Seven Arizona bioscience startups will receive $30,000 and other help as the latest participants in the Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program.
The startups include four Phoenix-area companies and three from Tucson, all of which were competitively selected for the program. They are working on innovations that include treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, chronic pulmonary problems — and bad dog breath.
In addition to the money, the companies will receive a personalized learning plan and connections with leaders in Arizona’s bioscience industry.
“These seven companies are working on innovations and treatments that could dramatically improve millions of lives and make for a healthier world—even for our pets,” said Tammy McLeod, Flinn Foundation president and CEO, in a statement. “The Flinn Foundation program provides these entrepreneurs with the tools they will need to continue to grow their firms and attract investors.”
The privately endowed Flinn Foundation has been doing this program since 2014 and has provided $1.6 million toward 54 Arizona companies in total.
Here are this year’s program participants, along with information on their initiatives provided by the Flinn Foundation:
- Anuncia Medical, Scottsdale — Developer of the ReFlow Ventricular System, which helps patients with cerebrospinal fluid disorders, such as hydrocephalus, a debilitating and life-threatening condition affecting more than 1 million U.S. patients. The device, which is placed beneath the scalp, facilitates a safe, noninvasive retrograde fluid flush when ventriculoperitoneal shunt flow is restricted or blocked.
- Beacon Biomedical, Phoenix — Provides easy, accurate, and affordable blood tests for earlier cancer detection as well as Covid-19 virus detection and antibodies testing. The company’s lead product, BeScreened-CRC, is a blood-based test for the early detection of colorectal cancer. The company also has early detection assays for breast, lung, prostate, and ovarian cancers in development.
- Navi Nurses, Phoenix — Offers personalized, private nursing care after surgery and hospitalization and exclusively hires bachelor-degree-and-higher registered nurses and provides carefully matched care based on the needs of the individual in the home-care setting.
- NeuTherapeutics, Tucson — Has a mission to provide safe and effective regenerative treatments for the brain to cure neurodegenerative diseases and precision therapies that preserve women’s brain health. The company’s lead molecule, Allopregnanolone, is a clinical-stage, regenerative treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases that generates new neurons, new synapses, and new neural circuits in the Alzheimer’s brain.
- ReSuture, Surprise — Has created a synthetic vasculature that mimics the properties of live human tissue for surgical training, delivering a lifelike procedural experience to allow surgeons to gain operative experience in a controlled environment. The company seeks to reduce surgical complications and improve patient outcomes by giving future surgeons a superior training experience.
- SaiOx, Tucson — The developer of Hespiro, a respiratory-assist device that helps treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD, and other respiratory diseases. The system, which improves patient comfort and reduces intubation occurrences, delivers a mixture of helium and oxygen, and captures exhaled gas and scrubs it free of carbon dioxide in a completely closed “rebreather” system.
- uPetsia, Tucson — Solves the problem of bad dog breath by modifying natural canine oral bacteria. The bacteria can be incorporated into dog treats and chews, giving them fresh breath with a mint aroma for several hours. UPetsia was one of five companies that won Purina's 2022 Pet Care Innovation Prize.
