• Healionics

  Led · Grant · May 2024

  Healionics is a privately held Seattle medical-device company developing STARgraft, a synthetic biomaterial vascular graft intended to improve vascular access for dialysis patients. STARgraft is designed to resist occlusion and infection, two common failure modes of existing grafts. The company positions the graft against a large clinical need: more than 550,000 U.S. patients require frequent dialysis and the U.S. spends roughly $50 billion annually treating kidney failure. Healionics was awarded a $1.25 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to support commercialization. The award is part of the NIH Commercialization Readiness Pilot Program, which provides additional technical assistance and late‑stage R&D support. Healionics intends to use the funds to complete testing, pursue regulatory clearance, and prepare for market launch. Healionics Corporation is a privately held medical device company in Seattle developing biomaterial-based products, notably the STARgraft vascular graft. STARgraft is based on proprietary synthetic biomaterial technology designed to resist occlusion and infection. The product targets reliable vascular access for dialysis patients, addressing frequent graft failure and infection. More than 550,000 people in the U.S. require dialysis, and the country spends roughly $50 billion annually to treat kidney failure—underscoring the market need. Healionics recently closed a $5.5 million Series A-3 equity financing to advance the program. Proceeds will be used to complete an ongoing human trial and to pursue regulatory clearance and commercialization of STARgraft. Management cited excellent clinical results to date in the human trial and plans to move toward regulatory approval and commercial launch. Healionics develops the STARgraft vascular graft and a pipeline based on its STAR® biomaterial, which the company says resists infection and scarring. The company completed an initial human study last year and is conducting a follow-on human study now. Led by CEO Mike Connolly, Healionics is preparing to commercialize STARgraft for safer dialysis access by addressing infection and occlusion issues of current devices. The company intends to use the new financing to complete the ongoing human study and pursue FDA market clearance. Healionics is clinical-stage and focused on translating its platform biomaterial into implanted-device solutions for patients with kidney failure. Healionics develops the STARgraft vascular graft intended to improve dialysis access by resisting occlusion and infection. The company’s STAR biomaterial platform is already in human use as a commercial implant for glaucoma treatment and has shown promising preclinical results for other implantable applications. In preclinical studies STARgraft demonstrated improved ability to maintain blood flow compared to on-market vascular grafts. The company has initiated its first human study of STARgraft and is working toward regulatory approval and commercial launch of the product. To support that clinical program, Healionics completed a $4.5M convertible note financing. Company leadership thanked a number of angel and venture investors as well as existing backers for their participation in the round. Healionics develops STARgraft, a vascular graft aimed at addressing dialysis access failures in patients with kidney failure. In multiple preclinical studies STARgraft demonstrated much better reliability than on-market devices, with the potential to reduce cost, illness and death among dialysis patients. The company’s broader pipeline is based on its STAR biomaterial platform, which the article says can prevent scarring and infection and improve performance of implantable devices. STAR biomaterial is already in human use as a commercial implant for glaucoma treatment and has shown promising preclinical results for other applications. Management intends to use proceeds from the recent financing to support the company’s first human study of STARgraft. The company is based in Seattle, Washington.

• Thermedical

  Led · Grant · Oct 2023

  Thermedical develops the Saline Enhanced Radiofrequency (SERF) Ablation System and the Durablate catheter to treat ventricular tachycardia (VT) and other ventricular arrhythmias. The company’s SERF approach provides a different form of biological heat transfer intended to reach tissue deeper in the heart wall than conventional radiofrequency ablation. Thermedical is privately held, founded by MIT Hyperthermia Center alumni Michael G. Curley, Ph.D., and Patrick S. Hamilton, Ph.D., and is based in Waltham, Mass. It has received prior support including a Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Small Business Matching Grant, multiple NIH SBIR grants, and Series A venture funding. The company reports strong early clinical results: in a recent multi-center trial 38 of 41 participants experienced immediate elimination of their clinical VT at the end of the procedure, and shock or pacing therapies were substantially reduced or eliminated in 73% of those patients at six months. Thermedical plans to use current funding to support an FDA-approved clinical trial at seven centers in the U.S. and Canada and will showcase the SERF system at an international VT symposium. Thermedical develops thermal-ablation systems to treat cancer and cardiac arrhythmias. The company was founded by MIT Hyperthermia Center alumni Michael G. Curley, Ph.D. and Patrick S. Hamilton, Ph.D. It received FDA clearance in October 2012 for its technology for coagulation and ablation of soft tissue during percutaneous, laparoscopic, and intraoperative surgical procedures. Thermedical intends to use recent financing to hire technical staff and continue research into ablation of solid tumors and ventricular tachycardia. The company plans to begin first-in-man studies later this year. It is based in Waltham, Massachusetts. Thermedical is a Somerville, Mass.–based privately held company developing proprietary thermal therapy and ablation equipment, including preclinical prototypes of a Saline-Enhanced Radio Frequency (SERF™) ablation system. The SERF system targets malignant solid tissue such as liver cancer and difficult-to-treat cardiac arrhythmias like ventricular tachycardia (VT). Thermedical was founded by Michael G. Curley, Ph.D., and Patrick S. Hamilton, Ph.D., and has received multiple NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and a Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Small Business Matching Grant. The company says the ablation therapy is designed to increase survival and improve quality of life for liver cancer patients and potentially cure VT. Thermedical recently closed a $1.5 million Series A financing from private investor Samuel H. Maslak, Sc.D., to fund continued research and development and additional patent filings. Proceeds will also support efforts to achieve 510(k) regulatory clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

• Numerate

  Led · Grant · Aug 2019

  Numerate is a computational drug design company that applies artificial intelligence at cloud scale to small-molecule drug discovery. The company combines advances in computer science and statistics with the knowledge of experienced drug hunters to produce first-in-class candidates targeting cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases. Numerate received a $2M Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the NIH. The award follows successful completion of work funded by a Phase I award. Numerate will collaborate with the UCLA Cardiovascular Research Laboratory to use the funds to discover novel small-molecule candidates for well-tolerated antiarrhythmic therapies to treat and prevent ventricular tachycardias and fibrillation (VT/VF). The company is led by Chief Scientific Officer John Griffin, Ph.D., and Uwe Klein, Ph.D., Vice President of Biology and Principal Investigator. Numerate is a privately held biotechnology company applying novel machine-learning algorithms, at cloud scale, to transform small-molecule drug discovery. Its proprietary drug design platform uses all relevant data (SAR, patents, phenotypic data, etc.) rather than relying solely on crystal structures, enabling iterative design of novel compounds. The platform combines advances in computer science and statistics with traditional medicinal chemistry to address factors that determine the success and failure of drug candidates. Numerate is using this platform to develop a pipeline of lead programs in cardiovascular, metabolic and neurodegenerative disease areas. Specifically, it plans to target free fatty acid receptors for diabetes and obesity and the Ryanodine receptor 2 for heart failure and arrhythmia. The company recently completed an $8 million financing co-led by Atlas Venture and Lilly Ventures to enable advancement of its lead programs.

No current team members are available.