START-UPS
2012
profiles
START-UPS Founded with Licensed UCSD Technology
185
number of start-ups formed
since FY-1988, founded with
licensed university technology
149
number of start-ups, since
FY-1988, founded in the
state of California
122
number of start-ups, since
FY-1988, founded in the
county of San Diego
An increasingly important component in transferring university research into the marketplace is the formation of new start-up companies. In addition to licensing technology from the university, start-ups
attract venture capital investment, create new jobs for students,
researchers and alumni, and introduce innovative products.
UC San Diego faculty and alumni have been credited with forming
more than 500 start-up companies. Of this number, over 170 start-ups
were formed with licensed university technology.
The majority of start-up deals are based locally, and the total formed
in a given year is a meaningful indicator of the economic vibrancy of
the Greater San Diego region. The companies highlighted in this publication are a subset of the total formed.
102
number of start-up companies with current technology
licenses with UC San Diego
26
number of start-ups acquired
by other companies
$3.6+ billion
the amount raised by start-ups
founded on licensed UCSD
innovations
TTO thanks the companies and innovators that
participated in providing information about their
businesses. Please contact TTO (invent@ucsd.edu)
if your UCSD start-up company has interest in being
part of future updates of TTO publications.
Start-ups by Fiscal Year (FY1988-2011)
© 2012 The Regents, University of California
Start-ups Acquired (partial list)
Year
Start-up
Acquiring Company
2012
Ortiva Wireless
Allot Communications Ltd
not disclosed
2009
Blaze DFM
Tela Innovations
not disclosed
2009
Cell Genesys
BioSante Pharmaceuticals
2005
Salmedix
Cephalon, Inc.
2005
NetSift
Cisco Systems, Inc.
$30 million
2003
Genicon
Life Technologies (fka Invitrogen)
$2 million
2002
Collateral Therapeutics Inc, Schering AG (then spun out to Cardium)
$140 million
2001
Aurora Biosciences Corp.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
$592 million
2000
Yuni Networks Inc.
AMCC
$240 million
1995
Canji
Schering-Plough Corp.
$54.5 million
Start-ups by Industry Sector (FY2002-2011)
Amount
$38 million
$160.9 million
START-UPS 2012
START-UPS
Table of Contents (featured start-ups)
4
AnaZyme.....................................................................................................................5
app2you, Inc................................................................................................................6
Avelas Biosciences, Inc...............................................................................................7
Biological Dynamics, Inc.............................................................................................8
Cenna Biosciences, Inc............................................................................................... 9
Ceregene Inc............................................................................................................. 10
Chimerix, Inc............................................................................................................. 11
Clinical Metabolomics, Inc........................................................................................ 12
EarthRisk Technologies............................................................................................. 13
Genomatica, Inc........................................................................................................ 14
Glysens, Inc............................................................................................................... 15
HIPerWorks, Inc......................................................................................................... 16
Ignyta, Inc.................................................................................................................. 17
InflammaGen, LLC.................................................................................................... 18
InhibeX, LLC.............................................................................................................. 19
insilicoMED................................................................................................................ 20
Machine Perception Technologies............................................................................ 21
Meritage Pharma, Inc................................................................................................ 22
MRV Systems............................................................................................................ 23
Multimeric Biotherapeutics, Inc................................................................................. 24
NanoSort, Inc............................................................................................................ 25
NeurAccel Biosciences Inc........................................................................................ 26
Ortiva Wireless.......................................................................................................... 27
Otonomy, Inc............................................................................................................. 28
Quad Geometrics, LLC.............................................................................................. 29
Renova Therapeutics................................................................................................ 30
SciVee, Inc. ............................................................................................................... 31
Senomyx, Inc............................................................................................................. 32
Sialix, Inc................................................................................................................... 33
Somtherapeutics, Inc................................................................................................ 34
Spinnaker Biosciences, Inc....................................................................................... 35
Telormedix SA........................................................................................................... 36
Ventrix, Inc................................................................................................................. 37
Vesselon, Inc............................................................................................................. 38
AnaZyme—New Diagnostic Assays
Early diagnosis is key to successfully treating acute
shock. Currently, there are no diagnostic tests to
diagnose shock before significant organ damage has
occurred and clinical manifestations exist. Current
techniques to detect inflammatory activity in shock are
based on symptomatic measurements (organ and neuronal dysfunctions, perfusion failure, skin color changes)
or biochemical analysis (e.g. cytokine levels in plasma).
These are late stage detection systems, which are unable to assist in early intervention. Researchers have
discovered several biomarkers which may diagnose the
onset of shock and its progression during treatment.
These biomarkers are measured from both exhaled
breath and liquid blood samples.
breath or blood assay to help physicians diagnose the
onset of acute shock and monitor InflammaGen therapy.
It is anticipated that these assays will become the
standard of care in cases involving shock and multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS) as a point-of-care,
hand-held breath device which will be able to identify
these volatile compounds. The total available market
surpasses $2 billion in the U.S. alone, and is based on
an assay price of $25 per assay.
START-UPS
AnaZyme, LLC, a diagnostic assay company, in collaboration with researchers from the Bioengineering Department at UC San Diego, was created as a direct result
from the research and development of InfammaGen—a
new therapy to reduce morbidity and mortality related to
multi-organ failure and death as a result of acute shock.
Capital
AnaZyme (diagnostic assay) is being developed jointly
with InflammaGen Shok-Pak (therapy). Preclinical funding has been provided by NIH grants and translational
funding by Leading BioSciences, Inc. (formerly Leading Ventures). Combined with InflammaGen, AnaZyme
will raise $5 million to complete human trials and find a
partner to commercialize and bring to market.
Three assays have been created from these biomarkers and confirmed in both animal and human samples.
These assays can be run on current hospital testing
devices or commercially available general purpose laboratory instruments. The three assays are:
• Exhaled breath-based assay to detect volatile compounds.
• Blood-based assay to detect specific enzymes.
• Blood-based assay to detect the absence of specific compounds.
For the breath assay, volatile compounds have been
identified in rats and initial human testing is underway
at two academic medical centers. AnaZyme™ is a new
AnaZyme, LLC
A Leading BioSciences, Inc. Company
3580 Carmel Mountain Road
San Diego, CA 92130
Tel: (858) 395-6099
URL: http://igenrx.com/products/anazyme-diagnostics/
Founded: 2006
Employees: 4
John Rodenrys – CEO
Hank Loy – President
Greg Doyle – CFO
Technology Innovator:
Geert Schmid-Schönbein, PhD
Professor, Bioengineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
Funding by Leading BioSciences, Inc.
http://invent.ucsd.edu
5
START-UPS
App2You, Inc. is a developer of a Web-based platform
that enables non-programmers to rapidly create and
evolve fully custom hosted forms-driven workflow applications where users with different roles and rights
interact. Such a platform will have a broad impact on
organizations of all sizes by empowering nonprogrammer business process owners to quickly and easily
deploy applications that capture the business processes
of their organizations. Preliminary results from Phase
I engagements shows that the platform has the maximum impact on enabling externally-facing Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), which use the applications
to facilitate and streamline interactions with customers
and partners, achieve lower process management and
customer/partner servicing costs, increase customer/
partner satisfaction, and grow revenues.
app2you
PO Box 928014
San Diego, CA 92192
Tel: (858) 876-7656
URL: http://app2you.com
Founded: 2006
6
App2You has the potential to operate as an equalizer
between large companies and SMBs with limited time
and money available for their IT infrastructure, since it
enables the latter to obtain applications for their processes despite limited resources. Phase II will expand
the impact by systematically reaching SMBs and promoting the use of the platform, making its use even simpler, and also finding additional verticals, such as forms
distributorships and form abandonment cases, where
forms-driven workflows can generate values. Finally, the
Phase II project will create enhancements that facilitate
successful collaborations between business process
owners and ad hoc information technology staff. If
successful, the App2You platform has the potential to
address an emerging and potentially significant opportunity in the SMB space.
Technology Innovator:
Yannis Papakonstantinou, PhD
Professor, Computer Science and
Engineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
Lighting the Way to Better Surgery™
Surgery is often the first-line treatment for a cancer patient. Despite
advances in radiology and surgical
hardware, the surgeon continues
to rely on eyesight and palpation to
determine the extent of cancer. Too
frequently, the surgeon will not know
where the tumor begins and ends
while operating. This uncertainty can
lead to incomplete detection and
removal of cancer which may result
in re-operation or lead to suboptimal
therapeutic decisions and treatment.
Avelas is developing agents that
will create a sensitive and real-time
illuminated cancer map during the
operation. To achieve this goal,
Avelas has licensed molecularlytargeted imaging technology from
UC San Diego that was pioneered
in the lab of 2008 Chemistry Nobel
Laureate Roger Y. Tsien.
The Avelas Cancer Illuminator™
utilizes activatable cell penetrating
peptides (ACPPs) that exploit protease activity of invading and metastasizing cancer to fluorescently label
tumors and metastases. Avelas’ lead
program is focused on breast cancer
where the Avelas Cancer Illuminator
can enable real-time visualization of
lymph node metastases and primary
tumor margins, significantly improving surgical staging and decreasing
positive margins which lead to reoperations. Administered to the patient
before surgery, the Avelas Cancer Illuminator can create a sensitive and
real-time illuminated cancer map for
the surgeon during the operation.
Avelas is advancing leads that utilize
the licensed technology for clinical
application in fluorescence, imageguided surgery. Avelas’ goal is to
bring to reality this more advanced
procedure for cancer surgery that
enables cancer surgeons to deliver
an even higher quality of healthcare.
START-UPS
Avelas Biosciences, Inc. is a private,
venture-backed biotechnology company located in La Jolla, California.
The company’s mission is to create
a luminous map for the surgeon to
advance a new standard-of-care in
cancer surgery.
ACPP staining of surgically resected human squamous cell carcinoma tissue. Fresh tumor tissue was sliced in 1-mm slices and
incubated in 1 μM cleavable (A) or uncleavable (B) peptide for 15 min, washed, and frozen. Sections (5 μm) were taken for fluorescence microscopy by using a 10× objective, and tissue type was verified by hematoxylin/eosin stain. (A) The arrow indicates a differentiated keratin pearl. As a control, histologically normal tissue from the same patient was treated similarly with MMP-2 cleavable
peptide (C) or scrambled peptide (D). (C) The arrow indicates a ring of invading tumor cells.
Tao Jiang, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 December 21;101(51):17867-17872.
Avelas Biosciences, Inc.
11099 N. Torrey Pines Road
Suite 290
La Jolla, CA 92037
info@avelasbio.com
URL: www.avelasbio.com
Founded: 2009
Technology Innovator:
Jay B. Lichter, PhD – CEO
Jesus “Tito” Gonzalez, PhD – VP, Head of R&D
Carmine Stengone, MBA – VP, Corporate Development
Roger Tsien, PhD
Professor, Pharmacology/
Chemistry & Biochemistry,
Cancer Biology Program,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Financing:
Private financing - Avalon Ventures
http://invent.ucsd.edu
7
START-UPS
Biological Dynamics, Inc. is dedicated to the development of next-generation diagnostics based on cellfree-circulating nanoparticulate biomarkers utilizing its
novel alternating current (AC) electrokinetic devices. The
start-up was founded in 2009, based on innovation developed at UC San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering
by Raj Krishnan, when he was a graduate student in the
laboratory of Professor Michael Heller (Bioengineering,
Nanoengineering).
The ability to quickly isolate cancer-related biomarkers and drug-delivery nanoparticles directly from whole
blood has been a major obstacle for early cancer detection. Biological Dynamics uses a microarray dielectrophoretic (DEP) device—in which a force is exerted on
dielectric particles subjected to a nonuniform electric
field—and new parameters. The company’s highconductance DEP method could enable new, seamless, Detection of high-molecular-weight (hmw) DNA and fluorescent
nanoparticles from whole blood and a chronic lymphocytic leukesample-to-answer diagnostic systems. These systems
would allow for the rapid isolation and analysis of nano- mia (CLL) blood sample.
(A) Normal blood sample after dielectrophoresis (DEP) and
scopic biomarkers and drug delivery nanoparticles from
washing. No fluorescence is observed on any of the microelecblood and other biological samples.
Biological Dynamics is developing this screening technology to isolate cell-free-circulating DNA, an important
biomarker for early cancer detection, and is prototyping
its novel AC electrokinetic devices. Over the next several
years, the company envisions a significant impact in the
field of medical diagnostics with its point-of-care, whole
blood test kit to obtain the biomarker data necessary
for detecting, treating, and monitoring cancer and other
serious conditions at the early stage of disease.
trodes.
(B) Blood sample spiked with SYBR Green-stained hmw-DNA.
(SYBR Green, a registered trademark of Synergy Brands Inc.,
is a cyanine dye used as a nucleic-acid stain.) After DEP and
washing, green fluorescence is observed on the nine activated
microelectrodes.
(C) Blood from a CLL patient sample to which SYBR Green
was added but no DNA. Following DEP and washing, green
fluorescence is observed on the microelectrodes, indicating
that hmw-DNA was present in the CLL blood.
(D) Blood spiked with 40nm red florescent nanoparticles. Upon
completion of DEP and washing, intense red fluorescence is
observed on the nine activated microelectrodes.
(Image and caption excerpted from SPIE - the international society for optics
and photonics.)
Biological Dynamics, Inc.
9393 Towne Centre Drive
Suite 140
San Diego, CA 92121
Email: contact@biologicaldynamics.com
URL: www.biologicaldynamics.com
Founded: 2009
Raj Krishnan, PhD – CEO, Founder
Financing: private funding
8
Technology Innovators:
Michael Heller, PhD
Professor,
Bioengineering
& NanoEngineering
Jacobs School of
Engineering
Raj Krishnan, PhD
CEO, Founder of
Biological Dynamics
AD affects approximately one-tenth of the population
over the age of 65, one in two by age 90. It is estimated
that nearly 28 million men and women suffer from ADrelated dementia worldwide, and the estimated cost of
caring for them is $156 billion per year. The prevalence
of AD is expected to grow at a rate of 2.5% per year in
the seven major pharmaceutical markets of the world.
There is currently no cure for the disease. The basic
pathology of the disease includes the production and
accumulation of Aß, which is recognized to be the major
neurotoxic agent in AD. There are currently no anti-Aß
therapies available.
in. Cenna has used this technology to discover inhibitors
of Aß production that are being developed into a drug
therapy for AD.
The technology that forms the basis of Cenna’s approach and lead compounds is covered by U.S. and
foreign patent applications filed by UCSD and exclusively licensed to Cenna. The peptides that have shown
efficacy in reducing Aß production in transgenic mice
are novel.
Corporate Development Strategy
The work so far has been funded by Cenna’s founders,
National Institutes of Health, and other public grants
for a total cost of about $8 million. With a series of lead
compounds in development, Cenna is working to raise a
pre-series A round of $5 million to complete the preclinical phase and to identify pharmaceutical partners to
assist in the clinical development of these compounds.
Cenna’s founders have proposed and shown evidence
for a fundamentally different, novel, and promising approach to inhibit the production of Aß that differentiates
this company from other companies and research efforts
in tackling AD. Their unique approach has allowed the
inhibition of Aß production in vitro and in vivo by blocking the specific cell-to-cell interaction between two
membrane proteins critically involved in the production
of Aß, namely ß-amyloid precursor protein and presenil-
Cenna Biosciences, Inc.
505 Coast Boulevard
Suite 102
La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel: 858-456-0820 • Fax: 858-456-0825
URL: www.cennabiosciences.com
Founded: 2006
Employees: 4
START-UPS
Cenna Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company
focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new agents for the treatment of Alzheimer’s
disease (AD). The company was founded in 2006 to
translate over a decade’s academic research at UC San
Diego by the founders of this technology, Drs. Nazneen
Dewji and S. Jonathan Singer. The technology addresses the underlying cause of the disease, the inappropriate
deposition of the toxic species, ß-amyloid (Aß), in the
brains of patients with AD. The company has developed
a novel druggable target and has discovered several
lead peptide compounds that are active in vivo.
Brown amyloid plaques, in the image,
above is linked to Alzeimer’s Disease.
Technology Innovators:
Nazneen Dewji, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
School of Medicine
Nazneen Dewji, PhD – Founder, President and CEO
S.J. Singer, PhD – Founder
S. J. Singer, PhD
Professor of Biology
Division of Biological Sciences
Financing/Financial Milestones:
• Founders/NIH/other grants - $8 million
http://invent.ucsd.edu
9
START-UPS
Ceregene, Inc. is focused on the
treatment of major neurodegenerative disorders using the delivery
of nervous system growth factors.
Neurodegenerative diseases such
as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s
disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS), and Huntington’s disease are
the result of specific cell loss in the
central nervous system. Substantial
scientific evidence from numerous
international laboratories, as well as in
their labs, has shown that neurotrophic growth factors (NGFs) can have remarkable effects in numerous models
of neurodegenerative diseases.
However, the inability to accurately
and effectively target NGF delivery
has limited their utility in the clinic.
Ceregene’s proprietary adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene delivery
approach solves this problem, providing targeted delivery of the NGFs in
a sustained fashion for the lifetime of
the patient following a single dosing
procedure. The proprietary use of
neurotrophic factor genes, delivered
by gene therapy, to treat neurodegenerative diseases provides the
company with a broad platform of
therapeutic opportunities.
How Ceregene’s Gene Delivery
Technology Works
Gene transfer offers an effective
means of treating diseased and
dying neurons with neurotrophic
factors in a targeted and prolonged
fashion. Ceregene has identified
several neurotrophic factors to treat
damaged nerve cells in several different diseases. For each disease,
the gene encoding the appropriate
neurotrophic factor known to provide
nourishment for the key neurons that
are dying is delivered to those cells
in a single dosing procedure. This is
accomplished through a gene therapy
vector Ceregene created that delivers the therapeutic gene to the target
cells. Once the customized vector
delivers the therapeutic gene into the
cell, these cells are able to continuously produce the neurotrophic factor.
Elevated levels of the neurotrophic
factor enhance the vitality and function of the degenerating neurons
while also helping them withstand
further damage from the disease.
To carry the neurotrophic factor genes
into the targeted neurons in a safe
and effective fashion, the company
uses a harmless version of a virus
common among human exposure.
This virus, adeno-associated virus
(AAV), appears to be safe since it is
not known to be associated with any
human disease. In addition, Ceregene
modified AAV to block the virus from
replicating or reproducing itself, to assure that the genes delivered remain
exclusively in the
targeted tissue.
Clinical Programs
The company’s clinical programs include CERE-110, an AAV2 based vector expressing NGF for the treatment
of Alzheimer’s disease, which is
currently in multi-center, controlled
Phase II testing in collaboration with
the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative
Study (ADCS) and Dr. Paul Aisen at
UC San Diego.
CERE-120 (AAV2-Neurturin), which
completed a Phase II clinical trial in
Parkinson’s disease, is currently being tested in a new Phase I/II study.
CERE-135 and CERE-140 are in preclinical development for amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s
disease) and ocular diseases, respectively.
Ceregene’s
AAV-based gene
delivery technology provides a
broad platform
to develop
pioneering treatments for many
different serious
diseases, including Alzheimer’s
disease, ALS,
Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease,
and several
Ceregene, Inc.
9381 Judicial Drive
Suite 130
San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: 858-458-8800 • Fax: 858-458-8801
URL: http://www.ceregene.com
Founded: 2001
Employees: 20
Jeffrey M. Ostrove, PhD – President & CEO
Raymond T. Bartus, PhD – Exec. Vice President & CSO
10
ocular diseases. The company is currently advancing this technology in its
human clinical trials for Parkinson’s
disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Financing/Financial Milestones:
• Series A: $10.5 million
• Series B: $32 million (2004)
• Series C: $28.1 million (2007)
• Series D: $11.5 million (2010)
Technology Innovator:
Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD
Professor, Neurosciences
Director, Center for Neural Repair
School of Medicine
Revolutionizing the Treatment of Viral Diseases
The company’s lead candidate, CMX001, is being developed as a potential broad spectrum antiviral agent for
the treatment of life-threatening double-stranded DNA
(dsDNA) viral diseases. Over 350 people have received
CMX001 to date, with a growing body of evidence supporting the drug’s antiviral activity in humans.
Clinical studies of CMX001 include an ongoing Phase
II study of the prevention/control of cytomegalovirus
(CMV) in hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients
(CMX001-201), a Phase II study being initiated for the
treatment of adenovirus (AdV) infection in pediatric
and adult hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients
(CMX001-202), and an open-label study (CMX001-350)
for the treatment of any of 12 different dsDNA viral
infections, including AdV, herpes viruses such as CMV,
herpes simplex virus and Epstein Barr virus, polyoma
viruses such as BK virus and JC virus, and pox viruses.
The open-label study builds on Chimerix’s extensive
experience working with clinicians at over 55 leading
institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and
Israel who have sought CMX001 for the treatment of
more than 150 immunocompromised patients under
emergency Investigational New Drug (IND) applications.
CMX001 has been well tolerated in all studies.
CMX001 is also being developed as a medical countermeasure in the event of a smallpox release. Chimerix
has received significant federal funding for the development of CMX001 as a medical countermeasure against
smallpox from the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases under Grant No. UO1-AI057233 in
addition to new funding from the Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Of-
Chimerix, Inc.
2505 Meridian Parkway • Suite 340 • Durham, NC 27713
Tel: 919-806-1074 • Fax: 919-806-1146
URL: www.chimerix.com
Founded: 2002
Employees: 36
fice of the Secretary, Department of Health and Human
Services, under Contract No. HHSO100201100013C.
Chimerix’s second clinical-stage
antiviral compound, CMX157, a
potent nucleoside analogue with
in vitro activity against HIV and
hepatitis B, has the potential to
directly address several limitations
of current HIV therapies. Chimerix is developing CMX157 for the
treatment of HIV infection including
those caused by multi-drug resistant viruses. A Phase I clinical study
has been completed demonstrating
that the compound is well tolerated
CMX001
and that the active antiviral, TFV-PP,
was measurable in peripheral blood mononuclear cells
(PBMCs) after a single dose and remained detectable
for six days, indicating that it may be suitable for onceweekly dosing.
START-UPS
Chimerix is developing novel antiviral therapeutics with
the potential to transform patient care in multiple settings, including transplant, oncology, acute care, and
global health.
In July 2012, Chimerix signed a license agreement
granting Merck exclusive worldwide rights to CMX157.
Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will receive
an exclusive worldwide license and will be responsible
for development and commercialization of CMX157,
an investigational oral nucleoside reverse transcriptase
inhibitor (NRTI). Chimerix will receive a $17.5 million upfront payment and will be eligible to receive up to $151
million in milestones, as well as royalties on future sales.
Led by a world-class antiviral drug development team,
Chimerix is also leveraging the company’s extensive
chemical library to pursue new treatments for hepatitis C virus, flu, malaria, and other global public health
needs.
Technology Innovator:
Kenneth I. Moch – President and CEO
George Painter, PhD – Chief Scientific Officer
Financing/Financial Milestones:
•SBIR Grant: $600,000
•Series C: $11 million
•Series D: $23.1 million
•Series E: $16.1 million
•Series F: $45 million
Karl Hostetler, MD
Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine; Director,
San Diego VA Medical Center Endocrinology Clinic;
Associate Member, Moores Cancer Center
http://invent.ucsd.edu
11
START-UPS
C LI N M E T , I NC.
3120 Merryfield Row
San Diego, CA 92121-1126
Email: info@clinmet.com
Phone: 858-242-4000
http://www.clinmet.com
Founded: 2011
Employees: 10
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Kumar Sharma, MD, FAHA
Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor
William Nyhan, MD, PhD
Robert R. Henry, MD
CO-FOUNDERS & MANAGEMENT
Yesh Subramanian
President & CEO
Shoba Sharma
Vice President Data,
Analytics & Solutions
Sam Hodges
Advisor
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR
Kumar Sharma, MD, FAHA
Professor of Medicine
Director, Institute of Metabolomic
Medicine
Director, Center for Renal
Translational Medicine
12
ClinMet Inc. provides
pharmaceutical companies
with clinically relevant insights
and practical information about
drug response and safety using
metabolomics for diabetes, kidney
disease, obesity and cardiovascular
disease.
CKD will result in a huge medical
and cost burden. By leveraging
its metabolomic platform and
expertise in kidney disease ClinMet
also assists Pharma companies
to address the cardiovascular risk
associated with diabetes related
drug development.
Leveraging its founder Dr. Kumar
Sharma’s extensive work in the
area of kidney disease, ClinMet
offers specific solutions in the areas
of chronic kidney disease (CKD)
and diabetic kidney disease. One in
nine American adults have chronic
kidney disease and over 485,000
Americans have progressed to
end stage renal disease, requiring
dialysis or a kidney transplant to
stay alive. End-stage renal disease
is costly, with an estimate cost of
$20 billion to Medicare.
Sharpening Clinical Trials
Clinical trials average over $1.5
billion, with failed trials further
increasing costs and risks to
Pharma. In the current environment
of targeting medicine to the
individual (aka Precision Medicine)
Pharma companies are increasingly
partnering with companies like
ClinMet that provide companion
diagnostics and related insights to
sharpen trials.
In the United States, diabetes
has been a devastating epidemic
with over 26 million affected
individuals, 7 million undiagnosed,
and 79 million with prediabetes.
As the seventh leading cause of
death in the US, diabetes has
been a financial burden on this
country with the total cost to be
$218 billion in 2007. Much of the
excess morbidity and mortality
associated with diabetes is related
to marker of kidney dysfunction.
With an estimated impact of a
third of people globally affected
by diabetes by 2030, diabetes and
The ClinMet metabolomics platform
specifically addresses:
•
•
•
Efficacy: Knowing if a drug
is impacting a disease and if
there are off-target effects
Safety: Avoiding costs
associated with late-stage
failure or post-approval
withdrawal
Insight: Gaining novel data into
mechanisms of action
ClinMet’s customers are now
starting to explore the significant
potential the Metabolomics
platform has in drug discovery.
EarthRisk
Technologies
In 2010, EarthRisk Technologies licensed a patent-pending process originated at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Drs. Gershunov and Guirguis
developed the research and EarthRisk has leveraged the
technology to design software that assesses the risk of
extreme weather events. Its customers consist of energy
companies and financial firms who actively manage
energy resources and financial futures. The company
anticipates expanding to serve the agriculture, transportation, and risk management industries.
Product Description
EarthRisk’s current platform, called TempRisk, analyzes the risk for extreme winter-time cold and extreme
summer-time heat up to forty-days before it occurs.
TempRisk is designed to provide the energy and utility
sectors with advanced warning of major heat waves
and cold snaps that impact energy markets. Through
improved understanding of global weather extremes,
TempRisk users can be better prepared to make financial decisions and manage their energy resources.
The solution is available to energy traders, energy
analysts, utilities, and others with a vested interest in
how weather impacts commodity markets and resource
planning. TempRisk is offered through an exclusive
strategic partnership between EarthRisk and Earth
Networks. Earth Networks operates the largest weather
observation and lightning networks in the world and is
establishing a global environmental data network on an
unprecedented scale. Earth Networks owns and operates the WeatherBug brand which precisely monitors,
organizes, and distributes global weather information.
The WeatherBug consumer brand reaches millions as a
trusted source for live, local weather information, while
the WeatherBug professional brand serves a variety of
markets that include federal, state and local governments, education, agriculture, energy and utilities, sports
and recreation, media and transportation. Earth Networks is based in Germantown, Maryland.
START-UPS
EarthRisk Technologies is redesigning the link between
weather and business decision-making. The technology
company is developing software that accesses a wide
range of publicly and commercially available weather
and climate data to empower customers to tailor dynamic, customized risk assessments for their individual
needs. The company’s initial focus leverages a unique
approach of applying precursor weather information as
a basis for predicting extreme temperature events at
lead-times of up to forty days. The software solution is
designed for intuitive application by analysts who connect weather to business decisions such as energy resource planning and commodity investments. EarthRisk
links cutting-edge atmospheric research to real-world
applications through intuitive analytic interfaces.
In the fall of 2010, energy and utility analysts used
EarthRisk to receive advanced warning 15 to 20 days
prior to the season’s most severe cold outbreaks. A
TempRisk analysis pinpointed­–approximately 20 days
prior to its arrival–the record cold air mass that affected
more than 80 million Americans in mid-December. At the
same time, across the Atlantic, TempRisk also identified
an elevated risk for prolonged severe cold in Europe.
In 2011, the United Kingdom experienced its coldest
December in 100 years, during which time natural gas
demand spiked to record levels and prices hit a twoyear high.
TempRisk makes extreme weather data useful on a daily
basis for high-value business decisions. EarthRisk’s
customers extend their lead-time predicting extreme
cold snaps and heat waves, enabling them to be better
positioned with greater confidence. EarthRisk’s vision is
to conquer “big data” in a way never before institutionalized in the weather community. The company is driven
to extend its knowledge of extreme temperature events
to analyze hurricane genesis and movement, drought
and precipitation, wind and other important areas.
EarthRisk Technologies
2970 5th Avenue • Suite 320
San Diego, CA 92103
Tel: (858) 413-RISK
URL: www.earthrisktech.com
Founded: 2010
Employees: 9
John R. Plavan, Jr. – CEO
Stephen Bennett – Chief Science Officer
Technology Innovators:
Alexander Gershunov, PhD
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography
Stephen Bennett, Founder and Chief Science Officer
Kristen Guirguis, PhD
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography
http://invent.ucsd.edu
13
START-UPS
Genomatica is an emerging leader
in sustainable chemicals, featuring greener intermediate and basic
chemicals made from renewable feedstocks, rather than oil and natural gas.
The company aims to transform the
chemical industry by developing costadvantaged, smaller carbon footprint
products as direct replacements in this
trillion-dollar market.
Genomatica was co-founded in 2000
by Dr. Christophe Schilling, at the time
an entrepreneurial student working in
the research laboratory of Dr. Bernhard
Palsson, the Galletti Professor of Bioengineering and Adjunct Professor of
Medicine at UC San Diego. Dr. Palsson
is a co-founder and remains involved
in the start-up as chairman of the company’s scientific advisory board.
In the past decade, under Schilling’s
leadership, the company has achieved
key milestones: raising venture financing, forging corporate partnerships and
relationships, and advancing product
development towards commercialization. Schilling is leading the team
to commercialize Genomatica’s first
product, a bio-BDO (1-4 butanediol).
BDO, an intermediate chemical with
a $4 billion market worldwide, is used
to manufacture spandex, automotive
plastics, running shoes, and more.
The company’s process replaces
oil and natural gas with renewable
feedstocks such as sugar, biomass,
or eventually syngas (a product of
municipal solid waste). Instead of competing with the energy and transportation industries to secure the oil and
natural gas needed to make chemicals,
Genomatica’s sugar-to-BDO process
provides a more diversified starting
point for production.
Genomatica’s approach has several
advantages over the existing business
models within its industry. The company’s process outperforms existing
chemical processes on cost, flexibility,
and environmental impact. Because
the process is mechanically simpler
than traditional methods, the factories
will be simpler and less expensive to
build. With 50 percent lower capital
expenditures for factories and lower
14
ongoing costs, its potential partners
can gain a significant savings over the
competition.
In addition, Genomatica’s processes
have a lower environmental impact.
Their first commercial product, bioBDO, will have 70 percent lower
greenhouse gas emissions. This has a
potential savings of 7 billion pounds of
carbon dioxide per year, and 60 percent lower energy requirements than
competing processes.
Advancing their product development
pipeline, the company recently announced the successful production
of pound quantities of butadiene, its
second process made from renewable
feedstocks. Butadiene is one of the
seven basic chemicals at the core of
the chemical industry and is an important ingredient used to make products
such as tires, engineering polymers,
and latex products.
Butadiene is primarily produced today
as a by-product of ethylene cracking.
Increased availability of natural gas, especially in North America, has contributed to a growing spread between the
price of crude oil and natural gas. This
dynamic has made lighter feedstocks
derived from natural gas a more attractive input for ethylene cracking operations, compared to heavier feedstocks
derived from crude oil. Global demand
for butadiene is forecasted to be over
20 billion pounds in 2011, a value of
approximately $40 billion.
Genomatica, Inc.
10520 Wateridge Circle
San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: (858) 824-1771
Fax: (858) 824-1772
URL: www.genomatica.com
Number of Employees: 70
Founded: 2000
Christophe Schilling, PhD – CEO
Michael E. Keane – CFO and EVP
William H. Baum – CBDO
Mark Burk, PhD – CTO
Financing/Financial Milestones:
$84 million from investors:
Alloy Ventures, Bright Capital,
Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mohr
Davidow Ventures, TPG Biotech,
VantagePoint Venture Partners,
and Waste Management.
Partners:
Waste Management, Tate & Lyle,
M&G (Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi),
and Novamont.
Technology Innovators:
Bernhard Ø. Palsson, PhD
The Galletti Professor of Bioengineering,
Jacobs School of Engineering
Adjunct Professor of Medicine
Genomatica is developing a pipeline
of manufacturing processes for the
production of basic chemicals, and
expects the first commercial BDO plant
that utilizes its processes to begin
production by the end of 2012.
Christophe Schilling, PhD
CEO and Founder
Glucose Monitoring
for the Care of Diabetes
Product Solution
GlySens’ implantable long-term continuous glucose monitoring sensor is
designed to provide an unobtrusive
means to continuously track glucose
levels and improve the lives of people
with diabetes. An initial system release
will comprise two elements: the longlived fully implanted sensor and an
external monitor with a display.
The sensor is implanted under the
skin and continuously monitors the
glucose levels in the subcutaneous
tissue, which are correlated to blood
glucose levels. The sensor transmits
the glucose measurements wirelessly
to a convenient external display device.
This device shows the current blood
glucose level and a historical chart of
the previous blood glucose values, provides adjustable automatic warnings of
high and low blood glucose readings,
and stores information for easy analysis
by the user or physician.
Improving therapeutics delivery in
diabetes treatment by automating
administration of therapeutics and
GlySens, Inc.
6450 Lusk Boulevard • Suite E-109
San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: (858) 638-7708
Fax: (858) 638-7727
URL: www.glysens.com
Founded: 2000
Joseph Y. Lucisano, PhD
Chairman, President and CEO
restoring glycemic
control to forestall the
devastating side effects
of the disease is a key
goal in the company’s
product development.
GlySens is specifically
designing its sensor as
a closed-loop automatic
or semi-automatic
glucose control device
(an “artificial pancreas”)
with particular emphasis being paid to
the sensor’s ability to
detect hypoglycemia. Application of
new, ultrafast-acting insulins and other
therapeutics could especially benefit
from this system.
GlySens uses two sensors that are both
incorporated in the implantable device:
(1) a glucose sensor in which a selective chemical reaction, involving glucose and oxygen, is monitored by an
electrochemical oxygen detector; and
(2) an oxygen reference sensor to detect tissue oxygen. Dual sensors help
ensure the specificity of the glucose
measurement by eliminating the effects
of secondary factors such as temperature, blood flow in the surrounding
tissues, and long-term changes due to
the body’s normal mild encapsulation
response to the implant. GlySens believes that its combination of superior
technology, user friendly features, and
a long-term design will provide major
advances for people with diabetes. By
serving key roles in upcoming sensordriven systems, GlySens’ technology
may help enable the introduction of
new therapeutic tools.
START-UPS
GlySens Incorporated is a privately held
corporation committed to developing
a long-term glucose sensor system to
continuously monitor glucose levels
and enhance the care and treatment
of diabetes. GlySens’ approach uses a
long-term, fully implanted sensor that
functions automatically and continuously, transmitting its glucose signal
wirelessly to a display or monitor. The
sensor enables the introduction of new
medical device systems to significantly
improve the lives of people living with
diabetes.
The GlySens sensor communicates
information about glucose levels in
the tissues to an external receiver via
wireless telemetry. This device is 38mm
across and 16 mm thick and it could be
implanted subcutaneously at the waist
or the lower abdomen by a simple outpatient procedure.
Market
Worldwide, an estimated 347 million
people have diabetes, and this number is expected to double by the year
2030. In the U.S., eight percent of the
population (26 million people) has diabetes, and a further 79 million people
are classified as pre-diabetic. Nearly
one in four hundred children has type 1
diabetes and is insulin-dependent, and
by age 60 about 23% of the population
has type 2 diabetes. The worldwide
annual expenditure on home and self
blood glucose monitoring products has
been estimated at $7 to $10 billion with
half of the sales occurring in the U.S.
The total economic impact of diabetes
in the U.S. is estimated at $198 billion
each year.
Financing:
Private investments and numerous
research and development grants
from private and public agencies
Technology Innovator:
David A. Gough, PhD
Professor, Bioengineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
(l-r: Joseph Lucisano and David Gough)
http://invent.ucsd.edu
15
START-UPS
InflammaGen, LLC, in collaboration with the Bioengineering Department at UC San Diego, was formed to commercialize a new treatment for critically ill patients with
multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), formally
known as multiple organ failure. MODS is caused by acute
shock (trauma, sepsis, burns, SIRS, etc.) and has a high
mortality rate with very few treatment options. This is a
significant, unmet medical need as septic shock alone
results in 735,000 hospitalizations yearly and 215,000
deaths in the U.S., the second leading cause of in-hospital
death in the U.S.
InflammaGen Therapy
This new treatment, Shok-Pak, is a significant paradigm
shift in thought process and in the way critically ill patients
or patients needing ICU level care are treated. InflammaGen’s main medication has been approved by the FDA
for years but is administered via a different route, directly
into the stomach and intestine, blocking potent digestive
enzymes.
Dr. Geert Schmid-Schönbein and colleagues discovered a
previously unknown pathway that leads to a severe form
of inflammation and organ dysfunction in shock. They
demonstrated in in vitro and animal studies that the digestive enzymes in the lumen of the intestine are involved in
inflammation and multi-organ failure. In healthy patients,
digestive enzymes are usually restricted to the lumen of
the intestine by the epithelial cell barrier and they do not
enter the wall of the intestine. But under conditions of
shock, the epithelial cell barrier becomes permeable and
the highly active and potent digestive enzymes are carried into the wall of the intestine where they start to break
down the intestinal wall. These enzymes and the breakdown products they generate are then carried into the
bloodstream and lymphatic system where they can lead
to multi-organ failure and death. As the body appears to
be digesting itself, this research has been coined, “Autodigestion”.
InflammaGen Therapeutics, Inc.
A Leading BioSciences, Inc. Company
3580 Carmel Mountain Road • Suite 300
San Diego, CA 92130
Phone: 949-939-6005
Email: hank.loy@igenrx.com
URL: http://igenrx.com
Founded: 2006
Employees: 4
John Rodenrys – CEO
Hank Loy – President
Greg Doyle – CFO
16
The researchers discovered that they could inhibit the
progression from acute shock to MODS by delivering an
enzyme inhibitor directly into the lumen of the intestine,
via a nasogastric (NG) tube, thereby blocking the digestive
enzymes. This blockade leads to a dramatic reduction of
inflammation and death in diverse forms of shock (hemorrhagic shock, septic shock, peritonitis shock, shock due
to intestinal ischemia) with a highly significant increase in
short- and long-term (weeks and months) survival. For this
discovery, Dr. Geert Schmid-Schönbein was recognized by
his peers and honored with the 2008 Landis Award from
the Microcirculatory Society.
Animal and Human Testing
Animal testing, conducted at two university medical centers, is complete in two different animal species. Results
are remarkable and statistically significant with an almost
identical reduction of MODS and improved recovery.
Several patients have been treated outside the U.S. as a
rescue therapy in two hospitals. These outcomes match
closely to the preclinical results, confirming the efficacy
and potential of this new Shok-Pak therapy. Moreover, a
200 patient Phase II pilot clinical trial is currently enrolling
patients at the VA San Diego Medical Center.
Capital
The preclinical work for InflammaGen has been funded by
the National Institutes of Health. The translational work
has been funded by Leading BioSciences Inc. (formerly
Leading Ventures). InflammaGen is looking to raise $5
million to complete Phase II trials and find a partner to
commercialize and bring to market.
Technology Innovator:
Geert Schmid-Schönbein, PhD
Professor, Bioengineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
MODS is caused by acute shock (trauma, sepsis, burns, SIRS-systemic inflammatory response syndrome, etc.)
and has a high mortality rate with very
few treatment options. This may be the
most significant, unmet medical need
in the United States with 735,000 incidents yearly and is the second leading cause of in-hospital death in the US
with a high fatality rate of 30%.
MANAGEMENT
Jonathan E. Lim, MD
Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder
David W. Anderson, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Zachary Hornby
Vice President, Corporate
Development
Kurt Krummel, PhD
Director of Molecular Diagnostics
and Assay Development
Robert Shoemaker, PhD
Director of Bioinformatics
UCSD TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATOR
Gary S. Firestein, MD
Director, Clinical and Translational
Research Institute
Dean and Associate Vice
Chancellor, Translational Medicine
Ignyta, Inc. is a company
catalyzing personalized medicine
in autoimmune diseases. Ignyta
has licensed worldwide rights
from the University of California,
San Diego to develop and
commercialize cutting-edge work
performed in Dr. Gary S. Firestein’s
lab.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a highly
prevalent disease, affecting
about 2 percent of the world’s
population. Ignyta applies next
generation genomic, epigenomic,
and other molecular technologies
to identify the best, most accurate
biological signatures possible to
discover, develop, validate, and
commercialize novel diagnostic
tests and therapeutic drugs for
rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and
other autoimmune diseases.
While rheumatologists are able
to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis
in patients with well-established
disease, the development of
long-term morbidity and mortality
associated with rheumatoid
arthritis can be prevented by
diagnosing and treating patients
earlier. As such, there is a current
need to develop molecular
diagnostic tests to help diagnose
patients as early as possible to
intervene before serious issues
begin to develop.
Technology Platform
Ignyta’s Methylome™ is a
http://invent.ucsd.edu
proprietary database and
computational platform that helps
accelerate the discovery of novel
biomarkers for diagnostic and
therapeutic purposes.
Key features:
• Identification of biologically
relevant features through
epigenetic analysis advanced
statistical algorithms;
• Software quickly accesses
and analyzes massive
amounts of data from internal
and worldwide genomic and
epigenomic databases;
• Database contains proprietary
genome-wide epigenetic
profiles of relevant cell types
and blood samples from
patients.
START-UPS
IGNY T A , I N C .
11095 Flintkote Avenue
Suite D
San Diego, CA 92121
Phone: (858) 255-5959
General inquiries:
info@ignyta.com
Business development inquiries:
bd@ignyta.com
http://www.ignyta.com
Founded: 2011
Employees: 9
Key Benefits:
• Massive database of
epigenetic data that are
available at one’s fingertips;
• Genome-wide data analyses
identify novel biological trends
on a global scale;
• Generation of multiplexed
panels that reveal biomarkers
which accurately diagnose
phenotypes and uncover
candidate therapeutic targets
through novel biological
pathway discovery;
• Minimal a priori biological
assumptions allow the data
to reveal new insights without
bias.
17
START-UPS
HIPerWorks, Inc. provides innovative software solutions to optimize visual performance on ultra highresolution display systems. Its technology allows
scaling or expansion of any content (e.g., images,
3-D models, videos, etc.) from a single laptop,
desktop, or mobile device environment to multipledisplay systems or visualization clusters, the size of
which depends on a client’s budget and needs. Additional built-in features allow clients to connect to
similar visualization clusters via network and engage
their partners in collaborative exploration of multimedia content, thereby reducing costs and time associated with extensive business travel.
HIPerWorks grew out of research and development
of a core visualization technology called Cluster
Graphic Library for Large Scale Cross Platform Display Environment (CGLX). Developed by Dr. Kai-Uwe
Doerr at the California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology (Calit2) at UC San
Diego, CGLX was initially designed to help fellow
researchers in universities and other educational
settings to visualize and manipulate scientific data
on large display clusters and share such data in realtime by connecting to similar systems via a network.
The company offers CGLX Pro and CGLX Pro-based
software products and provides consulting services
around the core technology in a diverse range of industry and educational sectors. Serving as a flexible,
transparent OpenGL graphics framework for distributed visualization systems, CGLX Pro
enables distributed real-time graphics on largescale, network-connected, tiled display systems.
HIPerWorks provides a fully documented application
programmer interface (API) that allows clients to program highly-customized applications leveraging the
unique features of the company’s core technology.
For non-programmers, the company offers CGLXPro applications that allow end-users to display
content in a plug-and-play architecture.
HIPerWorks’ “Visualize. Engage. Transform.” vision
is not just a slogan. This vision defines the company’s goals and the objective for its technology that
can be made available and affordable for customers.
CGLX Pro is a technology with concrete, real-life applications in education, scientific exploration, transportation, medicine, entertainment, and emergency
management.
Products/Services Licensing of CGLX Pro technology and CGLX Pro-based software applications:
• Custom application development.
• Consulting services throughout the life cycle
of CGLX-Pro based products, including initial
system specification and installation to product
development and maintenance.
• Guided online installation and maintenance
service.
• Turn-key installation that includes complete
hardware setup and software installation.
• Remote and on-site software maintenance
service.
HIPerWorks, Inc.
8850 Villa La Jolla Drive, #203 • La Jolla, CA 92037
Email: info@hiperworks.com
Skype ID: hiperworks
Number of Employees: 3
Founded: 2008
URL: www.hiperworks.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/HIPerWorks-Inc/137856466271287
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/hiperworks
Kai Doerr, PhD – CEO and President
Janna Batalova, MBA, PhD – CFO
Technology Innovator:
Kai-Uwe Doerr, PhD
California Institute for
Telecommunication and
Information Technology (Calit2)
18
HIPerWorks’ technology enables users to display and interact with high-resolution content on a visualization cluster.
This technology is based on a
previously unknown mechanism
of action in insulin resistance.
UCSD innovator, Dr. Geert SchmidSchönbein, and his colleagues have
discovered that certain inflammatory mediators cleave the insulin
receptor on the cell surface. After
being cleaved, the insulin receptor
is no longer responsive and glucose
uptake is significantly compromised. This is a newly discovered
mechanism which has the potential
of marginalizing current drugs on
the market as none of them interfere with this mechanism.
In vivo testing in two animal species
has confirmed the receptor cleavage and resultant reduced glucose
uptake. Dr Schmid-Schönbein
has also demonstrated that a drug
which has been approved in the
U.S. for over ten years successfully
blocks the receptor cleavage and
restores blood glucose and A1C
levels to a normal range in severely
diabetic rats.
A human study in 50 patients at
the Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego
Hypertension Clinic has been completed which demonstrated similar
results to the animal data and
showed increased levels of matrix
metallo-proteinase (MMPs) in
diabetic/hypertensive patients. Several additional studies are ongoing
at the VA San Diego Hypertension
Clinic and at UCSD to further confirm elevated MMP and protease
levels in diabetic and hypertensive
patients. A recently completed
human study in 36 patients at
the VA San Diego confirmed that
insulin receptor alpha levels are
lower and MMP activity is higher in
humans with obesity, inflammation,
and DM2 (diabetes) compared to
controls.
It is the intent of InhibeX to perform Phase II trials using either a
currently approved medication or a
new chemical entity to demonstrate
safety and efficacy in the diabetes/
metabolic space. Additional animal
and human studies are planned in
other disease states where receptor cleavage is suspected as a
mechanism.
InhibeX, LLC
A Leading BioSciences, Inc. Company
3580 Carmel Mountain Road,
Suite 300
San Diego, CA 92130
Tel: (858) 395-6099
Employees: 4
Founded: 2006
John Rodenrys – CEO
Hank Loy – President
Greg Doyle – CFO
START-UPS
InhibeX is targeting disease states
which may be induced by a new
mechanism of extra-cellular receptor cleavage. The InhibeX technology is based on a UC San Diego
innovation entitled “Blockade of
Inflammation in Hypertension and
Metabolic Syndrome” and covers
the following fields of use:
• Hypertension
• Insulin resistance (Type II
diabetes)
• Syndrome X
• Metabolic disease
• Thrombosis
• Receptor cleavage in other
disease states
Financing by Leading BioSciences,
Inc.
Technology Innovator:
Geert Schmid-Schönbein, PhD
Professor, Bioengineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
Insulin cells (shown in red)
http://invent.ucsd.edu
19
START-UPS
computational bioengineering for
medicine and surgery
The goal of Insilicomed is to provide computational
bioengineering software tools to medical technology
companies to avoid ineffective and expensive prototyping, optimize product design, shorten product development cycles, and reduce R&D costs. Concurrently,
Insilicomed is developing clinical simulation tools to
provide clinical decision support to cardiologists for the
diagnosis and treatment of heart failure and other forms
of heart disease.
Through computational models, Insilicomed’s software
and databases integrate biological science, medical
knowledge, and engineering principles. Insilicomed provides innovative predictive simulation tools and detailed
biological properties in a form suitable for engineers
to perform quantitative analyses for rapidly testing
new medical technology concepts and designs. The
company’s current platform technology simulates the
physical properties of human cardiovascular tissue, including heart muscle and blood vessels, and the human
eye, including cornea, sclera and optic nerve. Existing
modules of the software are designed for use by medical
device manufacturers during the R&D phase of new or
improved cardiovascular and ocular products. Future
modules will expand the use of this platform technology
to medical imaging, surgical planning, clinical decision
support, and other fields that would benefit from computational modeling of biological tissues and systems.
Services
Insilicomed’s initial target is cardiovascular device
design because of the expertise of its founders in the
analysis of heart disease and the credible successes to
date of its technology as a tool in the development of
cardiovascular devices and therapies. Large and small
medical technology companies have already benefited
from these tools.
The company can provide engineering support services
for medical device design, development and testing.
For example, device-tissue interactions are typically
complex and require accurate models of both the device
and the tissue, in addition to the interactions between
the two. Such modeling analyses are the specialty of
Insilicomed.
The cardiovascular modeling specialists and engineering support staff at Insilicomed can perform mechanical analyses on a wide variety of devices and tissues
and their interactions. Mechanical loads on implanted
devices and their effects on the surrounding tissue
depend critically on the accuracy of the model parameters. Modeling these interactions with realistic input
parameters and appropriate computational methods is
the benefit of using Insilicomed’s services. Predictive
analyses for cardiovascular-device systems can be performed, including fatigue and failure analysis, stress and
strain estimates in tissues and devices, tissue reactions
to implanted devices, and organ function.
Model
Computational model of the left and right ventricles,
showing a view of the basal valve plane. This model was
based on experimental measurements in the pig. Changes in properties of the heart with disease, for example
arrhythmias, heart failure and ischemic heart disease,
can be incorporated into these computational models to
examine functional changes in a diseased state.
insilicoMED
7825 Fay Ave, Suite 200 • La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel.: (619) 501-8894 • Email: info@insilicomed.com
URL: www.insilicomed.com
Founded: 2002
Lewis Waldman, PhD – CEO, Co-founder and Board Member,
Jeff Omens, PhD – Co-founder, Board Member, and Professor
of Medicine and Bioengineering
20
Technology Innovator:
Andrew McCulloch, PhD
Chair, Scientific Advisory Board
Professor and former Chair,
Department of Bioengineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
MPT uses proprietary algorithms for the analysis of
video in order to build systems that enhance the interaction between people and computer-based machines.
The company’s systems detect, identify, and translate
human expression into machine-readable form.
MPT was founded in 2009 with licensed technology
developed in the Machine Perception Laboratory at UC
San Diego. Javier R. Movellan, PhD, and his research
colleagues are leaders in the field of understanding
and quantifying human communication through facial
gesture and expression. Their work has provided substantial insight into understanding and replicating
computer-based systems that interpret human
reaction. As a result, the UCSD investigators (and
MPT founders) saw the potential of commercial
applications leveraging a natural, more intuitive interface with people using computer-based
technology.
At the time MPT was founded, the video game
industry (typically an early adopter of new
technology) launched the successful Nintendo®
Wii™, which heralded a more natural way to play
video games using a hand-held controller. MPT
decided to focus on creating visual applications
to recognize facial expression and gestures instead of
hand-held controllers, and to capitalize on the availability and abundance of video cameras. Additional
evidence showed that MPT was on the right path, particularly after the commercial success of the Microsoft®
Xbox® Kinect™, which introduced a camera interface
that made it easier and simpler for people to interact
with complex technologies. The company has also
distinguished itself through its advisory board, bringing
in thought leaders, such as the preeminent psychologist
Paul Ekman, PhD, to conceptualize new strategies and
Machine Perception Technologies
3830 Valley Center Dr. • Suite 705-632
San Diego, CA 92130
Tel: 858-336-8094 • Fax: 866-334-0125
stan@mpt4u.com
Found: 2009
Financing: Private funding
Founders:
Javier R. Movellan – President
Marian Stewart Bartlett – VP Research
Stanley Kim – COO
product applications for the U.S. Federal Government
and leading companies, such as Procter & Gamble and
Intel Corporation.
MPT systems are adaptive—capable of learning and
recognizing quantified human behavior and expression,
unlike biometric systems, which are limited to identifying individuals from a database. This advantage is
more attractive as devices become smarter and more
autonomous. Human expression is essential to many
industries, ranging from marketing and advertising to
monitoring and security. MPT is exploiting its strengths
by creating adaptive application systems for these
industries. The company is developing:
• devices to help marketers better understand their
customers,
• learning systems for children to better understand
their lessons; and
• security systems to warn of impending security
threats.
START-UPS
What do the following have in common?
FOX TV’s hit show “Lie to Me,”
Sony’s “Smile ShutterTM” camera feature, and
the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to ensure
national security at airports.
The answer–Machine Perception Technologies (MPT).
Each project is associated with technology invented at
UC San Diego and developed by individuals at MPT.
Diagram showing fully automated facial action coding
system, using machine-learning techniques.
The company faces many challenges as a start-up,
including concerns for privacy, the novel nature of this
burgeoning field, and the inherent idiosyncrasies of human expression. Despite these challenges, MPT is paving the road for a simpler, more natural human interface
as people interact with and through computer-based
machines. MPT is on the leading edge of visual applications in adaptive facial recognition and is well-positioned
to advance this technology into the marketplace.
Gwen Littlewort Ford – Senior Researcher
Ian Fasel – Senior Researcher
Nicholas Butko – Chief Software Engineer
Technology Innovators:
Javier R. Movellan, PhD
Institute for Neural Computation
Marian Bartlett
Institute for Neural Computation
http://invent.ucsd.edu
21
START-UPS
Meritage Pharma is committed to the development of
prescription products based on safe and effective molecules for the treatment of gastrointestinal and atopic
diseases. Meritage Pharma’s initial product candidate is
intended for the treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis,
an allergic inflammation of the esophagus.
Meritage Pharma’s management team has an established track record of building successful specialty pharmaceutical companies and in identifying and developing
novel products for atopic diseases. The company was
founded in March 2008 and has raised $30.5 million in
Series A financing from Domain Associates, Latterell
Venture Partners, and The Vertical Group.
What is Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE)?
EoE is an allergic inflammatory condition of the esophagus that can cause difficulty in swallowing and heartburn, and in severe cases it can lead to food impaction
(food getting stuck in the esophagus) and in children, a
failure to thrive (poor growth or weight loss).
EoE is a disorder in which eosinophils, a type of white
blood cell involved in allergic reactions, infiltrate the
walls of the esophagus. This eosinophil infiltration leads
to inflammation of the esophagus and is believed to
cause tissue remodeling and fibrosis if left untreated.
A variety of stimuli may trigger this allergic process,
including certain foods and environmental allergens.
Eosinophils are typically found in small quantities in the
blood and intestinal tract and participate in maintaining its health. Eosinophilic disorders (whether of the
esophagus, stomach, small or large intestine) occur
when the cells accumulate in large quantities.
Oral Suspension Budesonide
Budesonide is the active pharmaceutical ingredient in
several products approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), including products for the treatment of pediatric asthma, allergic rhinitis, and Crohn’s
disease. Budesonide is a glucocorticoid steroid and
has an established safety profile in those diseases and
works by decreasing inflammation in the treated area.
Oral suspension budesonide (OBS) is a proprietary oral
formulation of budesonide for the potential treatment
of patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). OBS is
designed to coat the esophagus with budesonide in order to treat local eosinophilic inflammation and provide
patients symptomatic relief.
In August 2012, Meritage initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial
to evaluate OBS for the treatment of adolescents and
young adults with EoE. The trial is being conducted at
multiple U.S. clinical centers that specialize in the treatment of patients with gastrointestinal diseases.
The FDA has granted Orphan Drug Status designation
to OBS for the treatment of EoE. Orphan designation generally provides Meritage Pharma with market
exclusivity for the product for seven years following
FDA approval, in addition to other incentives. There are
currently no FDA-approved products for the treatment
of EoE.
Meritage Pharma Inc.
12555 High Bluff Drive #385 San Diego, CA 92130
Tel: (858) 436-1660
Email: information@meritagepharma.com
URL: www.meritagepharma.com
Founded: 2008
Employees: 6
Technology Innovator:
Elaine M. Phillips, PhD – President & CEO
Malcolm R. Hill, PharmD – Chief Scientific Officer
Adam K. Simpson – Chief Business Officer, Treasurer and Secretary
Ranjan Dohil, MD
Professor, Pediatrics
School of Medicine
22
The company collaborates with several research institutions, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) around the world. MRV’s goals include:
1. Supporting science through cutting edge technology
2. Providing platform research and development, allowing scientists to focus on research
3. Maximizing financial value – more observational
profiles per unit cost
4. Customizing vehicles for the specific needs of its
clients along with its tremendous sensor integration
program; scalability
5. Adding value over its competitors.
MRV is focused on being an intrinsically integrated
company—environmentally focused, recycling all waste,
maximizing scientific utility, providing full-spectrum
services, while striving towards Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) operational standards. The
company believes community outreach and education are
instrumental to its brand and recognition. Its goals are designing, building, and analyzing highly reliable and diverse
instrumentation and continuation of its outreach program.
The company’s outreach program focuses on the principles of “K through Gray”; concentrating on inspiring
youth to consider engineering and science professions
and to help them realize that these disciplines are attain-
able. With a goal to educate and inspire children within
the classroom by allowing them to “virtually own” a float,
students can follow the complete lifecycle of an ARGO
float from deployment to demise. All aspects of the float
life history can be incorporated in a myriad of subject
matter.
Products and Services
MRV S2A Platform Overview
MRV Systems provides a better, faster,
less expensive way to collect oceanographic data. The MRV S2A platform
makes it possible to collect the highest
resolution data at the lowest cost per
profile. Leveraging SOLO-II technology
developed and proven by SIO, MRV
S2A (vertically profiling autonomous
vehicles) can provide global coverage for oceanographic research. An
unmatched level of energy efficiency
enables the MRV S2A float to provide
continuous profiling, sampling every
hertz, and averaging data every two
meters—providing unequaled return
on customer’s research investments.
START-UPS
MRV Systems provides oceanographic vehicles with
comprehensive data integration and vehicle deployment
services. Uniquely tied to global research organizations
and government agencies, MRV is committed to providing creative and innovative solutions to better monitor,
understand, and protect the world’s oceans. The company was founded by Mr. Jim Dufour, upon his retirement
after a 30 year career at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at UC San Diego, and SEAR Technologies, a
San Diego-based venture firm whose focus is on environmental technologies that will provide better engineering
and systems for research, education, private sector, and
government.
In 2011, the first 20 MRV floats,
produced locally in San Diego, were MRV S2A vertically
deployed in the South Pacific as part profiling autonoof the ARGO program. ARGO is a
mous vehicle
global array of over 3,000 free-drifting
profiling floats that measure temperature, salinity, and
velocity of the upper 2,000 meters of the ocean, returning
data within minutes of collection. ARGO has developed
a large user community within universities, government
labs, and meteorological/climate analysis/forecasting
centers. The need for global ARGO observations will
continue for the foreseeable future, and the technologies
and design of the array and floats will evolve to meet the
needs of the scientists characterizing the global ocean.
MRV Systems, LLC
11558 Sorrento Valley Road • Suite 1 • San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: (858) 952-5937
URL: www.mrvsys.com
Founded: 2010
Employees: 5 FTE, 3 PTE
Financing: privately funded
Jim Dufour – President
Jason Khoury – CEO
Technology Innovator:
Dean Roemmich, PhD
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
http://invent.ucsd.edu
23
START-UPS
Multimeric Biotherapeutics (Multimeric) is an early-stage
biotech company that was founded to spinout technology developed at UC San Diego by its scientific founder,
Richard S. Kornbluth, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of
Medicine. The company’s product development focus is
based on a technology for expressing TNF superfamily
(TNFSF) molecules as multimeric, many-trimer soluble
proteins with markedly enhanced activity. Molecules
with 4 TNFSF trimers are called the “UltraLigands™”
and molecules with 2 TNFSF trimers are called the
“MegaLigands™.” The lead compound is UltraCD40L™
(SP-D-CD40L), a 4-trimer form of CD40 ligand (CD40L)
that stimulates the immune system. A similar protein,
MegaCD40L™ (Acrp30-CD40L), is a 2-trimer molecule
that is already in use by research laboratories around
the world as a powerful immune stimulating agent.
Multimeric has exclusive worldwide licenses to the
therapeutic uses of the TNFSF multimerization technology, which can also be applied to the other 18 proteins
in the TNF superfamily for use in cancer immunotherapy,
vaccines, transplantation, and regenerative medicine. For its first clinical trial, Multimeric is planning a
breakthrough cancer treatment that combines genetic
information obtained from a patient’s own tumor cells
with an UltraCD40L™-enabled strategy that generates
anti-tumor T lymphocytes for administration back into
the patient’s body to fight the tumor.
Receptor clustering is needed for many TNF SuperFamily receptors to transmit a full signal
The following TNFSF receptors are stimulated by many
trimer forms of their respective ligands but not by 1-trimer forms: CD40; TNFR2; Fas; 4-1BB; DR3; DR5; TACI;
and GITR.
1
Multimeric Biotherapeutics, Inc.
5580 La Jolla Blvd. Ste 76
La Jolla, CA 92037-7651
URL: http://www.multimericbio.com
Email: info@multimericbio.com
Founded: 2008
Employees: 3
Richard S. Kornbluth, MD, PhD – Co-Founder, President, and CSO
David A. Roth, PhD – Co-Founder and COO
Marc Hertz, PhD – Co-Founder and Board Chair
Mariusz Stempniak, PhD – Principal Scientist
24
Production of multi-trimer forms of soluble TNFSFs
using multimerization scaffolds
MultimericBio’s UltraTNFSFs are produced by genetically fusing the extracellular TNFSF domain with the
body of a spontaneously multimerizing scaffold protein.
Surfactant protein D (SP-D) is ideal because it is a selfassembling protein with four trimeric arms. For the SP-D
versions of the UltraLigands, the protein is first synthesized within cells as a single polypeptide chain.
UltraTNFSF design
• Figure 1: Each chain forms a trimeric “arm” within
the cell.
• Figure 2: Four arms come together at a “hub” to
make a molecule with four TNFSF trimers that is
then secreted.
• Figure 3: Further stacking at the hub can create
higher order multimers of TNFSFs.
The UltraLigands are soluble, many trimer proteins that
act like the membrane forms of TNFSFs.
One-trimer CD40L has little or no activity on resting cells
in vitro. In contrast, UltraCD40L (i.e., 4-trimer SP-DCD40L) is strongly activating. Similar results were shown
for SP-D-CD40L by Haswell, Glennie, and Al-Shamkhani
(Eur J Immunol. 31:3094-3100, 2001) and analogous
data were presented for Acrp30-FasL by Holler et al. in
the group of Schneider and Tschopp (Mol Cellular Biol
23:1428-1440, 2003). Because the many trimer UltraTNFSFs cluster their receptors in responding cells, they
have activities similar to the membrane forms of the
TNFSFs, yet they can diffuse through tissues as soluble
proteins.
2
3
Technology Innovator:
Richard S. Kornbluth, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Medicine
School of Medicine
NanoSort, Inc.
José Morachis, PhD – CEO
Yu-Hwa Lo, PhD – Chief Scientific Officer
William Alaynick, PhD – COO
Nathaniel Heintzman, PhD – Interim CFO
Financing/Financial Milestones:
SBIR Phase I funding from the NIH’s
National Center for Research Resources
(NCRR)
Technology Innovator:
Yu-Hwa Lo, PhD
Professor, Electrical and
Computer Engineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
START-UPS
9924 Mesa Rim Road
San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: (951) 966-4963 •
Fax: 858-356-5965
URL: http://nanosort.net
Founded: 2009
Employees: 5
NanoSort, Inc. is a lab-on-a-chip flow cytometer company for life
science researchers and clinicians. The company was founded
with technology developed by Professor Yu-Hwa Lo (Electrical
and Computer Engineering). In addition to Dr. Lo, co-founders
include UCSD alumni Jose Morachis, PhD; William Alaynick, PhD;
and Nathaniel Heintzman, PhD. NanoSort’s mission is to advance
biomedicine by providing researchers with a robust, portable,
inexpensive flow cytometer that reduces assay complexity, time,
space, and cost. Compared to current systems, NanoSort’s
smaller system offers cell sorting capabilities and the detection of
more colors. The market for these devices is presently estimated
at $1.5 billion and is projected to grow to $3.7 billion in 2015.
Technology flow cytometry (fluorescence-activated cell sorting,
FACS) has played an increasingly vital role in medical and research
applications for over 40 years. NanoSort focuses on enabling
point-of-care access to flow cytometry via a robust, portable,
inexpensive device that meets or exceeds performance of current industry leaders at a fraction of the cost and space. This is all
made possible by the company’s proprietary and patent-pending
Lab-on-a-Chip platform that combines microfluidics, photonics,
and microacoustics with groundbreaking analytical software.
Advantages of the NanoSort system include:
• Miniaturization—The unique Lab-on-a-Chip technology allows
for better integration of multiple functions onto a single chip.
• Detection and Analytics—Building on robust wireless technology principles in signal processing, the integrated microfluidics, optical waveguides and Color-Space-Time Coding (CoST)
techniques enable multi-parameter detection using a single
photomultiplier tube (PMT) detector.
• Piezoelectric Sorting—Low-cost, low-complexity piezoelectric
cell-sorting technology allows the Lab-on-a-Chip device to
rapidly and precisely sort a single cell at a time and preserve
the integrity of cells at rates that exceed current devices.
Paradigm-shifting approach: Integration of wireless signal processing technology with opto-fluidic device technology
http://invent.ucsd.edu
25
START-UPS
Accelerating the Cure
NeurAccel Biosciences is a privately-held biotechnology
company based in San Diego, California. The company’s
mission is to accelerate cure for central nervous system
(CNS) diseases and make drug discovery better, faster,
and cheaper. NeurAccel’s core technology—Neurofluocytes—allows understanding precisely the mechanisms
of actions of given compounds acting in the brain and
has three main advantages:
1. The technology is over 100-1000 times faster and
vastly superior in sensitivity than microdialysis/
HPLC/electrochemical detection, the standard technique to measure neurotransmitters.
2. Neurofluocytes bridge the gap between in vitro
cell-based assays and in vivo testing. This unique
capability will considerably accelerate drug development by providing consistent data between the in
vivo and in vitro phases.
3. The method can be adapted to a multitude of neurotransmitter systems.
NeurAccel’s objective is to become the world leader
in preclinical in vivo drug screening for CNS diseases.
It’s positioning itself as the essential partner in the CNS
drug discovery industry by providing a ‘go/no go’ decision to pursue the development of specific compounds
acting in the brain to cure CNS diseases.
The company has already designed and developed specific assay platforms to screen drugs against Alzheimer’s
disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and addiction to
nicotine diseases. Its business model is dual: (1) in vivo
pre-clinical drug screening services and (2) manufacturing and selling of assay platforms. The company’s
potential customers range from major pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies to small biotechs, as well
as research institutions.
Neurotransmitters and their receptors.
Brain cells, also called neurons, communicate with each
other by sending substances called neurotransmitNeurAccel Biosciences Inc.
11099 North Torrey Pines • Suite 110
La Jolla, CA 92037
Phone/Fax: (858) 457-8128
Email: info@neuraccel.com
URL: neuraccel.com
Founded: 2009
Quoc Thang Nguyen, PhD – President and CEO
Thomas Fouquet, PhD, MBA – VP and COO
26
ters. These molecules act like a key inside other cells’
“locks”, called receptors. There are many different kinds
of neurotransmitter “keys”, each fitting to their own
“locks”. Activation of these receptors is the basis of
every single action of our brain like thoughts, emotions,
and movements.
Neurotransmitters, receptors and diseases.
Many diseases in the brain result from too little or
too much of a particular neurotransmitter. Other CNS
diseases are either linked to too few receptors or to
abnormal receptors.
It is essential to measure
neurotransmitter levels
in the live brain and the
subsequent activation of
neurotransmitter receptors:
1. To understand how
the brain works.
2. To develop new pharmaceuticals against
brain diseases.
The Neurofluocytes technology
The Neurofluocytes technology is a revolutionary
method to measure neurotransmitter levels and receptor
activation in the live brain of experimental animals. Neurofluocytes were invented by Dr. Quoc Thang Nguyen,
CEO of NeurAccel, while at UC San Diego. A description of the technique and proof-of-concept for using
Neurofluocytes in CNS drug development have been
published in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience
and highlighted in Nature Methods.
NeurAccel has obtained exclusive rights from UC San
Diego to use Neurofluocytes to screen for CNS compounds.
Technology Innovators:
Quoc Thang Nguyen, PhD
Founder, President and CEO
Thomas Fouquet, PhD, MBA
Vice President and COO
Ortiva’s Bandwidth Allocation technology apportions just
the right amount of bandwidth to each subscriber. For
example, if one subscriber needs 750 Kbps of bandwidth
for video, while another needs only 250 Kbps, Bandwidth
Allocation delivers bit rates catered to each subscriber’s
specific need.
In contrast, brute force, non-video-aware methods
simply deliver 500 Kbps to each mobile video subscriber
regardless of a subscriber’s bandwidth requirements.
Non-aware methods result in wasted bandwidth and poor
quality. 500 Kbps delivered to a subscriber needing only
250 Kbps wastes bandwidth; while 500 Kbps delivered
to a subscriber needing 750 Kbps results in stalls and a
poor user experience.
Bandwidth Allocation allows more simultaneous subscribers across available bandwidth, deferring the need
for more RAN and backhaul capacity and associated
capital expenses. It also reduces RAN and backhaul operating expenses by reducing wasted bandwidth.
Ortiva’s proprietary Inline Transrating technology adapts
video content to network conditions in real-time without
the expense or scalability concerns of complete transcoding. Ortiva’s transrating engine checks video frames
and their properties and reduces only the parts of the
content that a subscriber would not notice, reducing
bandwidth while providing the same perceived quality of
experience. Transrating reduces delivery bandwidth only
during drops in available bandwidth, dynamically changing to match bandwidth conditions and thus delivering the best possible quality under the current network
conditions.
START-UPS
Ortiva Wireless offers the industry’s most advanced commercial solutions for proactive management of mobile
video, allowing service providers to dramatically improve
control, quality, and efficiency of rich media content delivery. Ortiva’s iVOG® (internet Video Optimization Gateway)
for open internet media extends service reach, increases
network efficiency, and improves video coverage density
for mobile operators, while dynamically shaping the content to give subscribers the smoothest video and clearest
audio experience possible – regardless of fluctuating and
hostile wireless network conditions.
Ortiva Wireless
4225 Executive Square, Suite 700
La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel: 858 704 1550 • Fax: 858 704 17211
URL: www.ortivawireless.com
info@ortivawireless.com
Founded: 2004
Marc Zionts – CEO
Dr. Sujit Dey – Founder and Chief Technologist
William (Bill) Archer – Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
Faisal Mushtaq – Vice President, Engineering
Debashis Panigrahi – Chief Software Architect
Ronald Garrison – Vice President, Product Management
Troy Noll – Vice President, Finance & Administration
Aaron Nowlan – Vice President, Customer Service
Financing:
8/10 - $15.1 M private round
6/07 - $15 M private round
Investors include:
Technology Innovator:
Comcast Interactive Capital
(CIC),
Artiman Ventures,
Mission Ventures,
and Avalon Ventures.
5/12 Acquired by Allot Communications
Sujit Dey, PhD
Professor, Electrical and
Computer Engineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
http://invent.ucsd.edu
Ortiva’s iVOG® (internet Video Optimization
Gateway) is a video optimization platform
designed for wireless operators to improve
overall network efficiency and reduce
bandwidth consumption, while simultaneously improving end-user experience. It is
deployed as a proxy service in the operator
network, where it minimizes video data rate
on the network, maximizes the number of
simultaneous video users, and dynamically
modifies video content flow (via transrating)
to suit the end-user’s prevailing network
conditions.
27
START-UPS
Otonomy is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing
innovative therapeutics for diseases
and disorders of the inner and middle
ear. Founded in 2008 by Jay Lichter,
PhD, of Avalon Ventures together with
Jeffrey Harris, MD, PhD, and Allen
Ryan, PhD, of UC San Diego, and Rick
Friedman, MD, PhD, of the House
Ear Institute, Otonomy has successfully raised a total of $48.5 million in
venture capital to support its work in
the field of otology.
The emerging otology therapeutic area
provides a significant opportunity as
there are currently no FDA-approved
drug treatments for the nearly 30
million Americans that are affected
by debilitating hearing and balance
diseases and disorders such as Ménière’s disease, sudden sensorineural
hearing loss, noise-induced hearing
loss, age-related hearing impairment,
and tinnitus. To address this large and
underserved market, Otonomy has
developed a sustained release formulation technology that enables the
optimal delivery of drugs to the middle
and inner ear via direct administration
(called an intratympanic or IT injection). The company has leveraged this
approach, which has broad applicability across a range of therapeutic
classes, to create a high-value pipeline of novel drug candidates that are
currently advancing into and through
clinical trials.
Drug Pipeline
OTO-104 is a sustained-release OTO104 is a sustained-release formulation
of the steroid dexamethasone. Based
on the current use of oral and IT steroids in the treatment of hearing and
balance disorders, the target market
for OTO-104 is more than 1 million
patients per year in the U.S. A Phase
Ib clinical trial has been completed in
Ménière’s Disease patients. This study
demonstrated that a single IT injection
of OTO-104 was safe and well-tolerated. Furthermore, patients treated with
OTO-104 experienced clinically meaningful reductions in vertigo frequency
and improvements in tinnitus as com-
28
pared to placebo.
Future studies are
being considered for
patients with acute
hearing loss.
OTO-201 is a
sustained-release
gel formulation of the
antibiotic ciprofloxacin, in development
for otitis media
patients undergoing
surgery for placement of a tympanostomy tube. The
market opportunity
for such a single-use
product is significant
as there are roughly one million tympanostomy tube placement surgeries
performed each year in the U.S. and
no antibiotics approved for use during
the procedure.
In addition to OTO-104 and OTO-201,
the company also plans to develop
additional product candidates targeting chronic forms of hearing loss and
tinnitus.
Finally, the combination of a large, underserved patient population, a small
specialist ENT physician audience,
and an absence of FDA-approval
requirements creates the necessary conditions to allow Otonomy to
independently advance its products
through commercialization in the U.S.
Otonomy, Inc.
6275 Nancy Ridge Drive • Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: (858) 245-5200
Otology Market Leadership
Fax: (858) 200-0933
The emerging otology field provides
www.otonomy.com
a unique opportunity for Otonomy to
establish a leading position in both the Founded: 2008
Employees: 20
development and commercialization
of novel drug treatments.
David Weber, PhD – President and CEO
First, the company’s collaboration with Paul Cayer – Chief Business Officer
Carl LeBel – Chief Scientific Officer
researchers at UCSD has led to the
Jerry Wroblewski – Chief Operations
establishment of Otonomy’s broad
Officer
patent position covering sustained
release delivery of numerous therapeutic classes across a wide range of Financing/Financial Milestones:
$38.5M Series B Financing (8/10)
otic disorders.
$10M Series A Financing in (6/10)
Second, Otonomy has rapidly built a
Technology Innovators:
product pipeline that initially features
drugs with well-established safety and Jeffrey Harris, MD, PhD
Professor and Chief, Division of
clinical efficacy profiles.
Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery
School of Medicine
Third, the company has assembled a
leadership team consisting of highly
Allen F. Ryan, PhD
experienced executives, premier sciProfessor of Surgery
entific advisors, and leading venture
Director Otolaryngology Research
capital investors.
• Energy (natural gas field exploration, monitoring, and improved recovery rates);
• Mining (precious mineral deposit valuation);
• Defense & Surveillance (nuclear test detection and deterrence, border and barrier control), as well as;
• Basic Research in academia (geophysics and fundamental constants).
All four of these sectors are capital intensive in nature with increases in efficiency, detection and monitoring translating into millions of dollars in profit or security. With its broad technology base, Quad Geometrics is capable of
providing unparalleled visibility and bottom line results, now and into the future.
START-UPS
Quad Geometrics, Inc. provides products and services related to the precise measurement of various Earth parameters, specifically gravity, sound, pressure, and vibration. The application of precision metrological principles can
and has yielded substantial and measurable improvements in:
Gravity meters in production, onboard, and being
deployed for offshore natural gas reservoir monitoring.
UCSD TECHNOLOGY
QUAD GEOMETRICS, LLC
5042 Wilshire Blvd # 15682
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone: (858) 356-5864
http://www.quadgeo.com
Founded: 2011
INNOVATOR
Mark Zumberge, PhD
Research Geophysicist
Institute of Geophysics and
Planetary Physics
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography
MANAGEMENT
Mark Zumberge, PhD
Co-Founder
http://invent.ucsd.edu
29
START-UPS
Renova Therapeutics is a privately held gene therapy
company founded in 2009. With a focus on congestive
heart failure (CHF) and cardiac diseases, the company
was formed to advance the research of top UCSD
cardiologist, Dr. Kirk Hammond, into the clinic and to
patients in dire need of treatment.
CHF is a condition where the heart is unable to pump
sufficiently to provide the body with enough blood flow.
As a result, the kidneys receive less blood and filter less
fluid into the urine which leads to excess fluid buildup
in the lungs, liver, and legs. CHF afflicts more than five
million Americans and its prognosis is dismal–50% of
those diagnosed die within four to five years.
of the clinical sites. The company uses consultants with
whom it has previous working relationships. In addition,
the company has raised money from individual investors to finance company operations, including some
of the product development costs. In support of the
clinical trial with its lead product, the company has entered into a Public/Private Partnership with the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National
Institutes of Health.
The hearts of CHF patients have reduced levels of
cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), an important
secondary messenger in regulating cardiac muscle contraction. Dr. Hammond, also a Renova founder, discovered that the adenylyl cyclase type 6 (AC6) gene was
downregulated in CHF patients. He later discovered that
increasing the heart’s content of AC6, improves heart
function. Subsequently, Hammond and his colleagues
at UC San Diego sequenced and patented the human
AC6 gene.
Preclinical studies of AC6 began with a series of
experiments with heart muscle cells in cell culture and
animal models with heart failure. The results in mice
with cardiomyopathy (a type of CHF) showed that when
AC6 levels were increased, heart function and lifespan
also increased. In pigs, the AC6 gene therapy led to
substantial improvements in heart function and reduced
dilation of the heart. This dilation, or enlargement, of
the heart is the body’s compensation for the loss of the
heart’s ability to pump blood sufficiently.
Renova has a small staff supporting the founders, as
well as a team of clinical research professionals at each
Renova Therapeutics
11452 El Camino Real • Suite 120 • San Diego, CA 92130
Tel: (858) 461-1837
Email: info@renovatherapeutics.com
URL: www.renovatherapeutics.com
Founded: 2009
Jack W. Reich, PhD – President and CEO
Craig Andrews – COO
Financing:
Private investors
$250,000 – Therapeutic Discovery Project Grant
30
The chart above shows the prevalence of CHF by
age. According to the NHLBI, there are an estimated
400,000 new cases. The annual number of deaths
directly from CHF increased from 10,000 in 1968 to
42,000 in 1993, with another 219,000 related to the
condition.
CHF is the first-listed diagnosis in 875,000 hospitalizations, and the most common diagnosis in hospital
patients age 65 years and older. In that age group, one
fifth of all hospitalizations have a primary or secondary
diagnosis of heart failure.
Technology Innovator:
Kirk Hammond, MD
Professor of Medicine
School of Medicine
VA San Diego Healthcare System
START-UPS
SciVee is a leading video platform solutions provider for
the scientific, technical, and medical (STM) market. The
company was founded in 2007 with licensed technology
developed by Philip E. Bourne, PhD, at UC San Diego.
The company provides a video publishing, distribution,
and hosting platform to enliven the online presence of
STM content providers. SciVee’s services drive higher
traffic, increase viewers, promote authors, and generate
new services and monetization options for publishers,
professional and technical societies, research groups,
and academic institutions.
SciVee products and services are based on five elements:
• Browser-based synchronization technology (patentpending), where a video and document are synchronized directly on the SciVee site.
• Software as a Service, so the customer does not
need to invest in new software or worry about IT
administration.
• A DIY (do it yourself) model, such that authors can
Comprehensive rich media solutions for scientists,
create and upload videos quickly, easily, and ecoeducators, publishers, and societies.
nomically with minimal help from editors, publishers, or SciVee.
• Easy integration into current production workflows
of publishers and other content providers.
• A public website open for users to access and for
researchers to upload videos of interest, and a
distribution option for publishers and other content
providers.
SciVee, Inc.
PO Box 1304
Solana Beach, CA 92075
URL: www.scivee.tv
Founded: 2007
Employees: 6
Technology Innovator:
Philip E. Bourne, PhD
Professor, Pharmaceutical Science
Skaggs School of Pharmacy
Philip E. Bourne, PhD – Co-Founder
Leo M. Chalupa, PhD – Co-Founder
Willy Suwanto – Web-Data Applications Programmer
Alex Ramos – Flash/Front-End Developer
http://invent.ucsd.edu
31
START-UPS
Sensing the Future Through Innovation
Senomyx is using proprietary taste
receptor technologies to discover
and develop novel flavor ingredients.
These include new flavors such as
Savory Flavors and Cooling Flavors,
as well as flavor modulators such
as Bitter Blockers and enhancers
of Sweet and Salt tastes. Senomyx
is also engaged in a new effort to
discover and develop natural high
potency sweeteners. Ten of its flavor
ingredients have received Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS)
regulatory status, which allows
usage in the U.S. and numerous
other countries: six Savory Flavors
(used to reduce or replace MSG or
create new savory blends), S2383
(used to reduce sucralose), S6973
(used to reduce sugar), and two
bitter blockers, S6821 and S7958.
The company has product discovery
and development collaborations
with global food, beverage, and
ingredient supply companies, some
of which are currently marketing
products that contain Senomyx’s
flavor ingredients.
Technology
Flavors are substances that impart
tastes or aromas in foods and beverages. Individuals experience the
sensation of taste when flavors in
food and beverage products interact
with taste receptors in the mouth.
A taste receptor functions either
by physically binding to a flavor
ingredient in a process analogous to
the way a key fits into a lock or by
acting as a channel to allow ions to
Senomyx, Inc.
4767 Nexus Centre Drive
San Diego, California 92121
Tel: (858) 646-8300
Fax: (858) 404-0752
URL: www.senomyx.com
Founded: 1999
Employees: 120
Financing:
Initial private financing
Public-NASDAQ:SNMX
32
flow directly into a taste cell. As a result of these interactions, signals are
sent to the brain where a specific
taste sensation is registered. There
are currently five recognized primary
senses of taste: umami, which is the
savory taste of glutamate, sweet,
salt, bitter, and sour.
Senomyx has discovered or inlicensed many of the key receptors
that mediate taste in humans. Using
isolated human taste receptors, the
company created proprietary taste
receptor-based assay systems that
provide a biochemical or electronic
readout when a flavor ingredient
interacts with the receptor. Its highthroughput discovery and development process allows the company
to conduct millions of analyses of
new potential flavor ingredients annually. This efficiency is impossible
to achieve using conventional flavor
discovery methods. As a result,
Senomyx has identified hundreds of
unique potential new flavor ingredients that could not be discovered
using taste tests alone.
Collaborations
Senomyx has five Discovery & Development programs: Savory Flavors
Program, Sweet Taste Program,
Salt Taste Program, Bitter Blocker
Program, and Cooling Flavors
Program. The company’s collaborative agreements provide its partners
exclusive or co-exclusive use of the
flavor ingredients resulting from one
or more of its Discovery & Develop-
Kent Snyder – CEO & Chairman
John Poyhonen – President & COO
Sharon Wicker – SVP & Chief Commercial
Development Officer
Donald Karanewsky, PhD – SVP & CSO
David Berger – VP, General Counsel &
Corporate Secretary
Susan Firestone – VP Human Resources
David Linemeyer, PhD – VP, Biology
Lorenzo Peña – VP, Information Technology
Tony Rogers – VP & CFO
Gwen Rosenberg – VP, Investor Relations &
Corporate Communications
ment programs, in specific product
categories and geographies. The
exclusive nature of the agreements
allows its partners to differentiate their products from those of its
competitors. Senomyx retains rights
to enter into license agreements
with multiple other companies for
the same flavor ingredients in noncompeting product categories or
geographies.
Through its collaboration agreements, Senomyx received and
expects to continue to receive a
combination of upfront license fee
payments, research and development funding, and milestone payments. In addition, the company
will receive royalties from the sales
of its collaborators’ products that
contain Senomyx flavor ingredients.
These royalty payments will continue
through the lifetime of patents covering the Senomyx ingredients incorporated into the products, allowing
the company to participate in the
revenue generated as its collaborators sell their products, grow their
sales, and establish new markets.
In addition to their development
and commercial activities, Senomyx
contributes to the community by
supporting educational, environmental, charitable, and health & wellness causes. The company recently
launched a blog to connect and
share their community efforts.
Technology Innovators:
Roger Y. Tsien, PhD
Professor – Pharmacology,
Chemistry and Biochemistry, and
Howard Hughes Investigator
Charles Zuker, PhD
Professor – Biochemistry and
Neuroscience
Howard Hughes Investigator
About non-human, immunogenic N-glycolylneuraminic
Acid (Neu5Gc)
Neu5Gc is a molecule that enters the human body primarily through dietary intake of red meats and dairy products,
but also via administration of biopharmaceuticals that are
manufactured using Neu5Gc-contaminated animal-derived
products and cell lines. Initial research by Sialix founders
and their colleagues at UC San Diego has shown that all
humans produce anti-Neu5Gc antibodies and that some
humans produce levels that surpass some well-known
xenoreactive antibodies. These antibodies are a major
cause for rejection of allotransplants, xenotransplants, and
in some cases, cause a negative impact on the efficacy
of biotherapeutics containing ‘serum-free’ mammalian
proteins. This Neu5Gc contamination results in reduced
efficacy of biotherapeutics by significantly shortening the
effective life of the biotherapeutic. The potential to reduce
the presence of Neu5Gc resulting in improved pharmaco-
kinetic profiles and increased efficacy potentially affects
a number of FDA-approved products, as well as many
research projects still in their development stage.
Altered glycosylation involving Neu5Gc is also common in
certain solid tumor cancers. Sialix is currently in the process of developing diagnostic tools to predict the risk of
colon, prostate, breast, and other cancers using Neu5Gcconjugates as biomarkers.
Products For Research
Gc-Free Basic Kit
Basic Kit contains essential components used in concert
with other user-supplied materials to detect the presence
of the non-human sialic acid, NGNA, attached to glycoproteins or cells of recombinant or natural origin.
Gc-Free IHC Kit
This anti-NGNA immunohistochemistry (IHC) kit provides
materials to detect the presence of the non-human sialic
acid NGNA within cells of tissue sections of human or
non-human origin.
START-UPS
Sialix Inc. is a pioneer in glycobiology, specializing in sialic
acid research, discovery, and technology platform solutions for industry and research institutions worldwide. The
company’s technology is focused on providing pure, more
effective biotherapeutics through the detection, measurement, and elimination of a non-human, immunogenic sialic
acid, N-glycolylneuraminic Acid (Neu5Gc) that has been
linked to chronic inflammation and disease. The Sialix
technology is being further leveraged for the development
of Neu5Gc-free biobetters (improved biologicals that are
already FDA-approved), the development of novel diagnostics based on Neu5Gc antibodies, and the longer term
development of consumables including food and nutraceutical products.
Gc-Free Western Blot Kit
This kit provides materials to detect the presence of the
non-human sialic acid NGNA attached to glycoproteins of
recombinant or natural origin on Western Blots.
Products For Industry
• Sialix Discovery Service
• Sialix Pilot Service
• Sialix Production Service
• Sialix Certification Assistance
• HPLC Service
Technology Innovators:
Sialix, Inc.
1396 Poinsetta Avenue •Vista, CA 92081
Tel: (858) 200-7136 • Fax (760) 560-0020
URL: www.sialix.com
Founded: 2006
Employees: 8
Ajit Varki, MD
Distinguished Professor of Medicine and
Cellular & Molecular Medicine
School of Medicine
Norrie J. W. Russell, PhD – President, CEO
Sundar Subramaniam, MS, MBA – Chairman
Mark Hattendorf, MBA – COO and CFO
Nissi Varki, MD
Professor of Pathology
School of Medicine
http://invent.ucsd.edu
33
START-UPS
Somtherapeutics Inc.
Somtherapeutics Inc., a privately-held U.S. company holds an exclusive license from UC San Diego for a family of patented novel peptide
somatostatin analogs (SSA), which were optimized/characterized by the
company with Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The principals and Board of Somtherapeutics Inc. have a proven track record in
the development and characterization of the current market leading SSA,
octreotide.
Compound
SSA G02113, a new dual-receptor targeted SSA, is specifically designed
to have high affinity for two SSA receptors proven to be important, types
2 and 5.
Disease Targets
SSAs are used clinically for the treatment of acromegaly (growth hormone producing tumor of the pituitary gland in the brain) and metastatic
gastrointestinal neuroendocrine hormone producing tumors (NET). SSAs
suppress hormone secretion and control tumor size and disease symptoms. In the gut, they decrease bleeding and control fluid, enzyme, and
electrolyte secretion. SSAs are also increasingly used as the basis for
tumor radiodiagnostics and receptor-directed cancer radiotherapy.
Lead candidate SSA and preclinical data
The generation of iodinated somatostatin analogs led to the identification
and characterization of G02113, which was found to bind to somatostatin
receptor (SSTR) subtypes 2 and 5 with 50% inhibition seen at low concentrations of 0.63 and 0.65 nanomolar, respectively. Moore et al.
(J Medicinal Chemistry, 2005). These subnanomolar concentrations were
similar to those of the native compound somatostatin, and were 34 times
more potent than octreotide at SSTR 5.
The company seeks funding to advance its SSA development program
and plans an Investigational New Drug application(IND) in 2013.
Somatostatin analogs can also be used
in tumor radiodiagnostics, the image
shows a mass in the left lung as well as
other organs that have a high uptake of
SSAs.
34
Somtherapeutics Inc.
190 East 72 Street • Suite 32C
New York, NY 10021-4374
Tel: (917) 667-5370
Fax: (212) 744-8383
Info: aharris1@nyc.rr.com
Founded: 2007
Employees: 2
Alan G. Harris, MD, PhD – Chairman
Technology Innovator:
Murray Goodman, PhD (deceased)
Professor, Chemistry
Division of Physical Sciences
Spinnaker
Biosciences
Its products are expected to require low quantities of drug
for controlled intraocular delivery and have a low cost of
manufacturing. The products can be formulated to accommodate the wide range of drugs used to treat serious
eye diseases (e.g. anti-VEGF agents, non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, doxorubicin, corticosteroids, etc.) The
company’s disease targets include age-related macular
degeneration (ARMD), macular edema associated with
diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, cataract surgery,
uveitis, and prevention of proliferative vitreoretinopathy
(PVR) following ocular injury/retinal detachment.
Spinnaker Biosciences, Inc.
665 San Rodolfo Drive • Suite 124/165
Solana Beach, CA 92075
Founded: 2009
Virgil D. Thompson JD – CEO and Director
Private Financing
Series A: $2.5 million
START-UPS
Spinnaker Biosciences is an emerging drug delivery company with proprietary technology, licensed from the UC
San Diego, for intraocular controlled delivery using porous
silicon photonic crystals. The company’s technology uses
an innovative technique to produce porous silicon photonic
crystals. Pulsed electrochemical etching of a silicon chip
produces a multilayered porous nanostructure.
Technology Innovators:
Spinnaker’s first product will be biodegradable, porous
silicon photonic crystals incorporating a drug for the treatment of ARMD. ARMD is the leading cause of vision loss
worldwide and typically affects individuals 50 years of
age and older. As life expectancy increases, the disease
is becoming a growing problem. More than 1.6 million
people in the U.S. currently have one or both eyes affected
by the advanced stage of wet ARMD and about 200,000
new cases are diagnosed each year. In recent years new
treatments have become available for people afflicted with
wet ARMD. These new treatments are directed at inhibiting
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), a substance
that stimulates the growth and leakage of abnormal new
blood vessels. These treatments involve multiple injections
into the eye (intravitreal injections). Because these injections
have to be given every 1-2 months, for the patient they
are inconvenient, costly, and increase the risk of infection.
The major advantage of Spinnaker’s approach is delivery
of drug using a single intraocular injection that is expected
to last from six months to a year and allows monitoring of
drug release optically due to the photonic properties of the
delivery system.
Corporate Development Strategy
Following demonstration of safety and clinical proof of efficacy, Spinnaker will establish commercial partnerships with
pharmaceutical companies to generate revenue through
milestone payments and royalties on sales.
http://invent.ucsd.edu
Michael Sailor, PhD
Professor, Chemistry and
Biochemistry
Division of Physical
Sciences
William Freeman, MD
Professor, Ophthalmology
Director, Joan and Irwin
Jacobs Retina Center,
Shiley Eye Center
Above graphic is an example of an
intravitreal injection.
35
START-UPS
Telormedix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on targeted immunity and the role of the innate immune system in treating cancer
and autoimmune diseases, in particular the role of TLR 7 for the
topical treatment of cancer.
The company’s lead product, TMX-101, entered a Phase I/II clinical study for the treatment of Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer
(NMIBC). TMX-101 is a new formulation of a clinically active small
molecule compound with a known and favorable safety profile and a
specific immunotherapeutic target. Telormedix has optimized TMX101 specifically for the localized treatment of bladder cancer, the
fifth most prevalent cancer and a disease of unmet medical need.
TMX-101 will be the first targeted therapy dedicated to bladder
cancer and the first to modulate the innate immune system for this
indication.
Its second product, TMX-202, is a small molecule for the topical
treatment of skin and bladder cancers. The company also has a
third product called TMX-201, which is being developed for use as a
vaccine adjuvant. A proof-of-concept has recently been established
in relevant animal models and is currently undergoing preclinical
investigation. Moreover, Telormedix has an additional pipeline of
programs for autoimmune diseases, which is called TMX-30X. (see
pipeline below)
Discovery Capability
The company’s discovery capability, managed under an exclusive
licensing agreement with UC San Diego, draws on years of experience and the world class research standing of its academic partner.
Business Development
Telormedix welcomes enquiries from potential partners interested
in finding out more about its product pipeline. The company has
adopted a clear strategy to develop high value, but low risk products. Further pipeline products are currently in development and the
discovery capability within Telormedix’s academic partner promises
additional future candidates for development.
Telormedix SA
Via della Posta 10 • CH-6934 Bioggio
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0)91 610 7000
Fax: +41 (0)91 610 7031
E-Mail: telormedix@telormedix.com
URL: www.telormedix.com
Founded: 2007
Employees: 9
Johanna Holldack, MD – CEO
Philippe Lutz – CFO
Roberto Maj, PharmD – Founder/Head of Drug
Development
Alcide Barberis, PhD – Head of Research and
Collaborations
Raffaella Pozzi, PharmD – Head of Clinical
Operations
Nadia Passini, PhD – Project Management
Director
Financing/Milestones:
CHF 21 million ($19 million)
Key Investors:
Aravis Venture (Basel, Switzerland)
Proquest Investments (Princeton-San Diego,
USA)
BSI S.A. (Lugano, Switzerland)
Nextech Venture (Zurich Switzerland)
Generali Insurance Group (Italy)
Focus:
Targeted immunity and the role of innate immunity in fighting cancer and treating autoimmune
diseases
Products:
TMX-101 for the localised treatment of bladder
cancer
TMX-20X for the topical treatment of skin or
bladder cancers and as a vaccine adjuvant
TMX-30X for targeting autoimmune diseases
Technology Innovator:
Dennis Carson, MD
Director Emeritus
Moores Cancer Center
36
Cardiac disease is prevalent in the U.S., according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More
than 470,000 people who have already had one or more
heart attacks are at risk of having subsequent attacks.
There is a definite need for therapies that prevent heart
failure after a heart attack.
In animal models, VentriGel was not rejected and did
not trigger arrhythmic heart beating. In addition, the
hydrogel can be injected through a catheter which is
minimally invasive and does not require general anesthesia.
START-UPS
Ventrix Inc. was founded in 2009 to spinout the research of Professor Karen Christman (Bioengineering).
The technology license agreement was formalized in
FY2011. Dr. Christman’s work has developed promising results for the treatment and repair of cardiac tissue
damage. A departure from current approaches, this
innovation is a hydrogel that treats damaged tissue by
providing a restorative scaffold on which new cells can
grow. This hydrogel, VentriGel, is made from cardiac
connective tissue that is stripped of heart muscle cells
through a cleansing process, freeze-dried and milled
into powder form, and then liquefied into a fluid that can
be easily injected into the heart. Upon reaching body
temperature, the liquid turns into a semi-solid, porous
gel that encourages cells to repopulate areas of damaged cardiac tissue and to preserve heart function. The
hydrogel forms a scaffold to repair the tissue and possibly provides biochemical signals that prevent further
deterioration in the surrounding tissues.
The company plans to begin clinical testing in humans
in late 2012. This safety trial will be conducted in Europe
where the catheter used for gel delivery has already
been approved.
Ventrix, Inc.
3030 Bunker Hill St.
Suite 117D
San Diego, CA 92109
URL: http://www.ventrixheart.com
Founded: 2009
Employees: 4
Tissue spins in a
beaker at the end of
the cleansing process
that removes all of
the cells. The process
retains the tissue’s
structural proteins, a
key component of the
hydrogel.
Email: adamkinsey@ventrixheart.com
Adam Kinsey, CEO
Technology Innovator:
The new hydrogel,
VentriGel, is made
from cardiac connective tissue that has
been stripped of heart
muscle cells through
a cleansing process,
freeze-dried, milled
into a powder form,
and then rehydrated
into a fluid that can
be injected into the
heart.
Karen Christman, PhD
Bioengineering
Jacobs School of Engineering
http://invent.ucsd.edu
37
START-UPS
Vesselon, Inc. is an early stage company creating an
entirely new clinical domain for the treatment of stroke.
Distinct from all approved drugs or devices, Vesselon’s
portable devices will treat patients before they get to a
hospital, stemming further damage to brain cells – critically important because ‘time is brain.’ Just as automated external defibrillators now save lives of cardiac arrest
patients outside of a hospital, the company’s device is
intended to save lives and improve the quality of life for
stroke victims by bringing stroke treatment closer, in
time and distance, to when and where the stroke first
occurs.
Medical Need
Stroke is the second leading cause of death globally
– one person dies from a stroke every six seconds. In
the U.S. 800,000 strokes occur per year, and in Europe
1,250,000 strokes occur annually. Worldwide 15,000,000
people suffer a stroke each year; of these, 5 million die
and 5 million are permanently disabled. It is the leading
cause of long-term disability in virtually every region of
the globe. Only twenty-five percent of stroke patients
make it to the hospital within the time frame when treatment will be possible and effective. Hence there is great
need to increase earlier treatment of these patients. Any
new technology to reduce these staggering numbers will
have a significant cost benefit to countries that embrace
and widely deploy it.
Today the standard therapy is intravenous use of a drug
(tissue plasminogen activator, “tPA”) to dissolve a clot,
but is only administered to three percent of patients, as
most do not meet the criteria for tPA use. Clinical data
shows early tPA treatment leads to improved neurological and functional outcomes. However, of the patients
who receive tPA, only thirty percent recover fully, while
six percent suffer hemorrhaging (with a 45% fatality
rate) -– these are not encouraging outcomes for what is
viewed as the gold standard for ischemic stroke care.
Vesselon Solution
Vesselon is developing a novel and proprietary non-imaging insonation device that can be used by paramedics
in the field and physicians in hospitals to treat stroke victims early. The device uses unfocused ultrasound along
with IV administered microbubbles to dissolve a clot;
tPA will not be required. As a non-imaging device, specialized image acquisition and interpretation training and
skills will not be necessary of the user. Vesselon devices
would be used by professionals trained in advanced life
support (“ALS”) functions, whether paramedics in the
field or physicians in the hospital. The company believes
its therapeutic products have a large potential not only
in industrialized countries but also in developing nations
due to the device’s cost effective nature and limited
requirements for training.
VESSELON, Inc.
30 Maple Street
Darien, CT 06820
Tel: (203) 450-9005
rhodemann.li@vesselon.com
URL: http://www.vesselon.com
Founded: 2012
Clay Larsen – President and CEO, Co-Founder
Rhodemann Li – EVP, Business Development,
Founder
Renee Walsh – VP, Engineering
Technology originated from research conducted at the
UCSD School of Medicine.
38