Five Biotech Startups to Check Out This Month
A flurry of activity is happening within the biotech sector as the year progresses. Investment firms are starting to allocate more money to startups who are working on ambitious projects like manufacturing revolutionary drugs and creating alternative sources of energy.
Bioscience Technology is highlighting a few startups that caught our eye this month.
Pembient
San Francisco-based Pembient is using 3D printing technology to genetically engineer rhinoceros horns.
The horns are composed of a certain type of keratin protein, according to TechCrunch. The scientists at Pembient were able to figure out the genetic coding behind the horns to reproduce the appendage using their printers.
The black market value of rhinoceros horns has skyrocketed in Asia. Poachers can make up to $65,000 per kilogram, but this hunting has caused various rhino species to become extinct.
Matthew Markus, Pembient’s co-founder, told TechCrunch he hopes his technique “disrupts” the horn trade and eventually find a way to use their printers to help other endangered species like elephants and tigers.
Moderna Therapeutics
CNBC placed Moderna Therapeutics as #1 on its third annual Disruptor 50 list because of how the biotech firm is approaching disease treatments.
Moderna is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company wants to make a class of drugs that essentially delivers messenger RNA (mRNA) to cells telling them to churn out proteins to emit any number of therapeutic opportunities when different diseases arise.
“The opportunity is just huge,” said Cowen Biotechnology Analyst Eric Schmidt to CNBC.
The drugmakers’s mRNA platform could be used to explore treatments for a large number of diseases. Moderna teamed up with Merck to create mRNA-based antiviral vaccines and spun off a new subsidiary to identify potential therapies for infectious diseases too.
Although Moderna is only four years old, the firm has $1 billion in the bank dedicated toward further exploring this area.
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CellScope
A few weeks ago, a team of researchers revealed they created a portable microscope for detecting parasites in your blood. The tool called CellScope works in conjunction with an iPhone app to find any intruders swimming around in your veins.
The device’s target audience are health workers working in rural areas where a species of parasite called the Loa Loa Worm is common and access to labs and hospitals are difficult.
Setting the machine up is easy. The process requires inserting a small drop of blood into CellScope. The app turns on and begins recoding a video. An algorithm tracks searches for any odd movements and then posts a worm count on the iPhone screen.
Two minutes is all it takes. You can watch CellScope in action here.
RaptorMaps
RaptorMaps is in the business of sustainable agriculture. The venture wants to use camera-carrying drones to fly over crops to help farmers find crop damage quickly before it spreads and ruins the rest of the field. The goal is to limit the usage of pesticides and minimize environmental impact.
Three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students are the brains behind this project: Edward Obropta, Forrest Meyen, and Nikhil Vadhavkar. Obropta and Meyen are doctoral candidates in the university’s prestigious Aeronautics and Astronautics department whereas Vadhavkar is working toward his doctorate in MIT’s Health Sciences and Technology school.
Beta Boston summarized the genesis of Raptor Maps writing, “Vadhavkar had previously led a team using drones to deliver emergency medical supplies in developing nations through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and it was there that ‘Forrest and I found that the resolution of satellite data was too low. But drone technology provided critical data within the same day.’”
The founders won the 2015 MIT $100K business competition, in which the $100,000 grand prize will be used to help them get their project off the ground and begin building their business.
Joule Unlimited
Another Massachusetts-based startup, Joule Unlimited, made headlines this month.
Joule is a clean-energy company focusing on manufacturing renewable fuels from diverse sources like sunlight, carbon dioxide, and genetically altered bacteria.
Investors gave $40 million to the firm earlier this week in an effort to commercialize its technology. The Wall Street Journal reported this was one of the larger investments in a biofuel startup since the peak in 2008.
Yet, Beta Boston notes the path for Joule going from the development phase to commercialization has been a bit bumpy. The eight-year-old startup is currently being led by its fourth CEO and predicted it would sell its product in 2012 and then again in 2014.
Despite, the company is feeling confident about its current state as do investors. A press release on Joule’s website indicated it will start building a 1,000-acre commercial plant in 2017 in hopes of converting 150,000 tons of CO2 waste into 25 million gallons of ethanol or 15 million gallons of diesel annually.
