The Climate for Early-Stage Life Sciences Startups—And 12 Companies Seeking Weather-Proof Investors

Unnamed company (Boston College)
Michael J. Naughton, professor
[email protected]

“This is a retinal implant technology that could dramatically improve vision in patients suffering from incurable retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).”

Cadrus Therapeutics (UMass Medical School)
David Easson, president
[email protected]

“Cadrus Therapeutics, Inc is developing an innovative, receptor mediated, drug delivery technology to enable oral delivery of many of today’s injectable-drug products.”

gRadiant Research
Kathleen McMillan, president
[email protected]

“gRadient is developing a device for precisely controlled thermal therapy as a safer, less costly, and painless alternative to tonsillectomy in children and adults.”

Immuneering Corporation (MIT/Harvard University)
Benjamin Zeskind, founder and CEO
[email protected]

“Immuneering is developing groundbreaking patient stratification technology to pre-identify patients who will respond to specific therapies.”

Lumos Catheter Systems (Children’s Hospital Boston)
Farhad Imam, president, CMO
[email protected]

“Lumos Catheter Systems has developed a simple solution to enable real-time visualization of invasive catheters…during insertion procedures to reduce the risk of misplacements.”

Unnamed company (McClean Hospital)
Miles Cunningham, laboratory director
[email protected]

Technology 1: “The Intracerebral Microinjection Instrument (IMI) is the only neurosurgical device that has a minimized delivery cannula diameter and allows dissemination of medicine from a single proximal brain penetration…”

Technology 2: “Convection Enhanced Delivery (CED) is the continuous injection into the brain under positive pressure of a fluid therapeutic.”

Moma Therapeutics
Daniel Katzman, CEO
[email protected]

“Moma develops therapies for regenerative medicine employing injectable gel-based scaffolds designed to reprogram the function of cells in vivo and promote tissue regeneration.”

Orbital Therapy
Jason Koshnitsky, CEO
[email protected]

” Orbital Therapy…is developing a dedicated self-shielded radiation therapy device for the treatment of breast cancer.”

Robopsy (MGH/MIT)
Rajiv Gupta, MGH laboratory director
[email protected]

“Our mission is to devlop a suite of image-guided, patient-friendly electromechanical tools that allows for more accurate diagnosis and treatment of disease.”

Unnamed company (UMass Medical School)
Alexander B. Sigalov, research assistant professor
[email protected]

“Our technology, which is based on our novel model of immune signaling…prevents communication via the cell membrane between the receptor and its associated signaling proteins…thereby enabling small molecules and doses.”

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.