Venture Victories is a regularly published roundup from VCU TechTransfer and Ventures that highlights recent successes from startups created from VCU intellectual property.
At-home calcium testing device could have wide-ranging impact in health care
A new innovation from VCU Department of Chemistry associate professor Xuewei Wang, Ph.D. is moving toward commercialization with the help of Richmond-based startup Tralyte Health.
With Wang's science, the company is developing a portable device designed to allow people living with the rare hypoparathyroidism to measure calcium levels at home using a small fingerstick blood sample — delivering results in about 15 minutes and potentially reducing the need for frequent lab visits. The condition causes fluctuations in calcium levels that trigger muscle spasms, neurological symptoms and emergency room visits. Frequent calcium testing is essential, but most patients rely on laboratory blood draws — and thus, delayed results.
The technology may also serve as a broader platform for monitoring other electrolytes and biomarkers, opening possibilities for new approaches to managing conditions such as kidney disease, heart failure and more.
Air Force awards $1.8M to VCU startup to advance development of drug treating massive blood loss
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University could soon launch a clinical trial to test an intravenous solution that its inventor, a School of Medicine physiologist and surgery professor, says might treat massive blood loss in trauma patients.
Perfusion Medical Inc., a VCU startup working to commercialize the drug called PM-208, has received $1.8 million from the U.S. Air Force that moves the company a step closer to starting clinical trials.
“For a person who is bleeding out, PM-208 may take survival time from minutes to a day or more,” said Martin J. Mangino, Ph.D., a professor of surgery and of physiology and biophysics in the School of Medicine.
With VCU licenses, Minnesota biotech secures funding as it moves toward commercialization of lung cancer, pneumothorax treatments
Quench Medical, a Minnesota biotechnology company that has licensed aerosol technologies from two VCU researchers continues to secure federal grants as it moves closer to commercialization. The company is developing inhaled aerosol therapies to treat both lung cancer and lung leaks (pneumothorax).
Quench’s IP comes from a 16-year research partnership into aerosol-based therapies with the VCU School of Pharmacy’s Michael Hindle, Ph.D. and the VCU College of Engineering’s P. Worth Longest, Ph.D. VCU TechTransfer and Ventures worked with Hindle and Longest to license some of their IP to Quench in 2022. “This collaboration is a perfect example of the power of bridging academia and industry together with the promise of improving patient outcomes and revolutionizing healthcare delivery,” says Brittaney Ritchie, VCU TechTransfer and Ventures’ medical devices licensing manager.
Blood-loss and critical illness drug startup gets $2.9 million on path to human studies
A startup to stop hemorrhagic shock and treat cardiac and other critical illnesses has a new infusion of capital on its road to the first tests in humans.
Perfusion Medical this fall was awarded a $2.9 million grant from the Defense Health Agency. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding will enable the company to complete pre-clinical studies and submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA for its drug candidate, called PM-208 (developed under the name PEG-20k). The solution was invented by a team led by Martin J. Mangino, Ph.D., a professor of surgery, physiology and biophysics in the Department of Surgery at the VCU School of Medicine.
VCU muscle-loss startup picks up funding for “scaffolding” tech
A VCU biomedical engineer is on a mission to better repair muscle injuries, and today has a bit more funding to help him achieve it.
Michael McClure, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, was this summer awarded $75,000 by the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. to pursue a new method of repairing muscle loss and tears. His intellectual property is also the basis of a startup, Sarcogenics.
By the way: McClure’s company, Sarcogenics, is related to the term sarcopenia, the progressive loss of muscle due to age. Age plays a significant role in injury severity and a role in surgical success.In rotator cuff surgeries in particular, almost 50% of surgeries re-tear within a 12-month period. Part of the goal of the research team’s scaffolding material is to improve surgical success in patients with advanced age.
Federal grant will help VCU researchers build forensics business to serve national crime labs
A VCU startup that is developing technologies to improve forensic investigations has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation.
The $270,578 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award to Rapid Forensic Cell Typing will help the company develop technology that can analyze “non-genetic attributes” of cells within forensic evidence, explains VCU researcher Christopher Ehrhardt, Ph.D., a co-investigator on the project and professor in the Department of Forensic Science at the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences.
Minnesota biotech using VCU IP secures federal funds
Minnesota-based company Quench Medical, which has licensed aerosol technologies from two VCU researchers, secured $2 million in federal grants for the continued development of an inhaled therapy for lung cancer.
Air Force issues awards to VCU-backed shock therapeutic startup Perfusion Medical
The U.S. Air Force’s venture capital and innovation arm, AFWERX, has awarded two grants to a Herndon and Richmond, Virginia - based startup using technology developed by VCU researchers.
VCU VR startup focused on mental health intervention gets NIMH award
A VCU startup exploring virtual reality to treat mental health in kids who are at risk of behavioral disorders received $275,000 this spring from the National Institute of Mental Health.
'A windowless room with colorful views' — see how TechTransfer and Ventures licensing manager Brent Fagg is working with Thomson to bring the researcher's laboratory to life, care of Batman, Mario, and other characters.
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