Thank you for attending the joint Startup Pitch Day hosted by Columbia Technology Ventures, the UCLA Technology Development Group, and the UC Berkeley Office of Intellectual Property & Industry Research Alliances, showcasing the most exciting startups emerging from the research labs of Columbia, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. Below are video recordings from the event. Contact Columbia (techventures@columbia.edu), UCB (ipira@berkeley.edu), or UCLA (info@tdg.ucla.edu) to learn more.
Presented by: Paul Garcia, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Columbia University
With unique expertise in engineering, neuroscience, and pharmacology, Lantern Laboratory is transforming anesthesia care through its innovative EEG-based technology to guide clinical decision-making for both sedating and analgesic medications. In operating rooms and intensive care units, it is common to administer drugs for pain as well as drugs for sedation based primarily on clinical markers such as vital signs and patient movement, without any clear guidance on how to separately adjust each drug. In elderly patients and those with complex physiologic disease, these clinical markers are notoriously unreliable, often resulting in administration of more medication than necessary, neurocognitive disturbances such as delirium or dementia, and increased length of stay. Spun out from the pioneering work of Dr. Paul García’s research group at Columbia, Lantern Laboratory applies important principles regarding sleep and consciousness towards the goal of reducing the neurocognitive impact of these medications on vulnerable brains. The team’s groundbreaking preclinical proof-of-concept studies demonstrate favorable post-anesthesia recovery outcomes and a decrease in hospitalization. Lantern Laboratory is currently seeking $1.5M to support first-in-human testing of a prototype, followed by a $5M Series A round to support clinical trials and preparation for market entry.
Presented by: Aykut Aksit, PhD, CEO
Through a decade of work at Columbia, our interdisciplinary team has created precision needles capable of providing direct access into the cochlea minimally invasively. The lack of direct inner ear access is an ever-growing problem as the world population ages. Available therapies today cannot be delivered ensuring proper dosage. Diagnostics are made through exclusion, making proper intervention impossible. Our precision needle technology provides the means to i) precisely deliver drugs into the inner ear for therapeutics, and ii) aspirate fluid from the inner ear for diagnostics. We have shown that our needles are safe and effective in animal studies, and that they can be applied minimally invasively in human cadaveric studies. While our device enables accurate dosage for therapies available today, it will also pave the way for genetic and cellular therapies for hearing loss and balance disorders. In the not-so-distant future, we believe that our diagnostics and intervention device will be used routinely as an office-based procedure, providing clinicians with critical actionable diagnostic information as well as a tool with which they can do precise interventions.
Presented by: Iden Kurtaliaj, PhD candidate, BME, Columbia University
Over 50% of adults later in life experience a rotator cuff tear leading to shoulder pain and decreased mobility. The best intervention is surgery, but 60% of these surgeries fail because sutures cut through tendons like a knife cuts through butter. We found a solution in nature: python snakes that hold onto their prey using curved teeth. PythonFix is a 3D-printed shoulder implant that mimics python teeth to enhance tendon and ligament surgical repairs. This device augments the traditional suture repair and is simply placed between the tendon and bone, allowing the device to grasp onto the tendon but not pierce through it as sutures do. Tested in human cadavers, PythonFix doubles the strength of the traditional repair. With 600000 rotator cuff surgeries each year in the U.S. alone, this is a one billion dollar market, and the product is expandable to all other tendon and ligament surgeries sites.
Presented by: Xiao-Yang Liu, PhD Candidate at Columbia University
FinRL is the first framework to provide an automatic pipeline for financial reinforcement learning.
1). For financial big data, the FinRL-meta project connects with > 30 market data sources;
2). For cloud solutions, the FinRL-Podracer project scales out to > 1000 GPUs; we have tested it on NVIDIA’s SuperPod platform; 3). Our AI4Finance community is robust; we have over 10K active members, many of which are actively designing strategies and connecting with paper trading and live trading. We are collaborating with tens of universities and research institutes, and about 50 software engineers from IT companies. 4). Both Columbia University and New York University have opened a delicate course about FinRL; over 120 students in total have taken it. 5). In academia, we have several papers and invited talks. Our AI4Finance foundation serves as a bridge between ML, data science, OR, and finance communities. Up till now, we have a robust community with over 10 thousand members, and we look forward to external resources to grow our community to 100 times larger. We hope that you can join our journey either by investing in us if you are a venture capitalist, or collaborating with us if you represent a high-profile institute.
Presented by: Ray Sambrotto, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer
Allied Microbiota provides biological solutions to support the circular, sustainable economy of the 21st century. We reduce waste and generate materials and energy in more environmentally compatible ways. These goals depend on the discovery and improvement of microbes whose functionalities match commercial needs. Our platform technology accelerates the process from bioprospecting to application based on the intensification of existing biological capabilities or the engineering of new functionalities through biotechnology. Our first revenues have come from the remediation of contaminants in the environment using bacteria with capabilities targeted for specific compounds. We have the only commercially-available, biological processes capable of destroying emerging contaminants like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to remove them from the list of ‘forever’ chemicals in water supplies. We target contaminants at their source before they become a problem in air, water, soils and sediments. Allied Microbiota seeks $2.36 million from participants who share our commitment in this sector. These funds will support a machine learning approach to accelerate bioprospecting and the global reach of our marketing capabilities.
Presented by: Anders M. Näär, Ph.D., Professor of Metabolic Biology, University of California, Berkeley
CalGen Therapeutics, Inc. is a stealth-mode spinout founded by UC Berkeley professor Anders Näär, Vice Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology. The company is advancing inhaled state-of-the-art antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology targeting respiratory RNA viruses such as coronaviruses (e.g., SARS-CoV-2) and influenza viruses. It is building on the groundbreaking discovery by the Näär lab of an intranasal ASO therapeutic targeting SARS-CoV-2 that is highly effective in both preventing and treating COVID-19 in mice and hamsters, with efficacy against all variants of concern. The results were recently published in Nature Communications and featured in Berkeley News. CalGen is focused on securing additional funding to support manufacturing and further testing of safety and efficacy in animals and human trials. The company is seeking Pharma co-development partners and U.S. Government (eg. BARDA) support to accelerate the path of this exciting therapeutic modality to clinical development.
Presented by: Hossain M. Fahad, CEO
Serinus Labs manufactures ultra low power chip scale silicon gas sensors based on core technology developed at UC Berkeley. Specifically, with this technology, Serinus Labs is currently developing early warning trace gas sensors for lithium-ion battery pack health monitoring and safety used in EVs and stationary storage applications. With Serinus technology, automotive OEMs and Tier-1s have been able to achieve advanced warning to prevent catastrophic battery failure.
Presented by: Shannon Hall, CEO
Pow.bio is developing the only way to generate bio-based products at the COGS needed to get to market. We have built a platform to enable robust continuous manufacturing of bio-based (synthetic biology) products using microbial and animal cells. This platform consists of synergistic integration of algorithms/AI, hardware configuration and processes, media formulation and contamination control additives. This technology scales across products and sectors delivering significant gains in the amount of material produced, enabling bio-based products to reach unit cost milestones faster and cheaper. Our revenue model is to operate as a Foundry. Our vision is to be the most advanced and largest manufacturing provider to innovative bio-design teams. In partnership with these companies, we will successfully launch the products that are transforming $30B worth of industries. We look to TSMC as an example of how a foundry leverages unique technical capabilities to enable the success of market leading products. Today we’ve worked with over 20 partners, demonstrating our capabilities with a wide variety of bio-based products, host organisms, and technical unit operations. 80% of our customers have increased their projects with us, confirming both market demand and the appeal of our solutions. We aim to sweep the $500B biomanufacturing market.
Presented by: Otto Yang
T cell-based gene therapies (CAR-T) have achieved success against certain leukemias and lymphomas but shown minimal efficacy against solid tumors and chronic viral infections. The main barrier is reduced T cell function and limited persistence. Another limitation is that these therapies target a protein on cancer cells that is also present on normal cells, causing a severe complication (CRS) associated with current FDA-cleared T cell immunotherapies. CDR3 has developed a blood stem cell-based therapy that overcomes these limitations. Instead of using peripheral blood T cells harvested from the patient, gene therapy is performed on patient blood stem cells, which engraft in the patient’s bone marrow, leading to continuous and persistent development of fully functional T cells targeting a cancer or virus. This process requires only a mild pre-conditioning regimen to engraft a few stem cells carrying the desired CAR or T cell receptor (TCR) gene. Furthermore, CDR3 focuses on virus-specific targets in cancer/virus-infected cells, reducing risk of CRS. In proof-of-concept preclinical non-human primate studies, treated stem cells engrafted and produced anti-HIV CAR-T cells distributed throughout all body tissues, which killed HIV-infected cells. These persisted for more than 2 years without any adverse effects and demonstrate an approach that addresses the function and persistence shortcomings faced by current T cell immunotherapies.
Presented by: Sumita T. Jonak, Founder & CEO
NurLabs is a noninvasive cancer detection platform. We use a small saliva, blood, or urine sample to provide a diagnosis back to your physician. Our patent-pending platform has been clinically validated in lung and gastric cancers. No reagents, no labels, no sequencing. Low-cost, nondestructive assay with single-molecule accuracy.
Presented by: Courtney Young, co-founder and CEO
MyoGene Bio is developing a gene editing therapy, MyoDys45-55, for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal muscle wasting disease. MyoDys45-55 uses CRISPR to permanently remove a mutational hotspot in the gene that causes Duchenne and allow for the necessary protein dystrophin to be expressed. This region encompasses around half of all patient mutations and retains more of the protein than other gene therapy approaches. We have shown that MyoDys45-55 restores dystrophin protein in human cells and in mouse models. MyoDys45-55 is expected to create a very functional protein that will improve disease progression and be applicable to a large number of Duchenne patients.
Presented by: Vishal Misra, Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, co-founder, Ask Here First
Spun out from the lab of Columbia’s Dr. Vishal Misra, Ask Here First is based on a patent-pending technology that provides a natural language interface to structured backends, such as SQL databases. The technology is based on a breakthrough architecture that solves long-standing problems in the space of “natural language -> SQL translators” and generalizes beyond SQL backends. Unlike other engines, this technology is incrementally, infinitely, and instantly improvable. The architecture is portable and extremely easy to adapt to different backends. A proof of concept of the natural language engine in new environments can be stood up in hours, if not minutes. Our architecture requires you to make no change to your backend data, and our engine can be run on-site, in the cloud, or on Ask Here First servers.
Link Biosystems offers engineered solutions for democratizing precision medicine. We offer end-to-end solutions for cell-based medicine ranging from cell expansion to patient models (in-vitro and in-silico). Our cell expansion technology, the first product we are launching, makes advanced cell and tissue culture techniques accessible to clinical and cell therapy markets by reducing cost, complexity, and time. Our aim is to establish a cell expansion technology that increases the yield and preserves the morphological and molecular fidelity of scant biopsy samples in clinical settings. Once fully validated, this unique feature will enable diagnostic testing and biobanking of samples currently excluded due to insufficient quantity and quality. Future offerings will leverage these technologies to provide humanized and immunocompetent drug development and preclinical screening models.
Sense4me is developing a digital platform in combination with a wearable device that predicts drinking behaviors in patients with alcohol use disorder to achieve remission and reduce their risk of relapse. Using wearable sensors, sense4me provides real-time measurements of a patient’s autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA), data that can act as an alert to subdue cravings before they cause the patient to relapse. The digital platform will provide monitoring and collecting of data, giving the patient control and the motivation to decide on what to do for their next step, which could include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, assistance from specialists and mutual support groups. This just-in-time- intervention powered by personalized health analytics has the potential to reduce relapse rates, which can be as high as 80% among patients in their first year of treatment for alcohol addiction. By monitoring drinking behavior, this technology empowers the 14.8M Americans with alcohol use disorder to actively participate in their treatment and take control of their drinking habits. A collaboration between Columbia’s Dr. Lili Deligianni, Adjunct faculty in Biomedical Engineering and Dr. Nasir Naqvi, clinical faculty in the department of Psychiatry.
Landsdowne Labs
Based on research from the lab of Robert Langer, Institute Professor, MIT; Koch Center for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Landsdowne Labs, a spinout from the world-renowned Langer Labs at MIT, is developing hard tech innovations that have world changing potential. The company’s first product, called ChildLok, is an innovate button battery technology designed to deactivate batteries following accidental ingestion, made possible by advanced material science. Landsdowne Labs is commercializing this groundbreaking technology for global companies seeking a turnkey, low cost solution to the growing button battery health crisis. The company raised a seed round of $2.8M in Q1 2018.
Sable Therapeutics is a biotechnology platform company focused on fat cell “rejuvenation.” We are translating novel research discoveries from Columbia University Medical Center into aesthetic applications of fat volume reduction and improved health. Our platform technologies are based on two distinct approaches to fat cell volume reduction; increased mitochondrial activity and inhibition of the lipid accumulation pathway. Our commercial targets are centered around three distinct applications; focal fat reduction, cellulite and body sculpting. Sable’s first product currently in development will target submental (chin) fat reduction. To execute on our strategy, we have assembled a world class and experienced management team.
Virtus Therapeutics is a Yale spinoff seeking pharma and investor partnerships and raising a seed investment to develop the first cure for an incurable, rare progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with iron accumulation in the brain named pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration or PKAN. The disease is caused by mutations in the human pantothenate kinase gene, PANK2, which encodes a mitochondrial pantothenate kinase essential for Coenzyme A biosynthesis. To date, no specific or established therapy exists for PKAN with most treatments directed towards managing symptoms and to slow disease progression. We have identified a novel class of modulators named VTACs designed to deliver a unique therapeutic strategy for PKAN by activating a second enzyme in the CoA biosynthesis machinery. The compounds display strong activity toward the target with AC50 values between 2.4 nM and 268 nM, show no toxicity against a human cell line and have desirable functionality and solubility properties making them ideal candidates for development of an effective and safe PKAN therapy. The compounds are currently being evaluated in patient cell lines and in animal models of PKAN. Seed funds will be used to advance this program towards clinical evaluation.
Cytosolix is developing novel derivatives of known small molecule oncology drugs that selectively target cancers via a universal biomarker of solid tumors - acidity. Cancers generate a uniquely acidic microenvironment due to their highly glycolytic metabolism, which differentiates solid tumors from surrounding, healthy tissues. Targeting acidity has been recognized as the next leading approach to developing targeted therapies in oncology. Of the technologies in this emerging space, Cytosolix has the only orally compatible platform targeting drugs to tumors. Problem: Oncology drug efficacy is frequently limited by toxicity - when the drug reaches a toxic dose in healthy tissues before saturating its target and reaching full activity in tumors. Most drugs lack any form of tumor-specific delivery, and in fact almost half of all molecular-targeted drugs evade uptake by tumors, preferentially permeating healthy tissues due to the interaction of their weakly-basic chemistry with tumor acidity. The Cytosolix Solution: Our Tumor Activated Permeability (TAP) platform produces weakly-acidic derivatives of known oncology drugs, making them selectively cell permeable at tumor pH while charged and impermeable at healthy pH, all while preserving the original drug's activity. By targeting tumor acidity, TAP-drugs can increase efficacy, overcome toxicity barriers to approval and enable more effective combinations.
Despite decades and billions of dollars, few stem cell products are approved for human use, largely due to inadequate sources of stem cells. Pure Marrow brings cell manufacturing to the bedside with a drug/device product. A large dose of stem cells can be provided in a simple, 1 hour procedure under local anesthetic. A clinician inserts two needles in the bone and an automated system infuses mobilizing drugs in one and suctions isolated cells from the other. This method excludes contaminating mature cells from the blood and is highly selective for specific phenotypes. Cells are further concentrated using microfluidics and antibody methods. Drugs, automation protocol, and sorting are tailored for the desired cell type. Clinicians obtain an adequate number of superior cells where cell manipulation is not required. Companies developing manipulated cell products begin with millions more superior cells. All cell therapies start with sourcing appropriate cells, providing great prospects for the company including treatment for arthritis, Crohn’s, MS, and HIV. The beachhead market is spinal fusion since there is established payment. In 10 years, we envision the company being dominate in the regenerative therapy market, having at least one revolutionary disease treatment, and being acquired or being in a position for an IPO.
Cambridge Electronics Inc., a fabless semiconductor startup, is developing a disruptive gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology to transform the future of energy conversion. Based on MIT research, our innovative GaN-based transistors and chips enable our customers to make higher efficiency and more compact power converters for data centers, electric cars, and power supplies.
FGC Plasma Solutions is working on a better injector / igniter system that incorporates plasma to better control combustion in jet engines, gas turbines, and advanced propulsion systems. This technology enables enhanced engine operation. In particular, by reducing fuel consumption during idling, savings are possible of between 1 percent to 5 percent per flight. This technology will also enable benefits from lower emissions; increased fuel flexibility; and improved reliability. FGC Plasma endeavors to develop ground-breaking technologies to improve combustion and other reacting flow processes with applications in energy, aerospace, and national security. To date, FGC Plasma has raised $4.5 million, the vast majority in non-dilutive capital, has established collaborations with Notre Dame, MIT, ARL, AFRL, and Argonne National Lab, and is working with OEMs across several verticals to demonstrate its technology.
LiquidPiston is commercializing a revolutionary new type of advanced rotary internal combustion engine for use in propulsion, generators and auxiliary power. The technology is based on a new type of engine architecture, and an advanced, optimized thermodynamic cycle. The result is 1/10th the size and weight of today's Diesel engines, with 30-75% improved fuel consumption over today's gasoline, Diesel, or turbine engines. The Company is initially focused on Defense and Aerospace applications. Applications include hybrid electric cars, UAVs, mobile power / generators, and aircraft including for VTOL / Urban Air Mobility. Ultimately the technology is scalable to serve the entire $460B/yr engine market. The company has prototypes and demonstrated customer traction through 4 awards from DARPA and the Army, and 3 contracts with commercial entities. LiquidPiston is seeking funding to accelerate the commercialization and adoption of its technology.
We are a company out of MIT with technology in the area of artificial intelligence and computer vision. Our core technology is a software algorithm enabling consumers to create their precision 3D body-shape models via smartphones. Together with other supporting technology modules, we are partnering with some of the largest brands in the apparel and footwear industries. Our tech platform enables brands to:
1) suggest the best fitting apparel and footwear products based on consumers’ body/foot shapes, which in turn helps brands to increase conversions, decrease returns, and enhance customer-engagement, strengthen customer loyalties.
2) enable or expand brands’ mass-customization offerings via the eCommerce channel.
WaveSense is accelerating the broad, safe and reliable deployment of self-driving vehicles. The company uses ground penetrating radar originally developed for military use at MIT Lincoln Laboratory to create a map of the subsurface beneath the road from which self-driving cars can navigate. Vehicles using WaveSense are the safest and most reliable on the road and are unaffected by common but challenging road conditions like snow, heavy rain, fog, or poor lane markings. WaveSense has completed pilots with automakers and Tier 1s who are looking to deploy WaveSense's technology in assisted and autonomous driving products at scale. The company was named Best in Show and winner of the Autonomous Vehicle category at the 2019 Detroit Auto Show.
The acute shortage of human tissues for the use in surgical applications has driven the market to identify alternatives, including polymeric and biologic materials. Use of animal tissue, particularly porcine, is closing the gap to resolve the critical shortage of human tissue. Current polymeric and conventional biologics exhibit a high degree of complications, in part due to the lack of adequate integration with the surrounding tissues. Sarxion Biologics has developed a superior porcine biologic material that addresses the integration deficiencies of polymeric and conventional biologics. Our material is prepared from pigs carrying a single gene knockout resulting in highly integration-competent decellularized tissues. Sarxion Biologics’s decellularized tissues are prepared using routine manufacturing methods and are demonstrably superior to conventional polymeric and biological scaffolds. Sarxion Biologics’s first planned application will be for hernia repair, a procedure that is performed up to 1 million times annually in the United States. Our scaffold’s unique structural and biomechanical properties result in superior integration and enhanced healing – essential for stable grafts and successful patient outcomes. Sarxion Biologics’s platform can also be applied to produce other biomaterials suitable for soft tissue, dermal and cardiovascular tissue repair.
Lelantos is revolutionizing the world of gas sensing by developing a new generation of IoT compatible gas sensors targeted to high value monitoring applications in threat detection, industrial safety, environmental and air quality monitoring as well as medical diagnostics. Current gas sensors are based on optical and resistive technologies and suffer from inherent weaknesses such bulky size, high power consumption and high cost. As such they prohibit the effective monitoring in IoT oriented use cases that require large scale, pervasive sensing to be provided by autonomous, portable, battery operated sensors with wireless connectivity. In contrast, Lelantos sensors based on CMOS integrated piezoelectric resonator arrays can achieve up to 1000 times more compact size, lower power consumption and lower cost than currently utilized systems. As a foundationally superior sensing technology, Lelantos is enabling the widespread adoption of gas sensing in IoT applications and the disruption of the market providing a true chemical sensor for the Internet of Things.
Digital Chefs
Based on research from the lab of Hod Lipson, James and Sally Scapa Professor of Innovation in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Co-Director, Maker Space Facility, Columbia University
Imagine a personal chef who knows your personal eating habits, dietary restrictions, all at the press of a button. At the Creative Machines Lab we are developing novel approaches to assembling cooked meals. We leverage additive manufacturing technology to deposit food ingredients and directed laser beams to cook food as it is being assembled. We have already proven the ability to print a host of different ingredients (e.g. doughs, meats, and vegetables) and cook a range of foods to varying degrees (e.g. browning, baking, and broiling). The true innovation lies in combining these two processes into one functional machine to provide end-to-end cooking at a local level. Being able to combine ingredients with precision heating techniques gives us limitless ability to create new flavor profiles and customized meals. Because we can control the deposition and heating of food via software, we can tailor the recipe and nutrition on a per person basis. This digital cooking technique has a number of applications including military, space, hospital, and commercial settings.
Werewool fibers are engineered to offer the textile industry performance properties and aesthetics without the high environmental cost of conventional synthetic fibers and dyes. Our technology uses engineered proteins to impart desired properties like color, stretch, and moisture management in our fibers, to offer a performance textile alternative that eliminates dependence on petroleum-based plastics, and toxic dyeing and finishing processes from the product life cycle. At the end of the product’s useful life, Werewool fibers are designed to go back to the earth as nutrients, offering a biodegradable, sustainable alternative to the growing $147B synthetic fiber market.
Aero Therapeutics is a seed stage medical device company developing a platform device that delivers oxygen therapies. Our first product PremieBreathe is focused on a neglected market with an urgent unmet need: premature babies and full-term babies who suffer from respiratory diseases. Our device is also positioned to disrupt incumbents who focus on adult COPD and sleep apnea.
Verinomics is a genomics, computational biology and gene editing company located at 5 Science Park, New Haven, CT. We specialize in identification, characterization and utility of genetic diversity in commercially-significant vegetable and commodity crops. The Company's proprietary genomics and computational platforms makes possible advanced crop breeding through accelerated germplasm development, genomic selection, commercial trait gene identification, and gene editing in elite germplasm.
Ganvix is bringing to market blue/green/UV VCSEL lasers, based on a proprietary nano-porous GaN (NP-GaN). Vertically emitting lasers (VCSELS) are one of the fastest growing technologies in infrared opto-electronics, but to date it has not been possible to manufacture these devises for lager markets requiring UV and visible wavelengths. The novel NP-GaN technology developed by Professor Jung Han at Yale University is the critical enabler, which has been exclusively licensed by Ganvix. Leveraging this technology, Ganvix lasers deliver superior wavelength control, smaller spot size, and array architectures addressing nascent billion dollar market opportunities in consumer, communications, medical, and industrial applications.
