Startup Showcase

photos of: man in lab, and man in classroom w text: DC Startup Showcase @ GW

April 28, 2020 at George Washington University on the Foggy Bottom Campus

Register Here

The George Washington University (GW)

Technology Commercialization Office is pleased to host the inaugural DC Startup Showcase.

The DC Startup Showcase exhibits companies developing disruptive healthcare innovations.

Come see pitches from entrepreneurs seeking funding to bring the fruits of high-impact research to market.

Mix and mingle with DC’s best entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders. Enjoy light refreshments.

The GW Technology Commercialization Office is hosting startups from:

  • Children’s National
  • Georgetown University
  • George Washington University (GW)

Children's National Companies

Founded in 2015, AlgometRx, Inc. is a digital-health mobile device early-stage company spun out from Children’s National Medical Center, DC, by pediatric anesthesiologist, Dr. Julia Finkel. The AlgometRx device represents a fundamental paradigm shift in drug detection, pain assessment, and analgesic prescribing/monitoring. The technology platform consists of the Rapid Drug Test and Pain Biometric. The AlgometRx Rapid Drug Test is a patented technology that detects the presence of specific drugs, including opioids/THC, in a patient’s system. The AlgometRx Pain Biometric physiologically measures pain type, intensity, and drug effect in real time by interpreting a patient’s pupillary response using a handheld, non-invasive device, and applying proprietary algorithms. This technology could be used by primary care physicians, pain clinics, drug treatment centers, emergency departments, the military, and law enforcement. AlgometRx is one of eight companies selected out of 250+ by the FDA for potential Breakthrough Device Status/Early Access pathway for its Rapid Drug Test targeting Opioid Use Disorder. Anticipated commercial approval of the Rapid Drug Test should occur by 2022.

Adipomics, Inc. is creating the first non-invasive “anticipatory medicine” diagnostic that detects risk for obesity-related diseases prior to the onset of overt clinical signs or even biochemical abnormalities. Personalized adipocyte-derived exosome-based gene therapy is under development since we can isolate and alter the content of these exosomes. Founded by two physicians from the Children’s National Hospital, the company’s vision is to create an adipocyte-derived exosome platform for diagnostics and therapeutics in obesity-mediated and single-gene defect diseases.

 

Georgetown Companies

Secret Chord Laboratories, Inc. is a spin-off company around a technology developed at Georgetown University that uses the power of neuroscience to identify, pre-release which songs have hit potential. The company is in the process of developing a software tool that uses AI to potentially inform artists about properties of musical elements within their songs that contribute to these preference evaluations. It can also provide smart suggestions on how to improve their songs. The technology also has potential in neuroimaging applications. The co-founders of the company are Scott A. Miles, PhD. David S. Rosen, PhD, and Brain N. Owens.

Diviner Therapeutics LLC is a spin off based on Georgetown University’s technology that relates to novel inhibitors of Cadherin-11, a protein involved in cell-cell adhesion. Expression of cadherin-11 aligns with poor prognosis in the clinical setting. Studies at Georgetown have shown that the lead compound has preclinical efficacy in anima; models of cancers such as breast and glioblastoma. The company continues to optimize and test the lead molecule. The co-founders of the company are Georgetown faculty members, Sivanesan Dakshanamurthy, PhD., MBA and Dr. Stephen Byers, PhD.

The George Washington University Companies

Advaite, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics and diagnostics to help patients' suffering from debilitating diseases. Advaite's focus is targeting cutaneous malignancies such as melanoma. The lead compound in development is a highly specific, AMES negative HDAC6 inhibitor proven efficacious and safe in pre-clinical melanoma murine models. It is tumor agnostic, and could be expanded to any indication where immunotherapy is approved. CEO is Karthik Musunuri. GW's lead inventor is Alejandro Villagra, Ph.D.

LuxMed Systems, Inc. is the leader in therapeutic ablation catheters enabled with optical sensors for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. Its flagship OmniView™ is the only optically guided ablation catheter that can: definitively characterize cardiac tissue, detect gaps, assess catheter-tissue contact, and monitor lesion progression, all in real-time. The OmniView™ provides electrophysiologists with definitive endpoints through simple, direct, and quantifiable optical tissue measurements and is designed to deliver complete, rapid, effective cardiac lesions to reduce costly repeat ablations. Validated in humans and protected with 15 issued patents, LuxMed’s unique ablation technology is expected to be commercial by 2022. LuxMed's CEO is Dr. Omar Amirana. GW's inventors are Marco Mercader, M.D., Narine Sarvazyan, Ph.D., and Matthew Kay, D.S.