and help clinicians decide on optimal treatment strategies for neurological conditions. Initially, the venture is leveraging the combination of genomics, digital biomarkers, and AI to identify the best drug treatment from many available options for migraine.
neurolytic-healthcare.comNostos Genomics
Nostos Genomics has developed a platform that combines machine learning with synthetic biology to identify genetic mutations that cause health problems, offering a SaaS for medical labs to diagnose more genetic disorders. Genetic-mutation analysis for diagnostics is currently done manually, with an analyst spending hours investigating a patient’s genetic mutations. Nostos Genomics is automating this process by combining interpretable ML and data generation with synthetic-biology approaches to accurately identify molecular alterations causing genetic diseases to diagnose more patients faster.
nostos-genomics.comOKKO Health
OKKO builds smartphone-gamified software that allows individuals to measure their vision accurately at home. For patients with most eye diseases, including diabetic eye disease and macular degeneration, this means that eye health can be tracked between in-person clinic visits. For eye specialists, it means that tele-ophthalmology is now possible. With three-minute weekly monitoring, OKKO’s home-monitoring technology aims to reduce in-person follow-ups by 50 percent, ensuring eye patients go to the hospital and are seen at the right time. OKKO’s app is currently available on iOS, and the venture is working to release an Android version in 2021.
okkohealth.comOrganoTherapeutics
OrganoTherapeutics is a drug development company that has pioneered the development of patient-specific midbrain organoids, which are miniaturized, simplified versions of the human brain developed in the lab. There are currently no truly curative treatments for Parkinson’s disease available and no complete, patient-specific midbrain organoids for developing treatments. Using their “mini-brain” technology, OrganoTherapeutics has developed new small-molecule compounds that target neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease and can be used to develop other neurodegenerative treatments.
organo-therapeutics.comOxford Immune Algorithmics
Oxford Immune Algorithmics (OIA) has developed hardware and software (Algocyte) that enables clinical blood tests to be done from home. Using a finger prick, a patient can load their blood onto a cartridge and insert it into the mobile health reader. The results are then uploaded to the cloud, where they are analyzed by OIA’s proprietary AI system, enabling the doctor to monitor the patient’s results. In the context of COVID-19, this platform is of particular importance to vulnerable patients who cannot or do not want to go to hospital.
oxfordimmunealgorithmics.co.ukParadox Immunotherapeutics
Paradox Immunotherapeutics is a pharmaceutical company developing immunotherapies for diseases caused by misfolding of proteins (defects in protein structure). The company’s lead product, LX-96, is an antibody to treat organ failure caused by Amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis—a disease caused by protein misfolding, where the defective proteins clog organs, particularly the heart and kidneys. LX-96 specifically targets the diseased proteins that are deposited in organs, while leaving the healthy forms of these proteins untouched.
PathKeeper Surgical
PathKeeper Surgical has developed a purpose-built, novel spine navigation system for spinal surgeries using AI and proprietary 3D-camera technology. The aim of spinal procedures is to place a screw in the pedicle, which requires mm-level accuracy. The spinal surgery market is rapidly growing, yet spine surgery success rates can be as low as 70 percent due to the lack of real-time navigation. PathKeeper’s system offers real-time tracking of both patient anatomy and surgical tools with sub-millimetre accuracy—5 to 10 times the accuracy of the best competitor system.
path-keeper.comQV Bioelectronics Ltd.
QV Bioelectronics is developing an implanted electrotherapy device to increase the life expectancy of patients with glioblastoma, the most common primary brain cancer. Electrotherapy is an approved treatment that has been able to extend patient survival, but only with cumbersome and heavy externally applied devices. QV’s device is implanted during tumour-removal surgery to deliver the electrical fields continuously and focally to the site of the cancer cells, delivering improved survival outcomes with better patient quality of life.
qvbio.co.ukRehabtronics
Rehabtronics’ medical device prevents pressure injuries (PIs), one of the most common hospital-acquired complications (40 percent of hospital patients are at-risk). Their patented product (Prelivia) reduces PI damage by 80 percent by stimulating local blood circulation and tissue perfusion. It is the only solution that directly treats the underlying cause (ischemia) of PIs.
rehabtronics.comSustained Therapeutics
Sustained Therapeutics’ platform technology enables the production of sustained-release formulations of generic drugs. Preliminary data from the lead candidate (ST-01)—from completed Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of chronic scrotal pain—has demonstrated sustained pain relief over a period of up to four weeks with a single injection.
Swiftsure Innovations
Swiftsure Innovations has designed the Complete Care Endotracheal Tube (CCET), a medical device that allows for large-volume nasal and oral irrigation of patients on life support, without the risk of aspiration or tissue injury. By reducing the bacterial and viral load in the mouth and nose, the CCET aims to reduce secondary bacterial pneumonia rates in critically ill COVID-19 patients.
SynchroPET
SynchroPET has developed a miniaturized PET scanner (medical imaging device that measures radiotracer in the body) that retrofits existing medical imaging devices such as MRI or other traditional PET. In patients with cancer, for example, SynchroPET helps assess the proportion of the radiotracer absorbed by the cancerous tumours and the rest of the body over multiple scans. By assessing the change in absorption by not only the tumour but also the rest of the body over time, radiologists are able to diagnose the size of the tumour with more precision than from existing methods.
synchropet.comTag.bio
Tag.bio sells Software as a Service (SaaS) to interactively analyze healthcare and life sciences data. The company’s proprietary platform—which includes a data mesh architecture, extensible analytical pipelines, and a collaborative, interactive interface—connects disparate sources of data together to enable medical experts, IT organizations, and data scientists to analyze their own data.
tag.bioTotal Flow Cannula
Total Flow Cannula is a novel, specialized tubing (cannula) that ensures blood flow to a patient’s leg during extracorporeal circulation procedures (use of heart-lung machine). The new design enables surgeons to pursue preventive treatment or implement an immediate rescue strategy without additional devices or surgical procedures.
Trutino Biosciences
Trutino Biosciences (Truitino) designs and manufactures (cytokine) proteins that make current cancer treatments more effective and less toxic by activating the patient’s own immune system specifically at the tumour site. Proof-of-concept data demonstrates the method is safe and effective in mice because the molecules are inactive until they reach the tumour, where they become activated and stimulate the patient’s immune system to fight the cancer. The company’s product may also enable existing therapies to treat previously untreatable tumours.
trutinobio.comUnravel Biosciences
Unravel Biosciences has developed a vertically integrated computational platform to improve drug discovery. Instead of classic pharma, which takes a target of interest and develops drugs to bind that specific target, Unravel’s platform screens many drugs in parallel for their real-world impact (e.g., the complete gene expression profiles and resulting physiological changes), reversing this process to identify the likely target(s) a drug is interacting with. Unravel’s integrated system, a combination of cell culture, a scalable CRISPR-based disease model (tadpoles), and proprietary computational software, transforms the linear process of drug discovery into an iterative loop where the outputs are continually refined.
ViroCarb
ViroCarb is a pharmaceutical company developing antiviral drugs. They have discovered a new class of small molecules that inhibit the replication of pathogenic viruses by targeting the host (e.g., humans) cell functions used by pathogenic viruses to grow and multiply. ViroCarb’s preclinical drug candidate, GPS-491, has shown to block the replication of multiple viral families, including HIV, adenoviruses, and coronaviruses in human cells.
virocarb.comSolid, smart, engaged team from our interactions this session and last session. Very interesting product which seems to have great potential to innovate in a vastly underserved and important market.