DUBLIN – Compared to other indication areas, gene therapy for cardiac disease is still at the “caveman” stage, according to Dinaqor AG CEO and Chairman Johannes Holzmeister. The Pfäffikon, Switzerland-based firm aims to drag it into the modern era by applying a novel locoregional delivery system to its adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9) vector technology.
TORONTO – “I don’t want this to die in the lab. We’re putting a lot of effort into this and we have to commercialize it.” With those words Oleksandr Bubon, chief technology officer of Thunder Bay, Ontario-based startup Radialis Inc., in 2016 reported ambitious plans for an imaging device that detects early stage cancer tumors in the densest breast tissue. Not only will its novel “gapless” design prevent radiation needed to treat cancer cells from escaping, a common problem in conventional positron emissions tomography (PET), its manufacture and commercialization starts here in a northern Ontario city of just over 110,000 people.
HONG KONG – Matricelf Ltd., an Israeli medical 3D printing company based in Tel Aviv, has won a SEED AWARD and the ¥1 million (US$143,000) that goes with the prize. The Global Final of the SEED AWARD 2019 was held in Shenzhen, China. The organizer Seedland Group, China’s leading real estate company promoting technology innovation, said that Matricelf is working toward one day being able to manufacture the world’s first functional 3D printed human heart.
HONG KONG – South Korea’s Avixgen Inc., which recently secured ₩10.6 billion (US$9 million) in pre-IPO investment and has raised total funding of ₩27 billion since its series A in 2015, plans to use funds to further develop drug platform technologies and therapeutics for virus-causing diseases such as HIV-1/AIDS.
BEIJING – Tokyo-based biotech firm Heartseed Inc., which focuses on regenerative medicine, has closed a series B financing round to pocket $26 million that will go to its lead drug candidate, HS-001, for treating heart failure.
BEIJING – Tokyo-based biotech firm Heartseed Inc., which focuses on regenerative medicine, has closed a series B financing round to pocket $26 million that will go to its lead drug candidate, HS-001, for treating heart failure.
Startup firm Dyno Therapeutics Inc. is attempting to engineer a new generation of adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids by navigating its way across what it calls the “capsid fitness landscape,” in order to optimize the key parameters that affect capsid performance: production, delivery efficiency, biodistribution, immunogenicity and thermostability.
BEIJING – Infection diagnostics specialist Genskey Technologies Co. Ltd., of Beijing, closed a series B financing round to secure ¥100 million (US$14 million) to advance pathogen testing using next generation sequencing. The series B round was joined by SB China Capital, Shanghai Lin Chong Investment Management, and Juyuan Capital.
HONG KONG – South Korea’s Avixgen Inc., which recently secured ₩10.6 billion (US$9 million) in pre-IPO investment and has raised total funding of ₩27 billion since its series A in 2015, plans to use funds to further develop drug platform technologies and therapeutics for virus-causing diseases such as HIV-1/AIDS, using inhibitors based on small molecules and cancer drugs based on peptides.
The U.S. FDA has granted breakthrough device designation for Righteye LLC’s eye movement-tracking vision system as a test for Parkinson’s disease. Developed by researchers at PADRECC and Virginia Commonwealth University with funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and licensed to Righteye in 2016, the test requires patients to sit in front of an all-in-one tablet-looking device and follow a series of moving targets. The goal is to identify ocular tremors, a persistent issue with Parkinson’s patients that prevents steady fixation on objects and images. The noninvasive test, which measures an individual’s ability to follow objects on a screen, could help doctors not only confirm the difficult-to-diagnose disease, but also detect it at earlier stages.
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