2016 Innovation Competition (Boston, MA)

Submit an Opportunity

Overview

We are looking for Innovative 'Ideas' across life sciences to pitch for this competition. An "Idea" can be a concept to an early stage venture. Be part of an exciting new competition to get community feedback and win awards. There are prizes available for the top innovators. Leverage the BiotechTuesday network to gain feedback and identify new team members, investors and corporate partners. Your participation, along with others in the community, will make this event special!

View Pitch Submissions Below

General rules

New! All submissions are due by 5:00PM on Friday, September 16th.
'Ideas' can include concept stage to early stage ventures with a seed round.
Only one Idea per application.
Do not disclose any confidential information on this website as described in the Terms of Use for the competition.
All applications will be reviewed in advance and BiotechTuesday reserves the right to reject an application for any reason.
The winners will be determined from a pitch to the Judging Panel in advance of the event. The judges will have the final decision on the winners.
Award sponsors will select winners for their awards based on criteria listed on the Awards page. A pitch can only win an award if it meets the qualifications defined by the sponsor. Additional awards may be added during the competition.
Clients of Mass Innovation Labs are not eligible to enter this competition.

Please email Support if you have any questions or need help in submitting an application.

Competition process

An individual or team submits an application for review. An uploaded business plan or presentation is required for each pitch.
- The Tagline, Concept or Business Name, Elevator Pitch, Contact Us, optional video, and optional logo are publically viewable. The uploaded business presentation and contact information fields are not publically viewable.
The pitch submission is reviewed by BiotechTuesday staff, and if approved, the pitch posting goes live at www.biotechtuesday.com. We reserve the right to disqualify an application for any reason.
A panel of judges review the business presentation to select finalists.
Finalists will have a five minute, in person, pitch to the panel of judges on September 19th at 7PM.
The winner(s) will be announced at the September 20th event and have the opportunity to present their five minute pitch to event attendees.
Participants receive anonymous community feedback from their pitch posting following the event (Note: BiotechTuesday login is required to leave comments).

Awards

One goal of this competition is to engage life science companies to support community innovators with cash or in-kind products or services. Rather than bestow all of the awards to a winner, the sponsors of an Innovation Award can determine which pitch wins their award. The more companies that sponsor an Innovation Award, the more ways innovators can gain valuable support for their ideas.

We are looking for more Innovation Awards. If your company can offer cash, products or services that can benefit innovators, please contact us to sponsor an Award. We can accept new awards up to a week before the event. This is a great way to distinguish your company as a contributor to innovation in Boston and beyond!

Application to pitch

Sales end

Go back to "Available Pitch Opportunities"

Advance Surgery

Concept or business name.

Adhesys Medical

Elevator Pitch

Our polyurethane based surgical glue utilizes a unique and innovative chemical formulation to form a hemostatic sealant that is fast-acting, absorbable, and non-toxic. It is the first such adhesive which is strong, flexible, fully-synthetic, and completely biodegradable. All pre-clinical trials demonstrate equal or superior performance compared to industry standards for inside body use. Furthermore our topical sealant functions capably in substituting topical sutures.

THE NOBEL LAUREATES' SCHOOL VISITS

Concept or business name.

Nobel Laureates to inspire youth as role models

Elevator Pitch

We bring Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Economics, Literature, and Peace to public schools in under-served and inner-city communities across the United States as role models to inspire young people. In operation since 2008, we crisscrossed California and Massachusetts, visited Hawaii, New York , Chicago with over 60 remarkable Nobel Prize community celebrations. All, worldwide close to 300, Nobel Laureates support this initiative and 32 of them actively participate, some of them (Professors Sheldon Glashow and Jerome Friedman, Dr. Richard Roberts)up to 6 times. Nobel events are free for participating schools and students.

Diagnostic that reduces the number of unnecessary heart valve replacement reoperations

Concept or business name.

BioImag

Elevator Pitch

For pediatric heart valve replacement patients there is a 13% one-year mortality rate, a 60% reoperation rate within 25 years, and the cost of surgery exceeds $160,000. Mechanical and biological valves are the current standards of care. Mechanical valves do not work well for pediatric patients due to their fixed size. Biological valves need to be replaced after 10-15 years. Luckily, regenerative valves are being developed. These breakthrough valves regenerate naturally and grow with the patient. They are a major step forward in patient care, or would be except that we are currently unable to determine if they are regenerating, effectively making them a stepwise improvement over biological valves instead of a game changing technology. As the recipients of regenerative valves age, many will experience unnecessary reoperations on valves that are functioning properly. We have solved this problem with our magnetically functionalized collagen, which is an engineered biomaterial produced by combining tissue engineering with nanomagnetism. It allows non-invasive detection of the enzymes responsible for valve regeneration. Our collagen is able to detect potential issues years in advance of a serious incident and will enable doctors to limit reoperations to valves that are not functioning properly, eliminating unnecessary valve reoperations. By reducing these reoperations, we will decrease the patient mortality rate while creating a cost saving up to $90,000 per patient for payers.

Investment Opportunity of a Lifetime--Medical Diagnostic!

Concept or business name.

RU101010

Elevator Pitch

RU101010 is a medical diagnostic home test kit for the simultaneous testing of the 10 most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The product will use existing lateral flow antibody biotechnology in order to inform the user if they are infected with a particular STD. (Please see the appendix for additional information about lateral flow technology and additional items that will need to be addressed with regards to the product quality control). RU101010 intends to simultaneously test for the following diseases: Chlamydia, HIV, Syphilis, Herpes, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Trichomoniasis, Mycoplasma Genitalium, and HPV.

Highly angiogenic multi-domain peptides for generation in vivo new blood vessels

Concept or business name.

NangioTx Inc. - making new blood vessels

Elevator Pitch

NangioTx technology based on an angiogenic peptide (V-10) is capable of regenerating blood vessels in ischemic muscles. This feature makes our patented technology a good candidate to treat conditions associated with Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) and Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD), particularly claudication, diabetic foot ulcer, critical limb ischemia, and chronic venous insufficiency. In all these indications the underlying etiology of the disease is lack of blood supply. Based on our existing proof of concept showing V-10's efficacy in regenerating new blood vessels/capillaries, we expect to show in human clinical studies evidence of the following: · decrease in claudication, · higher wound healing in diabetic ulcers, · increased blood flow in ischemia, and · reduction in edema and skin discoloration in venous insufficiency. Patients’ benefits would include decrease in pain, ability to walk more and longer, ability to sense and move the limb better, etc. Above indications are associated with a decrease in blood supply to tissues but not a complete blockade. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), of which V-10 is a mimic, is biologically active in stimulating new vessel formation even with minimal blood supply. We expect V-10 to be effective in generating new vasculature in the tissues of these PAD/PVD-associated symptoms and be an essential part of an overall therapeutic approach for their resolution.

Better than sliced... brain

Concept or business name.

ImmunoChem Therapeutics

Elevator Pitch

We are a clinical stage start-up with two drug candidates targeting brain inflammation, the main cause of neuronal/ synaptic damage and mental decline in brain trauma, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Developing novel therapeutics for obesity and rare metabolic disorders

Concept or business name.

Dover Lifesciences

Elevator Pitch

Dover has a genetically-validated, novel target for the treatment of obesity. We have hit molecules with nascent structural activity relationship which show inhibition in cellular and biochemical assays. Inhibition of the target protein leads to a metabolic inefficiency leading to weight loss and also provides substrate reduction therapy for a category of rare metabolic disorders

We aim to change the Alzheimer's care paradigm by transforming the treatment approach from reactive

Concept or business name.

RetiSpec

Elevator Pitch

Today, Alzheimer’s Disease is always detected too late – throwing patients into an invasive and painful diagnostic process that is expensive for the entire ecosystem of care. A burden for the individual, the family and the entire ecosystem of care. RetiSpec is developing a non-invasive eye scanner for early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease. RetiSpec’s product will be a catalyst for AD research, dramatically reduce diagnostic costs and will open the window to proactive, rather than reactive, treatment of the disease.

Identify common infectious bacteria in bodily fluid samples within 2 min

Concept or business name.

QSM Diagnostics, Inc.

Elevator Pitch

Accurate detection and identification of infectious bacteria cannot be determined in a time frame that is clinically acceptable to physicians who must make critical decisions to treat dangerous infections. Current methods take too long (48 hours) or are too expensive. The clinician cannot detect bacteria at the point of care or at a wound care facility. Undetected infections can rapidly lead to severe illness, amputation, and death, particularly in elderly and immune compromised populations. QSM provides the fastest/lowest-cost diagnostic instrument-sensor method for identifying and monitoring common bacteria in sputum, wound exudate, and urine. The instrument is battery powered and does not use reagents. Results are provided within 2 minutes by detecting electronic signals using the unique communication molecules that each bacterial species produces and excretes. The test is run at the point-of-care and will provide early guidance to doctors treating serious infections. Our initial market is veterinary diagnostics, identifying common infections in companion animals and livestock. Our first human product will identify pathogens in sputum and bronchial lavage samples to improve the standard of care for patients that are suspected of having hospital acquired pneumonia.

Outsmarting smart bugs

Concept or business name.

Block immune evasion by Lyme and other pathogens

Elevator Pitch

Lyme disease occurs worldwide and is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the US. Bacteria in the genus Borrelia cause Lyme disease and can cause chronic disability by permanently damaging our central and peripheral nervous system, heart, and joints. Borrelia often appear to be resistant to standard antibiotic treatment. To persist within mammalian hosts, Borrelia must evade the immune system by constantly changing their surface proteins. We aim to block their ability to change the surface proteins, which will allow our immune system to eliminate Borrelia. Recent studies showed that (i) the ability of Borrelia to vary their surface proteins requires DNA recombination mediated by a type of unusual DNA structure called a G-quadruplex, and that (ii) there is a well-tolerated drug developed for cancer treatment that targets a related G-quadruplex. Based on this information, we will identify small molecules that specifically disrupt the Borrelia G-quadruplex by screening molecules related to the existing drugs. We will first conduct a high-throughput phenotypic screen using yeast and also perform virtual screening using the G-quadruplex structure to select candidate drugs for preclinical studies in mice. Those drugs with the highest therapeutic potential will then be used in human clinical trials. Since pathogenesis appears to involve G-quadruplex mediated gene conversion in several infectious agents, targeting the G-quadruplex may be applicable to other diseases.

Immune activating antibody-drug conjugate payloads

Concept or business name.

Oncolinx

Elevator Pitch

Oncolinx, in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute, has created a targeted cancer therapy that selectively destroys cancer cells without harming normal tissue—thereby avoiding many of the adverse side-effects of chemotherapy such as hair loss, anemia, fatigue, and other side-effects. Oncolinx technology also activates the immune system to begin recognizing and destroying cancer cells all over the body. The platform consists of a potent drug attached to a tumor targeting antibody to form an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to carry the immune-activating payload exclusively to the site of the tumor. Oncolinx has issued and pending patents on the technology, and is currently partnered with more than 12 leading pharmaceutical companies including Fortune 500 companies including Novartis, Celgene and other leading oncology companies. Working with these companies, Oncolinx is developing targeted cancer therapies for more than 30 distinct cancer indications and aims to enter first-in-human trials on a partnered drug in 2017.

Earlier cancer detection

Concept or business name.

Ultrasound for home cancer monitoring

Elevator Pitch

Many imaging modalities require ionizing radiation to see within the body in order to make an assessment or diagnosis. Unfortunately, this ionizing radiation can cause damage at the cellular level, leading to adverse effects such as cancer. Ultrasound technology offers an imaging method without exposure to ionizing radiation, and it is easier and cheaper to manufacture than CT and MRI systems. Today, ultrasound is primarily confined to hospital settings due to the need for skilled technicians to obtain quality images and physicians to interpret them. While there are some portable ultrasound systems on the market today for $3-5K, they require specialized skill to operate and interpret the image output. These factors prevent current ultrasound systems from being truly usable and portable for the patient at home. Our ultrasound system will be the first to automate the process of capturing an ultrasound image for assessment of cancer recurrence in the head, neck and thyroid areas so specialized skill is no longer required for capturing quality images. Our software will also automate image and subsequent assessment processing for detecting cancer recurrence. By deploying our system to the home, we will allow patients to collect quantitative imaging data more frequently so as to minimize the time elapsed between possible recurrences of cancer for a fraction of the cost of the current state of the art technology.

Yeast that can produce cannabinoids on a large scale!

Concept or business name.

Hyasynth Bio

Elevator Pitch

Hyasynth produces cannabinoids using industrial microorganisms, allowing for a reliable, low-cost, and efficient source of these molecules. As opposed to obtaining products from plants, the use of bioreactors greatly reduces the cost and speed of manufacturing. Clients will have the choice of either licensing our manufacturing technology or buying cannabinoids manufactured by us.

Repairing Damaged Organs

Concept or business name.

Regenerative Esophageal Implant

Elevator Pitch

Imagine not being able to ingest food because your esophagus, the organ that provides food to the stomach, is severely damaged. And you have to rely on an external feeding tube just to survive. This is the case for those who suffer from esophageal cancer in which their only treatment option is to undergo a gastric pull surgery, which is a reconstruction of their esophagus with their stomach. However, the stomach is not a great substitute for an esophagus and this creates a very low quality of life as stricture, narrowing of the esophagus occurs, in which patients have to be re-admitted back into the hospital to undergo tube dilations and a physician has to implement a tube down their throat to re-widen their esophagus. Moreover, the 5-year survival rate post-surgery is less than 20% and the 2-year survival rate is less than 40%. Essentially this is a life ending procedure. My name is Derek Dashti and I am the Founder and CSO at D&P Bioinnovations, and we have developed a platform off the shelf implant to regenerate damaged organs within the body, in which our first application is to treat and regenerate a damaged esophagus. Addressing a $10 billion U.S. market for treating severe esophageal malignancies and getting approved to the market by 2020 via an expedited FDA device regulatory pathway. Eliminating the need for the antiquated gastric pull up, and ultimately increasing the quality of life and survival of the patients we aim to treat.