CELS Showcase - Startup Profiles
Fiona Simpson, CEO and Co-Founder @ Biomir Inc.
BioMimir is a female-founded medical device company that streamlines wound care using bioabsorbable, liquid to solid biomaterials. We create affordable, accessible regenerative medicine solutions that are deployable globally.
“BioMimir is building a network of physicians, investors, and ecosystem partners to bring regenerative medicine to those who need innovative medical solutions in our local and global communities. The CELS program helped us reach new US-partners to bring our vision one step closer to reality.”
Jean-Francois Millau, CEO @ TATUM bioscience
TATUM is a therapeutic company advancing next generation immunotherapies. Using a proprietary synthetic biology platform, we develop advanced multipronged biologics igniting holistic anti-tumor responses having unparalleled tumor clearance efficacy.
“At TATUM our mission is fueled by a commitment to revolutionize therapeutic drug development, ultimately enhancing the lives of patients battling cancer. To achieve this goal, our dedicated team harnesses the power of synthetic biology to engineer living organisms and craft drugs with unprecedented functionalities. This innovative approach not only ensures a marked improvement in treatment efficacy but also enhances tolerability, paving the way for transformative solutions in cancer treatment.”
Jean Ouellet, Co Founder & Chief Medical Officer @ Momentum Health
Momentum Health is an AI-based digital health platform for remote spine care management. From a 30-second video taken on any smartphone, their technology creates a photo-realistic 3D Model of the patient's body and using AI predicts the degrees of spinal curvature and assesses the patient's spinal deformity from the surface topography.
They were co-founded by one of the top pediatric spine surgeons, Dr. Jean Ouellet, to address the 40 Million and growing US population living with spine deformities.
In less than 18 months, they have launched clinical studies at top Hospitals, including Hospital St. Justine, Texas Scottish Rite and SickKids Hospital; have received FDA 510K Clearance as the first AI enabled device approved under the department of Physical Medicine and are backed by the largest orthopedic association in the world.
“Our vision is that by using a smart phone's camera, combined with AI, we will be building the next generation patient-empowered medical imaging platform.”
Karolina Valente, CEO @ VoxCell BioInnovation
VoxCell aims to derisk clinical trials by providing a more translatable preclinical screening platform that can identify unviable therapeutic candidates earlier in the development process. Using 3D bioprinting technology, VoxCell is creating fully vascularized, human-like tissue models for drug screening that give strong clinical insights into failure or success in clinical trials before testing on animals or in humans.
“VoxCell's mission is to accelerate the development of life-saving therapies. We aim to get these therapies into the hands of patients who need them more quickly and in a more cost-effective manner, making medicine more accessible to all and fuelling innovation in the therapeutic space.”
Ali Riazi, CEO @ TheraVac Biologics
TheraVac is developing therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. We have two separate programs targeting Tau pathologies and the inflammasome. Our primary target indication is Alzheimer’s disease. Our vaccines harness our immune system to provide safe and effective immunotherapies for treating CNS and non-CNS inflammatory conditions.
“The current therapeutic approaches have limited efficacy and will not be able to satisfy the increasing demand for treatment of chronic aging-related diseases including Alzheimer’s. Our vaccine technology has potential to address this gap with high efficiency while accessible to larger patient populations.”
Mohammad Qadir, CEO @ Fusion Genomics Corporation
Fusion Genomics is a pioneering genomics company at the forefront of revolutionizing infectious disease diagnostics. Leveraging cutting-edge lab-on-a-chip technology and advanced sequencing methods, we've developed the ONETest™—a game-changing diagnostic platform capable of rapidly and accurately identifying a wide range of infectious pathogens, from bacteria to viruses and fungi. Our mission is to democratize next-generation sequencing-based diagnostics by making them more accessible, cost-effective, and user-friendly. With proven efficacy in over 2,000 diverse patient trials and upcoming collaborations with major healthcare networks, Fusion is at the forefront of transforming infectious disease diagnostics and care.
“I am passionate about advancing genomics to improve patient care, especially in complex diagnostic scenarios. At Fusion Genomics, I'm dedicated to innovating accessible genomic diagnostics, transforming healthcare for patients with hard-to-diagnose infections.”
Michael Weickert, CEO @ Fe Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Fe Pharmaceuticals is developing a first-in-class, non-antibiotic, anti-infective and anti-inflammatory polymer, DIBI. It starves pathogens for iron, is extremely broad spectrum, immune to resistance, synergizes with other antibiotics, and helps them evade resistance, and is nontoxic, making it an ideal first line therapy for serious infections and inflammation.
“I seek what I call life science diamonds in the rough; genuine breakthroughs in medicine that will change practice and make a big difference in patient health. These often arise outside the ecosystems of thought leaders and marquee institutions, from people who are trying to solve a problem and are unencumbered by "what we know to be true" that really isn't. Problem is these breakthroughs have a hard time getting recognized because they come from humble origins. I want to help bring those breakthroughs through development and into patient care like they deserve.”