A startup accelerator program backed by a partnership between the Allegheny Health Network and seed-stage investment firm Innovation Works Inc. has picked its latest cohort of six local startups that'll receive support to further grow their businesses.
The six-month program will aid these budding companies with navigating clinical and commercial development risk points as they look to collectively tackle challenges facing patients and providers alike.
Each startup will get up to $100,000 in preseed investment funding as part of their participation in the program as well as access to wet and dry lab space, individual and group education sessions and connections with clinicians, hospital executives and others.
"AlphaLab Health supports life sciences companies with capital, deep domain expertise in conjunction with our partnership with Highmark-AHN and state-of-the-art facilities including wet lab space," Ven Raju, president and CEO of IW, said in a statement. "The programming is designed to shepherd companies through the early stages of the business and development life cycle and provide companies with access to key networks such as investors, customers and mentors."
It's the sixth time AHN and IW have teamed up to offer such an accelerator program.
"The companies that have gone through the AlphaLab Health accelerator have been confronting some of medicine’s most complicated issues, including addressing difficult issues regarding specific diseases, and how hospitals operate, bill, and care for patients," Dr. Jeff Cohen, chief physician executive, community health and innovation for AHN, said in a statement. "No matter their target, they are all striving to improve the future of healthcare. This new cohort continues in this innovative vein, and we look forward to seeing how AlphaLab Health amplifies their outcomes."
Below are the six startups that have been selected with descriptions provided by IW:
- D. Sole (www.d-sole.com) – D.Sole is a smart insole that utilizes multimodal sensors for the early detection and monitoring of foot complications, such as ulcers, in diabetic patients with neuropathy. The technology provides clinicians with critical data to proactively prevent severe ulcers and amputations, while also providing personalized care to diabetic patients.
- Ilant Health (ilanthealth.com) – Ilant Health is an obesity treatment company, focused on increasing access to obesity treatment while reducing the total cost of care for employers and payers. The company provides the single front door for individuals with obesity, delivering end-to-end evidence-based solutions (bariatric surgery, medication, intense behavioral therapy) through a technology-enabled and analytics-driven obesity medicine practice.
- Magnify Bioscience (https://magnifybiosci.com/) – Magnify Biosciences Inc. empowers its customers by removing the traditional barriers to high-end nanoscale imaging. Their innovative Tissue Magnification technology enhances customers' microscopes to accelerate biological discovery, offering profound insights that catalyze breakthroughs in both fundamental research and clinical applications.
- MetasTx (https://metastx.com/) – MetasTx, LLC is developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics to treat and prevent metastatic cancer beginning with prostate cancer (PCa). The MetasTx platform is focused on PAK1, a target that has been demonstrated to be crucial for cancer cell initiation, proliferation, and metastasis. MetasTx is designing and developing novel chemicals to create a breakthrough, First-In-Class PAK1 inhibitor that will significantly improve patient survival and quality of life.
- Resilient LifeScience (https://www.resilient.bio/) – Opioid overdose is the leading killer of Americans under 50, and roughly 80% of the 80,000 annual overdose deaths occur without a bystander to administer lifesaving naloxone. Resilient LifeScience is developing a wearable medical device to automatically detect and reverse an opioid overdose.
- Testa-Seat (https://www.testa-seat.com) – Testa-Seat is revolutionizing the manufacturing process of products for individuals with disabilities to create life-changing custom products in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
