On Monday, Y Combinator’s 2017 Summer Demo Day kicked off in Mountain View, California. The three-day event presents an opportunity for the incubator’s newest class of startups to showcase what they’ve got.
In addition to its biannual Demo Days, Y Combinator is having an exciting year. Last month, news came out that the entity is raising up to $1 billion for a new venture capital fund, according to Axios.
A handful of the startups that presented at Y Combinator’s Demo Day have ties to the healthcare industry, according to TechCrunch. Here are five to keep on your radar.
Based (unsurprisingly) in Cambridge, England, Cambridge Cancer Genomics seeks to improve the cancer treatment process. Through machine learning algorithms, the company has created a blood test that can track a cancer patient’s treatment response. In other words, it helps pinpoint the individuals who aren’t responding to chemotherapy early on. CCG’s four founders all have expertise in oncology and have earned (or are earning) PhDs.
Darmiyan‘s technology enables it to detect Alzheimer’s disease in a patient up to fifteen years before symptoms appear. The San Francisco company’s mission is to “create a fast, non-invasive, inexpensive, precise and globally accessible tool for brain health screening and monitoring.” Additionally, its platform produces maps of distribution kinetics in the brain.
Through Forever Labs, individuals can cryogenically freeze their stem cells and store them until they’re needed to fight age-related diseases. Because stem cells aging may result in DNA damage, the startup urges users to consider storing their cells so they can live healthier lives in the future. Forever Labs, which was founded by scientists and doctors, is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
HelpWear‘s product is the HeartWatch — a wearable heart monitor that notices when users suffer a heart attack and immediately contacts EMS. The wearable stores all of a patient’s cardiovascular data and gives users real-time alerts when irregularities occur. Based in Toronto, Ontario, HelpWear’s product is in development and will soon enter clinical trials.
Walnut, California-based OncoBox is another oncology startup. It brings a precision medicine approach to the space, using personalized genetic profiling to help doctors select the best drug to use in late-stage cancer patients. The company’s OncoBox:Integral test analyzes full DNA and RNA profiles. Its array of partners includes Amazon, the California Institute of Technology and New York University.
Other healthcare startups featured at Y Combinator’s event include Helium Healthcare and Sunu.
Photo: Olivier Le Moal, Getty Images
