Emerging UNC startups
Therapeutics and Platform Technologies
Bedrock Therapeutics
Bedrock is an AAV research and development company working on both platform technologies and therapeutic cassettes for diverse genetic diseases.
Founders: Matt Hirsch, Chengwen Li, Brian Gilger, Brian Sutton
Learn More
BlueSky Polymers
BlueSky Polymers is developing new chemistries for high-performance polymer material for 3D printing that can be used in both injection molding and composite materials for major industries, including aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas.
Founders: Ed Samulski, Theo Dingemans
DelAQUA Pharmaceuticals
DelAQUA is a specialty pharma that has developed a breakthrough drug formulation technology that (a) reformulates marketed drugs to make them safer and more active and (b) formulates insoluble and unstable new chemical entities to make them safe and bioavailable. Based on leading-edge polymer science, DelAQUA’s proprietary excipients greatly improve the solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) with high loading capacities, effectively widening the therapeutic index of many APIs. Our mission is to hasten the successful formulation and development of therapies that address unmet medical needs of patients in a broad spectrum of diseases.
Founders: Alexander Kabanov, Robert Luxenhofer, Rainer Jordan
Learn More
Delgen Biosciences
Delgen Biosciences strives to develop next-generation drug delivery technologies. To this goal, we are working to commercialize a novel polymer platform technology in creating better-in-class ophthalmic drugs and in the broader pharmaceutical space. The novel polymers designed and synthesized using the proprietary technology will offer drug delivery vehicles with many coveted features.
Founders: Yanchun Song, Wei You
Eldec Pharmaceuticals
Eldec Pharmaceuticals has developed a novel, first-in-class, broad-spectrum, lung-specific immunomodulator called ELD607. ELD607 beneficially normalizes lung neutrophil levels in five different murine lung disease models. By preventing lung-damaging neutrophilia, ELD607 reduces lung damage and increases survival outcomes. In bacterial pneumonia models, a single, inhaled dose of ELD607 significantly reduced lung cytokines, leading to a 90 percent reduction in lung neutrophilia, increased bacterial clearance, decreased lung damage and increased survival. These definitive experiments demonstrate that rebalancing the lung’s inflammatory response prevents infection-induced lung damage. The ability of ELD607 to reduce multiple cytokines and neutrophilia via inhibition of Orai1 represents a revolutionary approach to improving outcomes in patients with neutrophilic inflammation. We are currently evaluating ELD607 as a treatment for COVID-19 lung disease.
Founder: Rob Tarran
EnFuego Therapeutics
A biotech company developing novel RNA interference-(RNAi)-based and antisense oligo therapeutics for “non-druggable” oncogenes such as KRAS. The team has developed therapies that potently bind to mutant KRAS sequences while sparing wild-type KRAS and is optimizing different delivery platforms including ligand-conjugated approaches.
Founder: Chad Pecot
Epigenos Bioscience
Epigenos Biosciences is focused on developing dCas9 Chemical Epigenetic Modifiers (CEM) -based therapies for multiple rare diseases and cancers driven by single gene mis-regulation (i.e., a gene that is inappropriately turned on or off). Epigenos is developing therapies which combine site-specific DNA binding technologies with a novel small molecule that links the DNA binding module to host chromatin modifying enzymes in a dose-dependent manner to restore the normal activation state of the mis-regulated gene.
Founder: Nathaniel Hathaway, Joe Ruiz
GeneVentiv Therapeutics
GeneVentiv Therapeutics is a pre-clinical gene therapy company focused on blood diseases and disorders. Its lead program, GENV-HEM, is the first universal gene therapy treatment for Hemophilia A and B with or without inhibitors. GENV-HEM has received Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA and a Letter of Support from the National Hemophilia Foundation. GeneVentiv is advancing an additional gene therapy for Hemophilia Arthropathy, a degenerative joint disease afflicting roughly 50 percent of patients with hemophilia.
Founders: Damon R. Race, Chengwen Li
Learn More
Heads Together Health
Heads Together Health brings a unique combination of relevant clinical expertise, an innovative technology platform and world class machine learning modeling which can make powerful impacts to patient outcomes. We have designed and developed a concussion management technology solution which provides value for the many different stakeholder groups impacted by concussion – we capture, analyze and present key data which positively supports concussion assessment and recovery outcomes. Our vision is to optimize outcomes for Concussion patients, and then expand our approach to other neurologic / orthopedic conditions.
Founder: Steve DeVrieze
Learn More
Irex Pharma
Irex Pharma LLC is an early-stage drug discovery company focused on identifying and commercializing innovative therapeutics for respiratory indications where there is unmet medical need. As a UNC startup, Irex Pharma has access to a stellar team of experts in pulmonary disease, computational, synthetic, and protein chemistry, and drug discovery with extensive experience developing novel therapies for the clinic.
Founders: Carla Ribeiro, Emily Hull-Ryde
LED Radiofluidics
LED Radiofluidics, Corp. provides the imaging field easy access to cutting edge photoredox labeling technology. One arm of the company will develop simple and low-cost units that could be easily integrated into a commercial box to interface with existing cyclotrons at the end user’s site. We will also develop affordable agents to synthesize established agents and develop new PET agents. It is difficult to estimate the market potential currently. The other arm of the company will offer novel radiotracer development and uptake studies for pharmaceuticals in the development phase by biotech and pharmaceutical companies. LED Radiofluidics will utilize its novel photoredox labeling technology to help companies study localization of their clinical drug candidates in vivo using animal models (mice, primates, etc.).
Founders: Zibo Li, David Nicewicz
Mizar Therapeutics
Mizar Therapeutics is a platform therapeutics company using proprietary live-cell single-molecule imaging and machine-learning technology for discovery of a new class of targeted cancer therapies.
Founders: Paul Maddox, Joel Smith
Learn More
NabGen
NabGen Inc. is a NC-based biotech company that is removing barriers to gene delivery and human health. Their platform technology functions as a universal antibody suppressant to inhibit anti-drug antibodies and serves as a superior alternative to plasma exchange. NabGen is developing partnership opportunities to overcome pre-existing vector immunity for AAV and Adenovirus gene therapies while pursuing stand-alone applications in autoimmunity and transplant.
Founders: Chengwen Li, Charles Askew
Learn More
NeuroGT
NeuroGT is focused on development of gene therapy products for treating mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) disorders and related rare neurogenetic diseases.
Founder: Haiyan Fu
Medical Device, Diagnostic, and Dental
Accunovo Biotechnologies
Accunovo focuses on improvements in early cancer diagnosis. The Company is developing novel targeted PET imaging probes through a combination of unique biomarker-binding molecules and PET imaging molecules for targeted imaging of cancer, allowing earlier diagnosis and treatment.
Founder: Rihe Liu, Zibo Li
AnelleO
AnelleO is harnessing the advancements in the speed and scale of 3D printing technology for novel solutions in Women’s Health. Intravaginal Rings (IVR) offer a unique platform for sustained delivery of therapeutics – a non-invasive, self-administered and retrievable platform that can deliver drugs over a period of weeks or months. To-date, IVR technology has been limited to a few successes due to inherent limitations of current manufacturing by injection molding or extrusion. The design flexibility, rapid prototyping, and cost-effective manufacturing of digital light synthesis (DLS) 3D printing allows AnelleO to develop and manufacture IVRs specifically matched to the unique characteristics of the molecule and indication. AnelleO’s lead product is AnelleO PRO – a self-administered, non-invasive multi-week alternative to daily progesterone supplementation alongside Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) for women undergoing fertility treatment. Beyond progesterone, the AnelleO technology is compatible across a range of small molecules and biologics. Through our proprietary understanding of individual design parameters’ impact on release criteria, AnelleO can match IVRs from our library to target molecules to create the optimum delivery platform.
Learn More
Assure Technologies
Assure Technologies, LLC aims to reduce preventable IV medication errors to make all patient care safer and more efficient. Precynge, a medical device developed by Assure Technologies, prevents IV medication errors through highly accurate and precise measurement of medications. Since it is a hand-held device, it can be used any place where a syringe is used for dose preparation. Initially targeting the pediatric market, it can be coupled with any syringe type and size to bring this safety to all patients.
Founder: Stephen Eckel
Learn More
Couplet Care
Couplet Care, LLC offers tools for improving patient safety and clinical efficiency, while promoting positive mother and infant health outcomes. Our first product, a postnatal unit medical infant bassinet, is a University of North Carolina spin-out, 510(k) Exempt, Class II Medical Device, with a US and Japanese Patent, exclusive IP, strong interest from hospitals, and is in 4th generation prototype. It is the only hospital bassinet that allows the mother to independently access the infant from the hospital bed without a second person, and it is designed to reduce infant falls, infant suffocations, maternal pain, nurse workload in non-medical activities, and risk for hospitals.
Founder: Stacie McIntyre
Learn More
IrNex
IrNex, Inc., is a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill startup company formed in August, 2020, in the state of North Carolina. The founders are Qiuhong He, Ph.D. (inventor of the pi-MRSI methods at UNC-CH and other four U.S. patents at the University of Pittsburgh), Hsing Lee, Ph.D. (expertise in commercial software development), and Han H. Liu (experience in medical device companies and FDA regulatory matters). The company is developing biomarker imaging software for early detection of cancer treatment responses in days rather than months. It enables differentiation of pseudo-progression from true tumor progression following brain tumor/metastasis treatment.
Founder: Qiuhong He, Hsing Lee, Han H. Hiu
Mizar Imaging
Mizar Imaging is a modular light sheet illumination system designed for high-resolution imaging. Mounting to most inverted microscopes, the Tilt enables light sheet imaging to be easily added to an existing or new microscope system.
Founder: Paul Maddox
Learn More
OraBiotech
OraBiotech was founded in 2021 by an orthodontist who wanted to provide cutting-edge and effective solutions to people suffering from craniofacial disorders. The company aims to improve the quality of life of patients through innovative therapies. Poor speech can have a lifelong negative impact on societal integration and social wellbeing. OraBiotech’s technology, AdaptiveSpeech (™ pending), is being developed to improve speech using IoT and gamification.
Founder: Rishma Sha
Perotech Corporation
Perotech is developing sensitive X-ray detectors and imaging arrays which are more sensitive, lower cost, compact and easy to use compared to the existing products in the market. Perotech’s X-ray detectors are based on new perovskite materials that enable lower X-ray dosing while providing high imaging resolution and thus have the potential of making X-ray testing much safer in medical diagnosis imaging. The company aims at capturing the unprecedented opportunity to commercialize the perovskite related technologies including perovskite radiation detectors, photodetectors and solar cells.
Founder: Jinsong Huang
PrimeNeuro
PrimeNeuro is developing a software solution for the early prediction of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using objective, MRI-based biomarkers in infants as young as 6 months old. This technology has the potential to greatly improve the quality of life of patients and families affected by the syndrome. ASD affects approximately 1 in 59 children in the United States. A lack of objective, early biomarkers means that many children are diagnosed later in life and miss a critical window during infancy and early childhood when interventions may be more effective. The software being created by PrimeNeuro uses deep learning algorithms that will provide clinicians with a yes/no result for whether an infant will progress onto the Autism Spectrum at 6 months of age. The company is also developing tools to support parents as they manage the chronic stress of raising a child with ASD.
Founders: Brad Bower, Sam Tetlow
Learn More
VETTA Solutions
VETTA Solutions designs and develops first-in-market devices and applications for detecting, monitoring, and treating conditions that impede healthy human movement. Our inaugural product is a low-cost and clinically-feasible wearable sensor-based system that leverages artificial intelligence and cloud computing for the prevention and real-time precision rehabilitation of harmful lower extremity forces that lead to the onset and development of osteoarthritis (OA). Inspired by more than 15 years of peer-reviewed and nationally-recognized scientific discoveries, our company is poised to capitalize on recent developments at the intersection of healthcare economics, rehabilitative need, and technological innovation to address the 11th leading cause of global disability.
Founders: Brian Pietrosimone, Jason Franz
Research Tools/Data Analytics
Elipsys
Elipsys LLC is a sports-focused digital technology company that accelerates performance by uncovering what the athlete is seeing and thinking while they perform. Our patented Quiet EyeTM Training System delivers actionable information in near real-time by combining commercially available eye tracking and high-definition video cameras to provide automated assessments of vision and movement performance. Our cloud-based system collects and synchronizes this data and submits it to our custom machine-learning models for analysis. Our end-to-end performance system addresses implementation barriers and accelerates performance assessment and training. In short, Elipsys provides a complete picture of skilled athletic performance for athletes and coaches.
Founder: Adam Kiefer, Ryan MacPherson, Derek Pancuk
Learn More
Predictive
Predictive, LLC’s mission is dedicated to using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to understand how pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and personal care products affect people. An area we see that has an unmet need is a software platform that can leverage the existing 6 Pack of toxicology assays database to make predictions about products and the mixture of those products and their potential toxicity. Current safety testing for new compounds entering commerce is expensive and inefficient, relying too heavily on animal testing with questionable relevance to human safety.
Founders: Alex Trophsa, Kevin Causey
SynchroHealth
SynchroHealth, LLC is an early-stage, small business co-founded by faculty and students from the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Dartmouth College. Our mission is to develop hardware and software solutions for non-invasive detection and acquisition of home-based, longitudinal, healthcare data using remote, Bluetooth low energy (BLE) enabled technologies for synchronous and asynchronous feedback. We have a team with expertise in aging, data and computer science, and business development that will help us achieve our goals. Our first product, BandPass, is a remote-sensing BLE resistance exercise band that closes the gap between clinicians and patients by providing clinically relevant data on compliance and use of exercise training and real-time, bi-directional feedback enabling at home physical therapy.
Founder: John Batsis, Suehayla Mohieldin
Learn More
Social, Environmental, & Educational Startups
CollectiveGood
CollectiveGood is a social enterprise with the mission of scaling access to quality health services through digital platforms. CollectiveGood works with partners around the world to research, develop, and deploy digital infrastructure to effectively mobilize health resources and empower community-driven solutions to pressing health challenges.
Founders: Sean Sylvia, Joseph Tucker, Diane Pozefsky
Learn More
Equiti Foods (formerly GoodBowls)
Equiti Foods is a mission-driven venture focused on food access. Our flagship product line, Good Bowls, is a healthy frozen meal line based on the Mediterranean Diet and adapted for Southern taste preferences. The company is rooted in founder Dr. Alice Ammerman’s research on food insecurity, the Med-South Diet, and “stealth health” for increasing intake of vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats among low-income populations.
Founders: Alice Ammerman, Laura Fieselman