Year: 2018

This R&D work will change the way that autonomous vehicles plan their motions, particularly in challenging urban driving scenarios.  Realtime Robotics is working on a special-purpose computer processor that can plan thousands of times faster than existing solutions, and this speed will enable it to make many plans at a time, each of which considers a different possible set of behaviors from the other agents—cars, bicycles, pedestrians—in the environment.  This technology will enable risk-aware, normal speed driving, which is critical for widespread adoption by the general public.

“The National Science Foundation supports small businesses with the most innovative, cutting-edge ideas that have the potential to become great commercial successes and make huge societal impacts,” said Barry Johnson, Director of the NSF’s Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships. “We hope that this seed funding will spark solutions to some of the most important challenges of our time across all areas of science and technology.”

As explained by Peter Howard, CEO of Boston-based Realtime Robotics, “The new technology is a game-changer for autonomous vehicles, which currently look impressive on the freeway, but drive slowly and haltingly in urban environments.  Our technology will make autonomous cars drive like humans—in that they drive at normal speeds and plan for unpredictable behaviors—just much better.  Computer processors don’t get distracted by their phones or drowsy after long hours of driving.”

Once a small business is awarded a Phase I SBIR/STTR grant (up to $225,000), it becomes eligible to apply for a Phase II grant (up to $750,000). Small businesses with Phase II grants are eligible to receive up to $500,000 in additional matching funds with qualifying third-party investment or sales.

NSF accepts Phase I proposals from small businesses twice annually in June and December. Small businesses with innovative science and technology solutions, and commercial potential are encouraged to apply. All proposals submitted to the NSF SBIR/STTR program undergo a rigorous merit-based review process.

To learn more about America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, visit: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/

The company has been advancing a hernia mesh with enhanced anchoring strength to resist wounds from gapping and bursting open, as well as a suture anchoring device to overcome large suture knots associated with wide sutures. In separate efforts, Dr. Levinson is working on additional translational projects including an anti-biofouling Foley catheter, a non-invasive light imaging technology to diagnose skin disorders, and tissue-engineered skin that resists contraction.

“I have worked closely with Duke OLV to protect intellectual property, navigate entrepreneurial activities, and to raise non-dilutive grant funds to advance ideas. Duke OLV’s support has been critical to our success and is a clear distinguishing factor between Duke University and its existing peer institutes.” –Howard Levinson, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, School of Medicine

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapies for orphan diseases, with an initial focus on cardiopulmonary disorders, today announced the completion of a $34 million Series D financing, including the conversion of existing convertible promissory notes.

New investors in the financing include Cormorant Asset Management, Rock Springs Capital and Mountain Group Partners. Existing investors New Enterprise Associates, Hatteras Venture Partners, AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Syno Capital and Fletcher Spaght Ventures also participated in the financing.

“PhaseBio has the potential to bring life-saving therapies to patients with orphan cardiopulmonary diseases. PB2452 addresses a growing unmet medical need for patients on ticagrelor who are experiencing a major bleeding event or who need urgent surgery,” said Clay B. Thorp, Executive Chairman of PhaseBio and General Partner of Hatteras Venture Partners. “In addition, with PB1046 and future product candidates based on our elastin-like polypeptide (“ELP”) technology, PhaseBio has the potential to build a significant pipeline in the orphan disease space.”

PhaseBio plans to use the proceeds from the Series D financing to advance the clinical development of its lead product candidate PB2452. PB2452 is a potentially first-in-class reversal agent for the antiplatelet drug ticagrelor that is being developed for the treatment of patients on ticagrelor who are experiencing a major bleeding event or who require urgent surgery, and is currently in a Phase 1 proof of concept study. Additionally, the company plans to initiate a Phase 2 clinical study of its ELP-based therapy PB1046 in pulmonary arterial hypertension (“PAH”) in the third quarter of 2018 and to explore additional indications for its half-life extending ELP technology platform.

“We are encouraged by the enthusiasm of our new and existing investors for the potential of our clinical programs and our proprietary ELP technology platform,” said Jonathan P. Mow, Chief Executive Officer of PhaseBio. “We look forward to the readout of data from the Phase 1 study of PB2452, exploring partnership opportunities for our drug products outside of the U.S. and dosing patients in the Phase 2 study of our second product candidate, PB1046, in patients with PAH shortly. In addition, we plan to continue to leverage our ELP technology to expand our development pipeline.”

Just this past February, PhaseBio was awarded a $2.8 million Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the clinical development of PB1046, a first-in-class, sustained-release vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) analogue, in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

This investment is added to the $75,000 in Series C preferred stock financing secured in March.  Prior to Fresenius, the company had received more than $405 million in total funding to date, with more than $365 million in private investments and awards of up to $40 million through federal and state grants and contracts.

Humacyte was founded by former Duke professor Laura Niklason and includes Duke alums Shannon Dahl and Juliana Blum. A target goal of the company has been to create lifesaving and long-lasting vascular access or replacement for patients with End Stage Renal Disease.

HUMACYL is an investigational product that has not yet been approved by the FDA. However, clinical trials to date suggest that HUMACYL has the potential to become a part of the body’s living tissue. These trials also suggest that HUMACYL may have the potential to last longer with fewer complications than existing synthetic alternatives used for hemodialysis access, possibly lowering healthcare costs by decreasing the number of surgical interventions.

About Humacyte

Humacyte, Inc., a privately held company founded by Dr. Laura E. Niklason, M.D., Ph.D., in 2004, is a medical research, discovery and development company with clinical and pre-clinical stage investigational products. Humacyte is primarily focused on developing and commercializing a proprietary novel technology based on human tissue-based products for key applications in regenerative medicine and vascular surgery. The company uses its innovative, proprietary platform technology to engineer human, extracellular matrix-based tissues that can be shaped into tubes, sheets, or particulate conformations, with properties similar to native tissues. These are being developed for potential use in many specific applications, with the goal to significantly improve treatment outcomes for many patients, including those with vascular disease and those requiring hemodialysis. The company’s proprietary technologies are designed to create off-the-shelf products that, once approved, can be utilized in any patient.

Grid is based on the innovative science developed by Edward F. Patz, Jr., MD and his team at Duke University. Grid is currently developing its lead candidate for the treatment of solid tumors and plans to begin clinical trials in cancer patients in early 2019.

“We are pleased to sign this exclusive license agreement with Duke to advance this truly innovative science into clinical trials and begin evaluating the therapeutic treatment options for multiple forms of cancer,” said Dr. Paolo Paoletti, on Business Wire.  Dr. Paoletti is a Grid Board member and CEO of GammaDelta Therapeutics. “This agreement allows Grid to rapidly develop a new generation of cancer immunotherapies based on a human-derived antibody that inhibits CFH, a protein that serves to protect cancer cells.” As part of the license agreement, Duke University has become a shareholder in Grid.

This past April, Grid closed on Series B Financing.  They used this money to accelerate and expand the development of their lead therapeutic candidate, GT103, for the treatment of solid tumors, and to prepare for clinical trials starting early next year.

The basis for the Element Genomics platform is the comprehensive mapping of gene function and regulation. This includes technology developed at Duke using the CRISPR/Cas9 platform, a genetic editing technique that allows researchers to make changes to targeted sequences of DNA. Typically, researchers will use the platform to make specific, permanent edits to a genome by cutting the DNA. But rather than permanently change the DNA sequence, Element Genomics’ technology alters how a portion of the DNA is regulated, allowing them to study how genes and pathways of interest interact by turning the targeted sections of the genome on or off.

“We were using these tools to characterize the non-coding genome, which includes the 98 percent of the human genome. We don’t really understand how most of it works, but it is clear that it plays a large role in drug response and disease susceptibility,” said Gersbach. “We were developing tools for perturbing that portion of the genome, and that opened up a whole new class of drug targets for common diseases. We quickly realized the technology was something that could go beyond our academic lab.”

In August of 2015, Gersbach and his colleagues approached Barry Myers in the Duke-Coulter Translational Partnership, which had supported Gersbach’s research at Duke, for help to form a start-up. The team received further support from John Oxaal, who was then working as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Duke BME. Oxaal, an alumnus of Duke Engineering and a serial entrepreneur himself, worked with the team to finalize licenses and find space in an incubator in Durham, and currently serves as CEO of the company.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Cereius is working on solutions to solid tumor brain metastasis developed from cancer cells growing in other parts of the body, such as breast cancer.  30% of advanced solid tumor patients developing brain metastasis represents between 100,000-170,000 patients/year in the US.