Please join us for the fourth annual LabCentral Ignite Golden Ticket Pitch Event, designed to support diverse, underrepresented biotech entrepreneurs who are using innovative science to solve problems in human health. During this event, attendees will hear eleven diverse biotech entrepreneurs present their science to an esteemed selection committee. Six LabCentral Ignite Golden Tickets will be awarded, three to companies with a founder who identifies as a woman and three to companies with a founder who identifies as Black, Latinx, Indigenous or a person of color.
Winners will receive a $50,000 credit towards space available at LabCentral's flagship site in Kendall Square, a $13,000 cash prize, and exclusive access to our network and resources as a LabCentral Ignite Fellow.
2024 LabCentral Ignite Golden Ticket Finalists
CircNova
CircNova is a biotechnology company that leverages unique AI NovaEngineTM to be able to generate, analyze, and identify circular RNA. This technology can assist in the development of therapeutic RNA to treat undrugged diseases. Moreover, the combination of these 2 technologies expands the potential of RNA therapeutics into the AI era, leading to focuses on specific cancer types
Genesist
GENESIST is a biotech startup pioneering gene therapy solutions to combat the leading cause of mortality in cancer patients: cancer metastasis. They are starting with a CRISPR-based gene therapy to prevent and control metastasis in breast cancer. With their unique evolutionary biology-based approach and novel mechanism of action, they propose a unique clinical value to the patients to complement the treatment plan and minimize adjuvant therapy.
Interon Laboratories, inc.
Interon is pioneering immunotherapy for the brain. Interon is harnessing the neuro-immune axis to develop novel therapeutics for Autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder for which no therapeutics are yet available. Interon's platform technology is versatile and can be applied to the development of treatments for other neurological disorders and inflammatory diseases.
Nanoplex, LLC
Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in Europe and the U.S. According to the CDC (2021), there are approximately 500,000 cases of LD, which is the largest TBD threat in Europe and North America, with ~500K cases/year in the US alone while costing the US healthcare system ~$1B/year (Hook et al, 2022). Therefore, instead of developing therapeutic interventions that target a single TBD, they are taking a unique approach to preventing the spread of all TBDs by disrupting tick-feeding physiology. Nanoplex, LLC is pioneering a novel approach to prevent the spread of all TBDs by developing a first-in-class topical solution that prevents tick attachment cement adhesion to the skin, a tick-secreted bioadhesive required for tick feeding and disease transmission, preventing the spread of all TBDS to humans and animals. Their vision is to create an entirely new market specific for ticks, with products that serve diverse market segments, including outdoor enthusiasts, pet owners, livestock farmers, and military defense.
PhagePro, P.B.C.
Phages are safe bactericidal agents that have been used for over 100 years in Eastern Europe to treat infections. PhagePro's oral 3-phage cocktail ProphaLytic-Vc (PVC) is specifically targeted against cholera and will kill bacteria in the body immediately to provide protection within hours. PVC is formulated as self-administered capsules that do not need refrigeration. Importantly, PVC does not contribute to ongoing antibiotic resistance due to its specific nature. PVC thus provides fast-acting, targeted, and convenient protection against cholera, potentially transforming outbreak response for governments and health organizations.
Coagulo Medical Technologies, Inc.
Coagulo is transforming medicine with the first portable and connected precision-medicine platform for smarter management of coagulation, enabling better healthcare outcomes for everyone. They do this by combining an entirely new set of patent-pending coagulation assays, cutting-edge microfluidic technology and proprietary data analytics and digital connectivity. Coagulo's new point-of-care testing platform is the first of its kind to deliver accessible and personalized diagnosis and management of all coagulation-related diseases.
DaCapo Brainscience
DaCapo Brainscience is a seed-stage company tackling progression in neurodegenerative disease. They have established a platform for target and drug discovery that addresses this directly. This platform combines two areas of unique expertise to enable them to find progression-related targets: Pioneering CNS stem-cell models that recapitulate "progression" in vitro to both select targets and drive drug discovery.This approach is patient-centric; discovery begins with human data. They have unique strengths and an initial focus on Parkinson's disease with an opportunity to apply the platform to other neurodegenerative diseases over time.
DoriNano
DoriNano aims to develop safe, effective, and low-cost combination immunotherapies for serious diseases. The foundational technology is DNA origami nanoparticles (NP) that have precise cellular targeting with Minimal Effective Doses of cargo. The platform is designed to solve the past limitations of nanoparticles used for delivering therapeutic cargo. The key advantages are their programmable size and shape, precise nanospacing/stoichiometry controls, versatile cargo delivery, and safe and stable formulations. There is no other NP that can be so versatile. While the ambition for the company is to have a broad pipeline to address autoimmunity, gene therapy, and infectious diseases, among others, the primary focus for the first-in-human study will be a combination cancer vaccine to treat patients with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC).
Lybra Bio
Lybra Bio is an MIT/Harvard spin out transforming the treatment landscape of autoimmune skin diseases (ASD). Using a novel therapeutic platform combining proprietary, clinically-validated cytokines loaded into an enabling microneedle patch, Lybra Bio's platform addresses in a non-invasive way the root cause of ASD, the loss of immune balance in the skin, and more specifically, the deficiency of regulatory T cells (Tregs). As opposed to the standard-of-care (broad immunosuppression), the dual innovation in Lybra Bio's approach improves (1) the therapeutic strategy by focusing on the regulatory arm of the immune system and (2) the delivery route (transdermal instead of systemic), offering long-term efficacy and eliminating systemic off-target effects, starting with focal Alopecia Areata as our market-entry program, a chronic ASD manifesting with hair loss and affecting more than 6M in the United States.
Matrisome Bio
Matrisome Bio is a targeted therapy platform developing tools to treat chronic diseases like tumors and fibrosis by leveraging a new target—the disease-associated extracellular matrix (collectively known as the Matrisome), a meshwork of proteins that surrounds all cells of the body. Initially focused on oncology, we are developing ECM-specific nanobodies for the targeted delivery of therapeutic payloads to tumors and metastases.
Neoclease
Neoclease is redefining gene editing with custom nucleases, each designed for a specific gene of interest. Leveraging our proprietary generative AI pipeline, our novel editors are enhanced for specificity, efficacy, and targeted delivery, ushering in a new era of precision genetic medicines.
Agenda
LabCentral Ignite is a first-and-only-of-its-kind platform that’s addressing systemic racial, gender and other underrepresentation in talent across the life sciences and the biotech industry – from labs to leadership, and from the STEM student pipeline to the entrepreneurs advancing life-changing innovations.
Through a range of equity-driven programs and a powerful member network of industry partners, startups, higher education, and nonprofits, Ignite connects underrepresented students and innovators to academic, technical skills-building, mentoring, job placement, and board and leadership preparation opportunities that fuel biotech diversity and transform careers.
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