Who will win this year’s MassChallenge? The Boston accelerator is set to get its fourth session underway with the announcement of the 128 new startups that will participate. A quarter of them are life science or health IT companies, and some of them sound particularly promising.
Benevolent Technology for Health, for example, is focused on making an affordable, self-adjustable prosthetic device for the developing world. DS Labs Inc. is developing a discreetly worn breast pump. Sensulin LLC could have a glucose-responsive insulin for type 1/type 2 diabetes patients. And Vecoy Nanomedicines won the pitch contest at FutureMed with its nano-scale “virus traps” to kill infections.
The selected entrepreneurs will get four months of mentorship and office space at MassChallenge’s offices. At the end, they will pitch for $1 million in cash prizes. MassChallenge says it received 1,200 applicants from 40 countries and 30 states. Notably, a handful of the life science companies are from Israel.
Here’s the rest of the list:
- B.B.R. Medical Innovations Inc. (inline IV fluid sterilizer)
- Calista Therapeutics (cystic fibrosis drug)
- CONTINUUS Pharmaceuticals (continuous manufacturing for pharmaceuticals)
- Elegant Therapeutics
- Gentoo (compression vest for infusion pump equipment)
- Gweepi Medical (sensor-embedded adult diaper)
- HackCriticalCare
- Hemova Medical (access port for dialysis)
- Home Analytics
- INRFOOD (“personalized food GPS”)
- Integrative Enzymatics (drugs for metabolic disorders)
- iQuartic Inc. (EHR data mining)
- Keraderm (non-surgical wound healing)
- Little Sparrows Technologies (low-cost phototherapy for jaundice)
- MedAlert (data analysis to prevent prescription errors)
- MobiStine (mobile apps for new parents)
- Mofin Technologies (mobile tools for coordinating care)
- MouseHouse
- MyZooPets
- Neural Analytics (tool to measure intracranial pressure non-invasively)
- Noliva Therapeutics LLC (cancer drugs that block protein-protein interactions)
- QMedic (wearable sensor to monitor seniors)
- Quad Technologies LLC (dissolvable hydrogel for biologics purification and cell separation)
- Thompson SCI
- Veraquel Technologies Inc. (peptide purification)
- Verbal Applications (communication software for patients with speech limitations)
- Volvox Biologic Inc. (glycan detection tool for biologic drug development)
- WaveGuide (hand-held diagnostic tool for tuberculosis)
