MANSFIELD, MA-Last week, on May 21, 2024, Mansfield Bio-Incubator held the inaugural $20K Pitch Competition Challenge where thirteen (13) life science startups presented 5-minute pitches describing their innovative products. Over 100 people attended the event.
Russ Yukhananov, PhD, MBA, Mansfield Bio-Incubator’s President, started the program by thanking the innovators for personal and financial sacrifices they make to develop their breakthrough products followed by Christopher McDermott, Economic Development Manager for Town of Mansfield and Massachusetts House Representative Jay Barrows (R) from the 1st Bristol District. The two speakers emphasized the benefits that Mansfield Bio-Incubator’s ecosystem brings to the community and how Mansfield Bio-Incubator is following the innovation traditions of Mansfield’s Lowney Chocolate Factory from the late 1800s. Finally, Sarah Stanton, the Undersecretary of Economic Strategies from Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, emphasized the importance of the innovation clusters throughout the state, such as Mansfield Bio-Incubator, in helping the state “lengthen the lead” in life sciences. Furthermore, she noted that the upcoming life science initiative reauthorization would put more emphasis on the life science and cleantech sectors’ economy outside of Boston and Cambridge, which is music to our ears.
After the opening portion, Alex Shlyankevich, PhD, Mansfield Bio-Incubator’s Director of Investor Relations, described the rules of the pitch competition. Following his remarks, the first six (6) startups presented their work. Ananya Zutshi from Guardian Bio started this portion of the event by describing a dendritic cell therapy for solid tumors with the first clinical trial planned in melanoma. Zev Gechtman, PhD from Manhattan BioSolutions delivered the presentation about the precision biologics that harness the power of host defense adaptations to transform cancer treatment paradigms. Joon Lee, PhD from Neuronity Therapeutics presented a project for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease by restoring a healthy immune system in the aging brain. Ganesh Iyer, PhD, CEO of Opprtna Therapeutics described their precision aptamer as a new therapeutics modality. David Francis, PhD from Palate Therapeutics described the new approach to combat the diabetes and obesity epidemic by targeting taste buds. Finally, Mario DiPaola, PhD from Therabene presented the development of highly targeted PROTAC molecules towards the therapies for the cure of hard-to-treat lung, pancreatic, and triple-negative breast cancer.
Following the six presentations, Julia Rashba-Step, PhD, Director of Mentorship at Mansfield Bio-Incubator, presided over the graduation ceremony for the Spring 2024 Mentoring cohort consisting of three companies: Neuronity Therapeutics, Unsmudgeable, and Emitech along with the mentors Craig Sorensen, PhD, Cindy Benod, PhD, MBA, Edward Berger, John Tagliamonte, PhD. All three companies presented at the pitch competition. At the same time, the lunch was served while attendees had a chance to network and tour the facility.
The presentations resumed after lunch starting with Askar Kuchumov, PhD from 100XBIO, a company developing an automated platform for multiplex T-cell analysis as relevant to a large market of T-cell-based therapeutics. Following Dr. Kuchumov, Mary Beth Cicero, MBA from 3Daughters presented a novel intrauterine device (IUD) that addresses the neglected problem of IUD insertion pain. After 3Daughters’ presentation, Ben Lerman from DINYA DNA described a novel method to speed up the gene synthesis. Next, Mauricio Geleilate, PhD presented Emitech’ s nanochip to detect the narcotics such as fentanyl, a scourge affecting large portions of our society. After that, Ethan Damiani discussed Lilypad Health’s easy-to use at-home non-invasive menstrual blood screening tool that could be used to detect gynecological diseases and biomarkers such as HPV, STDs, and fertility hormones and thus catch these disorders at an earlier stage. Hailing from Montana, Elizabeth Corbin, PhD shared PurCell Bio’s approach to standardizing cell culture by developing animal-free cell culture media systems to meet the evolving needs of advanced biotechnologies such as stem cells and 3D culture. Swarna Shiv wrapped up the presentations by describing Unsmudgeable’s green permanent anti-smudge lens coating for a lifetime of clear vision that improves safety, productivity, and comfort.
The judges Eugene Buff, MD, PhD, Mark Norige, MBA, Ipsita Roymoulik PhD, Robert Gottlieb, John Harre, JD, Luke Diehl, Catherine Connelly-Perry, MBA, Dave Hall, and Chris Otey, PhD, MBA, deliberated for more than 30-minutes. 3Daughters was announced as the winner of the $20K prize. Guardian Bio came in second, winning the $12K award. The third-place $8K award went to DINYA DNA.
Dr. Alex Margulis, Mansfield Bio-Incubator’ s Chief Operating Officer, delivered the concluding remarks.
We are grateful to our sponsors Baycoast Bank, Massachusetts Life Science Center, and CuriRx, mentors, speakers, and judges for their generous support. Mansfield Bio-Incubator is already planning the next pitch competition in November/December, recruiting the startup companies and mentors for the Fall 2024 mentoring cohort, and is always looking for more startups, sponsors, and partners. For more information and to schedule a tour of the incubator, please contact Dr. Alex Margulis alex.margulis@bioinc.org or (888) 490-4443.