This is part 2 of Big4Bio’s coverage of the 44 early and seed stage companies that presented at this year’s Start-up Stadium held during the BIO 2022 conference in San Diego.
By Cassie Arnold
Part 1 of Big4Bio’s coverage of the Start-up Stadium at BIO 2022 covered the criteria and process for all of the participating companies, and now Bernard Fallon, Managing Director, Industry Research, Investor Outreach, and Education at BIO reached out to us since the conference with an update: In addition to a complementary one-year BIO membership, a feature on the BIO blog and a free registration to BIO 2023, the winner of the competition will also be fast-tracked for the Illumina Accelerator. Fast-tracked applications are guaranteed an interview, nominated into the final selection phase for a $10,000 sequencing grant and will receive a one-hour coaching session from the Illumina Accelerator team.
Also, for companies interested in participating in next year’s Start-Up Stadium, Fallon explains that “applications will open in January 2023, for the next Start-Up Stadium at the BIO International Convention to be held in Boston, Massachusetts, from June 5-8, 2023. BIO will post details on the free application process at https://bio.org/convention before the end of this year. Start-up companies pursuing biotechnology-based therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, platform technologies, or digital health therapies that have raised less than $10M will be eligible to apply and submit non-confidential pitch decks for review.”
As far as this year’s competition, there were 17 companies from Big4Bio regions participating in the competition this year. The winner of this year’s competition as well as the highest scoring seed stage company will be announced via a BIO press release and web post to bio.org/convention during the week of July 17, 2022. Below is a quick summary of each company with links to more information about each one.
Boston
Limax Biosciences – A Wyss Institute at Harvard spin-out has developed a degradable hydrogen-based material with strong adhesive properties.
NeuroDex, Inc. – A brain liquid biopsy company with a blood based, cell-specific exosome isolation technology.
San Diego
Myogen Bio – A biotech is developing new therapies to treat muscle diseases
Nano Pharmasolutions – A platform company with a technology improves the bioavailability of drugs through its scalable nanotechnology.
Coastar Therapeutics – A San Diego-based company focused on biological payload delivery technology for cancer and gene therapies.
Navega Therapeutics – A company harnessing the precision of CRISPR and zinc finger epigenome regulation to enable nex-gen gene therapies.
Greater Philadelphia
Ophidion – A Bethlehem-based therapeutic company with a pipeline of products to treat neurodegenerative diseases.
EpiVario — A preclinical stage biotech company focused on developing treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders. Its lead candidate is a pharmacotherapeutic to treat nicotine addiction.
San Francisco Bay Area (more on Bay Area participants)
Avida Biomed – A molecular diagnostics company using epigenetics analysis of cfDNA-based liquid biopsy.
Medic Life Sciences – A Mountain View-based biotech company developing novel oncology therapeutics for solid tumors.
TRIO Pharmaceuticals – A platform company that has a technology to enhance anti-tumor immunity.
Next Vivo – A company is developing an immune organoid platform that it says has the potential to transform drug development.
Halo Biosciences – A clinical stage biotech company is setting out to redefine the treatment of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.
Centivax – A therapeutics company that aims to develop treatments and cures to reduce or eradicate complex pathogens,
Santa Maria Labs – An early-stage company investigating, developing and trialing new devices and therapeutics aimed at restoring hearing.
Crista Biologics – A seed-stage company using mitochondria-rich extracellular vesicles to restore the energy metabolism of failing hearts.
AcureX Therapeutics – A pharmaceutical company with the goal of halting neurodegenerative diseases driven by impaired mitophagy, starting with Parkinson’s disease.