MassChallenge

Selmod is based in Basel, Switzerland life science cluster. This unique opportunity contributes first-in-class drug candidates to combat multi-resistant infections. Focus on high-revenue patients in hospital settings, to provide 2nd-line and last-resort treatments where first-line treatments have failed due to resistance. A disruptive approach to developing antibiotics with new dual modes of action addresses the need to overcome existing resistance mechanisms to current therapeutics. All are successfully proven in in-vivo animal infection studies. Market projections for the three assets - SLM500, SLM100, and SLM300 - are promising, with an estimated total available market (TAM) of over $9 billion in 2022. Aim to capture a significant share of this market within the first few years after market entry. Experienced leadership team with a proven track record in developing clinical candidates for big pharma. Use of funds to provide 3 IND-enabling candidates (SLM500) and 6 lead-optimized candidates in POC.

Vaccine Systems develops automated equipment designed to streamline the vaccine preparation process for healthcare workers, enhancing access to immunization for patients, particularly in developing countries. By addressing inefficiencies in current vaccine handling, the company's technology reduces vaccine waste, which can range from 30% to 70%, and mitigates issues related to short expiration times and manual preparation. This innovation not only simplifies vaccine mixing but also provides an essential margin of safety for vaccines prepared at the point of care, ultimately saving significant labor time and increasing vaccination rates during global campaigns.

LIALT Laboratorio de Investigación Alternativa develops toxicological evaluations without the use of animals. LIALT replaces the use of animals through the use of three-dimensional tissues in conjunction with internationally recognized protocols that provide more specific information on the mechanisms of toxic action than that obtained in animals, offering a solution to the problem previously exposed.

NurLabs develops label-free and reagent-free diagnostics to detect cancer early when it is most treatable.

Lepidext is engaged in managing the populations of the Lepidoptera pests by introducing bio-pesticides that are species-specific. The company is committed to improving crop security and ensuring agricultural prosperity by combining a deep understanding of insect biology with the skills and experience of farmers. In 2015, Angelika Fath-Goodin and Bruce Webb established the company in Lexington, Kentucky.

Stemloop—The Biosensor Company™—is on a mission to unlock the power of biology to sense and respond to the world's challenges. We discover, develop, and deploy novel technology to address unmet chemical sensing and detection needs with accessible and actionable cell-free biosensors that are faster, cheaper and easier than traditional laboratory testing.

Sensing beyond glucose to enable holistic health monitoring

Leucine Rich Bio is India's first and only company focused on microbiome-based genomics. It operates a genomics platform that analyzes the human microbiome, often referred to as the "Second Genome," to enhance understanding of its impact on health and wellness. The company offers a three-phase customized approach that includes nutritional recommendations and personalized supplements tailored to individual intestinal microflora. Its applications span various medical fields, including gastroenterology, endocrinology, oncology, mental health, and reproductive health, aiming to provide clinical solutions that promote overall human health. As interest in the microbiome continues to grow among researchers, clinicians, and consumers, Leucine Rich Bio is positioned at the forefront of this emerging area of precision medicine.

BioEclosion seeks to enhance user-friendly quantitative diagnostics to new molecular biomarkers for fast identification of emerging diseases that affect global health. The company started its activity with several patents, the most important being Celifast: a non-invasive approach for the detection of celiac disease. Addressing point of care attention of patients, the core technology has been successfully validated and the team is currently working on further development for commercialization.

Microbe Plus developed innovative microbiological bio-products that combine biological products and molecular biology. Our bioproducts - probiotics for plants are multi-strain, thanks to which they provide comprehensive plant protection against a wide spectrum of plant pathogens. Our mission is to create efficient and inexpensive bioproducts to protect and stimulate plant growth crops, orchards, flowers, and ornamental plants.

Limula provides a unique platform technology enabling scale out of cell therapy production. Our patent-granted solution is combining a bioreactor and a centrifuge into one device, for the first time. Our product is composed of hardware, software and consumables, allowing healthcare providers to safely manufacture CGT in a decentralised manner. By bringing manufacturing closer to the patients, our solution will broaden access to these highly personalised treatments.

Onexio Biosystems is a research and development company. They offer HTS screens that typically utilize a single reporter cell type that lacks important confounding biology, including drug metabolism and paracrine and endocrine cell interactions. Their microDUO supports co-culture and multi-culture to improve human relevance in drug discovery and chemical screening.

Octarine Bio is a synthetic biology company that produces superior cannabinoids for the pharmaceutical industry.

TZOFEN biological therapeutics are developing a novel biological platform for the treatment of various cancer types.

MIBIOMICS mission is to develop innovative, safe, and effective microbiome-based solutions to treat currently incurable skin diseases.

Computational Life Inc. is a software development company based in Wilmington, Delaware, that creates innovative solutions for the healthcare sector. Founded in 2018, the company specializes in a Digital Avatar Platform (DAP) that simulates human and animal physiological systems using advanced mathematical models. This technology allows for detailed simulations of various bodily systems, including arterial and venous dynamics, heart function, microcirculation, and cerebrospinal fluid movement. By leveraging validated physical laws, Computational Life's platform aids healthcare professionals in predicting personalized patient outcomes and managing complex medical conditions. The software's ability to model the effects of medical treatments enhances decision-making in clinical settings, particularly for multisystemic diseases.

Sano Chemicals is an early-stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative anti-infectives for both clinical and agricultural applications. The company aims to enhance health and promote a sustainable environment through its unique products. Sano Chemicals specializes in antifungal treatments, particularly targeting fungal infections in humans as well as bio-control methods for crops. One of their key compounds, occidiofungin, is a novel antifungal discovered by researchers at Mississippi State University and Texas A&M University. The company is working on various applications of occidiofungin to address fungal infections affecting nails, skin, and systemic health, while also developing solutions to combat fungal diseases in plants. Through these efforts, Sano Chemicals seeks to revolutionize the antifungal industry and improve quality of life for patients and sustainable agricultural practices.

Gina Life is femtech company developing a platform of biomarkers strategy supported by AI for early detection in women’s health space.

Gina Life is femtech company developing a platform of biomarkers strategy supported by AI for early detection in women’s health space.

Vatic Health is a developer of medical test kits designed to detect infections remotely. The company offers an on-the-spot saliva test kit using convenient sensitivity protein detection technology. They offer inflammation, machine learning, health tracking, and lateral flow.

Clara Biotech is a platform technology that allow for the isolation of specific cellular markers (exosomes) from very small fluid samples enabling liquid biopsy for the very early detection of cancer, Alzheimer's Disease and many others. These same markers can also be turned into a precision medicine drug delivery platform delivering targeted drugs directly to the cells being targeted. The current gold standard is a 12 hours ultra-centrifugation process. Ours is the only platform that can take any biofluid source, and extract any species of pure viable exosome into pure solution. We are the bridge that moves research to patient. Exosomes are one of the next major breakthroughs in Biotech. We are Clara. We are exosomes.

Infinite Roots is a technology-driven company that harnesses natural ingredients to create sustainable health and wellness products. They emphasize using organic and ethically sourced materials, blending traditional remedies with modern science to promote holistic well-being. Infinite Roots offers a range of products, including herbal supplements, skincare, and wellness solutions, all aimed at supporting natural healing and balance. They aim to create eco-friendly, effective products while maintaining a deep commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical practices.

Convallo Bio develops the next generation of beneficial bacteria to improve the wellness of humans, animals and the planet

Mantle Biotech is a company focused on developing medical diagnostic devices that address unmet needs in global health. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company specializes in engineering binding proteins capable of accurately identifying disease biomarkers in patient samples. Utilizing directed evolution to modify heat-stable proteins derived from microbes, Mantle Biotech produces high-quality binding proteins that are more stable and affordable than traditional reagents. These innovative reagents can be adapted for various diseases and testing formats, providing clinics with a reliable and cost-effective alternative to conventional diagnostic methods.

We provide phenotypic compound screening services for first-in-class drug discovery and drug repositioning. Our unique combination of tissue engineering technology with assay automation and sample miniaturization offers a rapid and cost effective platform for unprecedented therapeutic discovery.As our name implies, the core of InvivoSciences mission is the research and development of engineered tissue-based assays that are superior because they mimic the function of living organisms, specifically those of animals and humans.

MIBIOMICS mission is to develop innovative, safe, and effective microbiome-based solutions to treat currently incurable skin diseases.

CellSpring, based in Zurich, Switzerland, is a biotech company dedicated to bringing fundamental improvements to cell-based in vitro studies. The company’s core technology, the 3D Bloom platform, enables creation of biomimetic microtissues independent of cell type in a matter of minutes. 3D Bloom improves upon existing 3D cell culture technologies with regard to speed of fabrication, reliability, versatility, and ease of use.

SiNON is dedicated to improving the lives of those who suffer from debilitating neurological diseases by increasing the ability of drugs to cross the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB).

KJ scientific ensures testing and analysis of chemicals product to safety for human and environmental health.

Fluent Biosciences is a life science "single cell" technology company that offers molecular analysis of cells without the use of complex microfluidic instrumentation. The company’s proprietary platform, Pre-Templated Instant Partitions (PIPseqTM), provides instantaneous self-assembly of individual cells or molecules into millions of uniform partitions for sensitive, unbiased preparation of proteins and nucleic acids for sequencing applications. Fluent's technology expands accessibility of single cell, molecule, or protein analysis to every laboratory, enabling broader market access across all researchers in biotech, pharma, and academic centers.

Scailyte has established a data-driven biomarker discovery platform that leverages unique expertise in single-cell data analysis and artificial intelligence. We are utilizing this platform to discover a new class of biomarkers, which are defined by the molecular profiles of disease-associated cells. This phenotypic approach to biomarker discovery is radically new and directly related to the biology of a disease, which maximizes the success rate for discovering sensitive and robust biomarkers.

We simplify the way we teach, do research and innovate in synthetic biology

Simbiótica Labs develops biological technology solutions to increase the productivity of the crop.

LIfT Biosciences® has a breakthrough allogeneic innate immuno-cell therapy platform called Neutrophil Only Leukocyte Infusion Therapy (N-LIfT®) that allows us to produce different types of Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils (IMAN®s) at scale from iPSCs for a wide range of different purposes as a mono or combo. LIfT BioSciences was founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, England.

Nagi Bioscience aims to revolutionize the way toxic and/or beneficial effects of substances are tested today, by introducing the first “Organism-on-Chip” technology.

Kernal creates mRNA therapies to cure diseases like COVID and cancer. Our mRNA therapies instruct specific cells on how to make their own drugs. Kernal won three awards from Amgen and NASA. With roots at MIT, Harvard and Big Pharma, the team previously built a successful Biotech company and has deep expertise in mRNA space.

At Halo Life Science their aim is to Elevate Human Potential. After 3 years of research and development they are pleased to announce their initial, patent(s) pending product Naturalin™ - a phytonutrient that puts health and wellness into everything you eat and drink. Naturalin will also come in nutritional supplement forms. Validated safe, functional, and effective by researchers at the Dell Pediatric Research Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. Their mission is to deliver safe, effective, simple, affordable, accessible food and nutritional supplement products to everyone, everywhere.

Living a Book is a book-reading app that allows users to choose the course of the story and the events in the book and provides a one-of-a-kind interactive experience. The company uses technology and a good book to create a distinctively immersive experience.

Bezoar Laboratories is devoted to improving the health of humans, animals, and environment with innovative microbial solutions.

Cellino is building a scalable, automated biomanufacturing system for potentially curative personalized cell therapies. Cellino’s vision is to enable healthier lives worldwide with personalized treatments derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can serve as the basis for therapies for a host of chronic degenerative diseases, including vision loss and Parkinson's disease.

ChemAlive is a OpenSaaS automation environment that lets any chemist obtain state-of-the-art metrics on their chemicals and processes based on only standard 2D chemical input. The rest is automated giving highly accurate numbers through cloud access without a need for computing infrastructure or software. They help their customers better design their chemistry and better understand their most challenging questions to reduce time-to-market and overheads by making the R&D chemist's job more manageable. They are now expanding from a semi-scalable consultancy model to power their computations with machine learning and big data concepts such that they can reduce the time to obtain accurate information from days to minutes. This new technology will be applied in online chemical sales and marketing environments by empowering buyers with guiding information and sellers with engaging and confidence inspiring tools to promote thier products.

Reminisciences develops a symbiotic treatment and a companion diagnostic for Alzheimer's disease through targeting the gut microbiome. Reminisciences exploits the crucial role of gut microbiota in human physiology and more specifically as we have discovered in Alzheimer's disease. There is no effective treatment for Alzheimer, despite 51 million patients in need. Our company develops 2 products: CerebralX, a symbiotic therapeutic treatment to restore altered gut microbiota and stop or delay Alzheimer's disease, and ReminiTest, a diagnostic based upon microbiota profiling.

Xsensio is an innovation-driven digital health company dedicated to solving one of the biggest challenges in healthcare: the lack of real-time, continuous monitoring of relevant health parameters. We take the industry from a static approach today, to a dynamic one. To achieve this vision, Xsensio is building the breakthrough Lab-on-Skin© wearable: a modular miniaturized sensing platform that will offer unique health insight through the continuous and real-time analysis of proteins and hormones at the surface of the skin during critical health events, to improve standard of care in a simple and minimally-invasive way.

SUN bioscience is enabling personalized medicine through patient-specific organoids cultured on SUN’s proprietary high-throughput 3D microwell platform. Organoids are self-organizing 3D miniature tissues with organ-mimicking functions that are grown from stem cells. They are powerful human in vitro models for assessing pharmaceutical efficacy and toxicity early on in drug development. The SUN technology is solving the problems that organoid culture today cannot be scaled and automated. This will introduce a new area of drug discovery where we can understand drug performance outside of an animal or a human being.

SimplicityBio’s vision is to be one of the world’s leading biomarker discovery companies in the molecular diagnostic market, providing to our clients services and products based on robust signatures using multiple biomarkers. The company's range of services include biomarker discovery and ranking, signature creation, and existent signature improvement. Furthermore, it develops science, IP, and white paper technologies for its clients. SimplicityBio was founded in 2013 by Matthew Hall, Pedro Faustino, and Miguel Barreto and is based in Monthey.

Inq-ITS (www.inqits.com) are standards-aligned virtual labs for grades 5-10 science. They improve students' competency at science inquiry practices, and cut teachers' grading time by automatically scoring themselves. They want to help EVERY student learn science inquiry practices and critical thinking, and help empower EVERY educator to exceed new science standards. To be successful in the 21st Century, students need their education to go beyond rote memorization.The virtual science labs we create aim to help students to master the inquiry and critical thinking skills that will help them succeed in the classroom and beyond.

We’re a bioengineering company that's reducing the massive environmental footprint of the CBD market through precision fermentation. And our technology never touches a plant. CBD is a global $12Bn consumer market and Hyasynth's precision fermentation platform eliminates wasteful plant cultivation and decreases the carbon impact by more than 97%. Hyasynth is the world's only bioengineering company with a scalable, fermentation process for CBD that is cost-efficient and regulatory-compliant.

Every day too many LifeStories are being taken to the grave, lost forever. As the senior population explodes, there’s a yearning to rescue these priceless stories. But it's hard to write an entire life-and a writer is costly. Using our digital platform LJB will empower seniors everywhere to share the story of their lives with a LifeStory system that's easy, fun and affordable. When done, they’ll hit “Print” and we'll do the rest, creating a beautiful book, a lasting legacy for their loved ones.

DLS is creating new drugs to treat metabolic and cardiovascular diseases by mimicking favorable genotypes/phenotypes in nature. Some people are thinner than others, and DLS has identified a mutation in humans that causes thinness. The mutation in the target protein causes loss-of-function leading to the wasting of energy in the body and results in thinness. DLS is in the process of creating a small molecule inhibitor to the target protein that will similarly cause an inefficient metabolism and lead to thinness regardless of the cause of obesity. Following nature's example provides a safer path to curing obesity.

LambdaVision, Inc. is commercializing a retinal implant to restore vision for the millions of patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

SmartScope focused on bringing early stage malaria diagnoses to the masses. Last year more than 400,000 people died from malaria, 70% of which were children under the age of five. There are not enough medical experts in the world to diagnose everyone infected. Their solution is an easy to use, smartphone connected microscope adapter, and an app that uses deep learning to diagnose malaria within seconds, speeding up the process of diagnosing malaria many folds.

Cellphmed developed proprietary tools to decipher unexplored regions of the genome, encompassing millions of uncharted RNA biomarkers. They serves virology, machine learning, AI, RNA, RNA biomarkers, biomarkers, transposable elements, transposable transcriptome, TES, and oncology.

Gene sequencing and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies have enabled affordable genome mapping and editing with unprecedented precision; however, the bottleneck in understanding human disease mechanisms and bringing breakthrough therapies to patients faster now lies in the manual experimentation to introduce these new vectors into model organisms. HIVE Biosystems' rapid, self-driving instruments perform large-scale genetic modification and deep phenotyping of model organisms with deep learning algorithms.

TFC BioSciences develops and manufactures liposome-based fluorescence detection systems – Fluorosomes® – for applications in drug discovery and related fields. Utilizing the Fluorosome® platform they are continuously expanding their technology to develop smart tools for “ADMET” studies in drug discovery.

We live in a DNA society. DNA science can improve crops, solve crimes, and help inform medical treatments. Yet most of us have no firsthand experience with DNA technologies because they are complex and expensive. Amplyus’ mission is to give everyone access to DNA experimentation. Their miniPCR platform enables DNA analysis at a fraction of the cost and through a simple and educational interface. miniPCR puts DNA technology in the hands of students, enthusiasts, and more researchers.

Eulysis UK Limited is an innovative device development company focused on improving the storage and delivery of pharmaceutical products. The company pioneer product innovation, Single Vial System, involves a unique manufacturing process which allows the integration of a lyophilized active ingredient(s) and its diluent for reconstitution to exist within the same container. Until now, pharmaceutical products such as vaccines,antibiotics, antidotes that comprised a lyophilized phase and a diluent for reconstitution were manufactured, stored and delivered in two containers. This leads to a number of inefficiencies and potential risks including contamination risks, excessive raw material usage in production, and inefficient usage of transportation and storage means as two vials had to be transported and stored for each final product as opposed to one.

SQZ Biotech is a developer of a cell engineering technology designed to deliver a diverse set of materials into patient cells. It is a privately held company that develops cellular therapies for multiple indications using the proprietary CellSqueeze technology. Through internal research programs and external partnerships, SQZ’s unique cell engineering capabilities are being used to develop a new generation of cell therapies by engineering the immune system both through immune activation and immune suppression for a wide range of clinical challenges.

Volvox is grateful for the support of a growing number of world-class mentors and advisors.

Nanoly Bioscience, Inc. is a biotechnology company that specializes in developing polymers designed to stabilize temperature-sensitive molecules, such as vaccines and therapeutics, during storage and transportation. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Nanoly's innovative polymer technology allows these sensitive products to survive without refrigeration, thereby extending their shelf life and eliminating the need for temperature-controlled storage in certain cases. This advancement is particularly significant for the distribution of vaccines and protein-based therapeutics, offering a practical solution to the challenges posed by conventional cold chain logistics.

Sextant develops groundbreaking cancer therapies from our patented drug discovery technologies developed at MIT. Instead of simply trying to kill the tumor, we have created a way for tumors to dynamically trigger an immune response against cancer, and our technologies help us discover the best drug combinations to prevent relapse. Sextant’s unique pre-clinical drug discovery platform could bring new, more effective chemotherapies to market and save millions of lives.

iSpecimen offers an online marketplace for human biospecimens, connecting life scientists in commercial and non-profit organizations with healthcare providers that have access to patients and specimens needed for medical discovery. Proprietary, cloud-based technology enables scientists to intuitively search for specimens and patients across a federated partner network of hospitals, labs, biobanks, blood centers, and other healthcare organizations.

Factor Bioscience is building the future of regenerative medicine by targeting and repairing the molecular origins of disease. Factor Bioscience was established to explore new methods for controlling gene expression and cell fate. Their scientists developed the fastest, highest-efficiency method for reprogramming somatic cells to a pluripotent stem-cell state, a key invention now recognized by several patents. This technology, which enables the production of patient-specific cells for transplantation, has wide-ranging applications in personalized regenerative medicine.

Leiva Learning Strings provides a method for teaching students how to correlate musical notes to the cumbersome fingering positions of any stringed musical instrument by color-coding each note. The seven different colors are set to match the seven natural notes (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,) in music theory. With their patented Learning Strings, individuals can learn to play and read sheet music by matching colors making stringed instruments as fun and easy to learn as they are in the video game Guitar Hero.

Extend Biosciences Inc. is an emerging biotechnology company developing a novel drug delivery platform technology that improves the pharmacokinetic properties of peptides and proteins. Peptides have been particularly challenging to bring to market because they are removed from circulation prior to administering therapeutic value. Their proprietary platform technology significantly improves the circulating half-life and bioavailability of peptides and proteins, enabling the scientific community to truly develop potent and specific drugs. Their mission is to revolutionize drug delivery and give patients a better quality of life.

ViThera Pharmaceuticals is an early-stage biotechnology company based in Cambridge, MA, specializing in innovative treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The company utilizes engineered lactic acid and probiotic bacteria, known as EnLact strains, to produce therapeutic molecules within the body. This approach combines the benefits of probiotics with synthetic biology to develop novel therapeutics aimed at restoring and maintaining the integrity of the gastrointestinal epithelium. ViThera's lead program, VT301, is currently in pre-clinical development and focuses on expressing human anti-inflammatory proteins that target inflamed mucosa, helping patients achieve faster remission and preventing disease flare-ups. The company collaborates closely with leading academic researchers in the U.S. and Europe, and strong proof of concept data underpins its innovative approach to biologic therapy. Additionally, translational studies are being conducted in human tissues in partnership with a large pharmaceutical company, further advancing the potential of its therapeutic offerings.

Ginkgo Bioworks is a biotechnology firm. It is a developer of biological engineering products and custom microbes across multiple markets. It designs, engineer, develops, tests, and licenses organisms. It discovers molecules in flavors, sweeteners, cosmetic ingredients, crop treatments, and pharmaceuticals. It also provides probiotic bacteria to protect the body from dangerous infections, and it generates libraries of molecules. It serves cultured ingredients, carbon mitigation, probiotics, and natural product discovery markets.

Seeding Labs is changing the global map of science. They help talented scientists in developing countries conduct life-changing research by ensuring they have access to the right resources including equipment, training and colleagues worldwide. They have worked with scientists in 17 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.

Sextant develops groundbreaking cancer therapies from our patented drug discovery technologies developed at MIT. Instead of simply trying to kill the tumor, we have created a way for tumors to dynamically trigger an immune response against cancer, and our technologies help us discover the best drug combinations to prevent relapse. Sextant’s unique pre-clinical drug discovery platform could bring new, more effective chemotherapies to market and save millions of lives.