Philadelphia’s University City Science Center’s Port business accelerator just announced it’s fostering some pretty interesting life sciences startups – ranging from cancer diagnostics to 3D bioprinting.
Biobots
In the vein of Organovo, regenerative medicine upstart Biobots is building out a high-res, desktop 3D bioprinter that builds out three-dimensional organ models with human cells. It’s aiming for a customer base of academic labs and life science companies – giving them a low-cost tool to up their research game. Indeed, the printer’s been priced at a mere $5,000.
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Freenome
This London-based liquid biopsy startup is establishing a new office in Philly – using next-generation sequencing to diagnose cancers with just 1 milliliter of blood. With the potentially low-cost but accurate liquid biopsy method, Freenome harnesses cell-free DNA to determine the presence of cancer. If successful, this process could sidestep time-consuming biopsies and lead to faster diagnoses of disease.
LignaMed
A University of Pennsylvania spinout, LignaMed is developing a small molecule therapy that decreases side effects and improves efficacy of radiation treatment in cancer. The molecule’s derived from flaxseed, which has been found to protect normal tissues – but increase radiation and chemotherapy damage on cancer cells. Notably, it just got a $5.2 million contract from the NIH to study the drug’s effects on radiation-induced lung injury.
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OriMAbs
OriMAbs is working to speed up antibody drug development by creating new processing methods. Its system helps sift through and target antibodies that are likely to have therapeutic applications. This should help build out the monoclonal antibody library to help biopharma cherrypick which molecules and indications match best.
Telesis
The company has a small molecule drug under development from Philly’s Lankenau Institute for Medical Research with initial indications of pancreatic cancer and solid tumors. Its mechanism inhibits the metabolic processes in cancer cells that cause cell death – but it doesn’t impact normal cells.
[IMAGE: Courtesy of BioBots]
