Karl Handelsman, founder of Codon Capital and Investment Director, Roche Venture Fund, joining in from the San Francisco Bay Area

Did 2020 have you searching for good news? Here is a story where the results are outpacing the hype. Karl Handelsman, founder and Managing Partner of Codon Capital, and Investment Director of the Roche Venture Fund, explained the biotech frontier for non-scientists. The accelerating pace of basic science is fueling technology development empowering small teams to tackle the hardest problems in human and planetary health. Importantly, these biotech "moonshots" are reaching escape velocity with tens of millions of dollars in dozens of months.

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John ‘Jay’ Schwartz, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer, AcuityBio Corporation, joining in from Boston, Mass.

AcuityBio’s lead product candidate, ABC103, utilizes the FDA-approved drug paclitaxel with 510k cleared components, creating a proprietary solution to prevent post-surgical lung cancer recurrence. ABC103 is designed to be administered at the time of resection with approved endoscopic cutting staplers as part of standard surgical procedures enabling localized and sustained levels of paclitaxel for more than 60 days preventing recurrence. Additional high value for medicine near-term pipeline projects leveraging off ABC103's development are in the pipeline.

Dr. Schwartz has a track record as a successful MIT academic, serial entrepreneur, translational medicine expert, venture-backed cofounder and angel investor. He has a demonstrated track record of identifying and driving commercially viable, early stage technologies through clinical development to acquisition exits. For the last 20 years, Dr. Schwartz has given back to the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a business mentor with the prestigious MIT Venture Mentoring Service as well as for the last three years as an NSF ICorps instructor.

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Brett Baker, MSc, DC, President and Chief Scientific Officer, together with Steven Schellong, Vice President of Capital Development and IR, Microbion Corporation, joining in from Bozeman, MT

“If grippe condemns, the secondary infections execute.”

Louis Cruveilhier, Physician 1919

Research of viral respiratory pandemics over the past 100 years has shown that the vast majority of deaths are attributed to secondary bacterial infections, also known as 'bacterial superinfections'. Research is now showing that bacteria are also responsible for increased severity and mortality in COVID-19 patients. In this presentation Microbion describes how their inhaled anti-infective, pravibismane, may help to prevent and treat secondary bacterial lung infections and cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients. Pravibismane is the first in a new class of anti-infective drugs with a novel mechanism of action, and is the first known anti-infective drug to have both broad-spectrum potency against a wide range of drug-resistant bacteria/superbugs and fungi, and an unprecedented ability to prevent and eradicate bacterial biofilms. Pravibismane’s potential has been validated through $17M in non-dilutive grant awards from CARB-X and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to fund studies for treatment of bacterial lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients.

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Xiaoxi Wei, PhD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, X-Therma, Inc., joining us from the San Francisco Bay Area

Dr. Wei is an award winning start-up entrepreneur and chemistry professional in the area of biomimetic nanoscience and biopreservation in Regenerative Medicine. Being persistent on her life vision to enable "organs on-demand" since a very young age, she pursued her scientific endeavor in biomimetic Chemistry in the US. She founded X-Therma Inc. in San Francisco Bay Area in October 2014 and led the breakthrough innovation in biopreservation, which has demonstrated successful traction in Regenerative Medicine from cell & gene therapy, tissue engineering to whole organs for transplant. The highest impact of this technology would be saving the 80% of wasted human organs discarded for transplant (TAM $45B, USA) by extending the organ shelf-life from hours to days. The technology also enables centralized manufacturing processes for Regenerative Medicine products. The company is backed by multi-billion cell therapy companies, US DoD and high profile investors.

She comes from an entrepreneurial family and has inherited the entrepreneur spirit. She is experienced in business development and managed an $8M engineering project while completing her Ph.D. study. She is a major author of 8 peer reviewed research papers and inventor of 2 high-impact patents. She serves as a healthcare advisor for the University of California Regents working group on innovation transfer and entrepreneurship, is a scientific advisor for Life Extension Foundation and was the Vice Chair of Younger Chemists Committee of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and California ACS executive committee member. She is a distinguished member of the RULEBREAKER society, Germany.

She is the PI of 10 federal and state grants/contracts to develop breakthrough cryoprotectants enabling complex tissue/organ cryopreservation. She led the X-Therma research endeavors at The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2015-2020.

Xiaoxi gained multiple recognitions internationally and nationwide. MEDy award of XMED 2019; BUZZ-of-BIO 2019; Global championship of "Hello Tomorrow" in Global Health, 2019; SVIEF annual champion 2018, Patrick Soon-Shiong Innovation Award, 2015.

Meet Dr. Wei and learn more about X-Therma by logging in to Cavendish IQ.