A new St. Louis-based health care startup has launched to accelerate the development of medical treatments, teaming up with BJC HealthCare and Washington University School of Medicine to begin operations.
The startup, CuriMeta, said Tuesday it has raised $6 million in a seed funding round. BJC and Washington University School of Medicine led the funding round. The health care innovation fund of St. Louis-based venture capital firm Cultivation Capital also invested in the deal. Cortex-based CuriMeta has also received investment from innovation hub BioSTL's startup creation and investment arm, BioGenerator, which helped launch the startup.
In addition to investing in the startup, Washington University School of Medicine and BJC HealthCare will participate in CuriMeta's operations. The two organizations will provide patient data that will be used by CuriMeta to create datasets that will be provided to life science researchers and manufacturers to bring new therapeutics and treatments to market. It says the data provided by health organizations will be "aggregated and de-identified" to ensure patient privacy.
“We will provide evidence and insight to life sciences manufacturers, adhering to the highest standards of ethics and privacy, in order to advance the science of medicine further and faster, leveraging the rich data assets of both organizations,” said Davis Walp, founder and CEO of CuriMeta.
In its collection of data, CuriMeta says it will use privacy-protecting and artificial intelligence technologies that provide patient confidentiality and allows organizations that provide data to “know when and how the data they share via CuriMeta is being used.”
CuriMeta, BJC HealthCare and Washington University School of Medicine said they will work together to choose health care projects and organizations that use the startup’s datasets. Philip Payne, chief data scientist and director of the Institute for Informatics at Washington School of Medicine, said he expects the groups to place a focus on research targeting neurology, cancer, cardiovascular disease and genetic diseases. He said the creation of CuriMeta brings together different facets of the medical industry to advance development of new treatments.
“We know there’s critical research that must happen at this intersection of heath care providers, academic organizations and industry, especially when we think about trying to deliver new therapeutics or diagnostics, that will benefit the patient communities we serve,” Payne said.
In a statement, BJC HealthCare President and CEO Richard Liekweg said “it’s our responsibility to use this unparalleled data platform to chart elusive territory where curing, preventing and predicting deadly or chronic illness is possible.”
Because it's a stand-alone entity, Payne said CuriMeta will be able to create relationships with collaborators and also be a cutting-edge, agile company that can attract top-tier employees.
"That’s a type of talent that’s much more interested in working in a startup company, like Davis is creating. We think this will make us more competitive," he said.
Walp said CuriMeta has the ability to team up with other health systems and medical centers to seek out even more data.
"Moving forward, we’ll identify additional best in breed academic health systems to partner with and to engage with them in a very similar manner that we’re engaging WashU and BJC," Walp said. "Ultimately, we can have the biggest impact on health care by tapping into the data assets from multiple, different health systems."
As it publicly launches operations, Walp says CuriMeta will begin pursuing partnerships with life science firms. CuriMeta, based at the BioSTL Building in the Cortex innovation district, currently has six full-time employees. It expects to have 24 full-time employees by mid-2023.
