News

09/22/2021

Activation Capital $15,000 Pitch Contest in November to Shine Light on Virginia Businesses

The inaugural Pitch Virginia event, powered by Activation Capital, will take place on Wednesday, November 10 at the newly opened Shift Retail Lab at VCU, an initiative of the VCU da Vinci Center.  Kicking off with a design thinking workshop in the morning, the day will be filled with pitches from high growth, main street

09/22/2021

Caretaker Medical Chosen as Finalist to Compete for $350,000 Grand Prize at MedTech Conference

This year brought in a record number of applications with over 1,100 submissions from 54 countries and 42 U.S. states. With less than a 5% acceptance rate, 50 companies were selected to participate in the MedTech Innovator Showcase, with a subset receiving a place in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator. Over four months, 25 Accelerator companies

09/21/2021

HemoShear Therapeutics Advancing Several Novel Compounds for Horizon Therapeutics Gout Discovery Pipeline

HemoShear Therapeutics, a privately held clinical stage biotechnology company, has earned a milestone payment for the advancement of potential lead product candidates for the treatment of gout under its collaboration with Horizon Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: HZNP). This milestone marks the fourth payment that HemoShear has earned, following previous payments for the identification and validation of

09/20/2021

BASF Adopts BrightSpec’s Broadband MRR Technology for Structural Elucidation

BrightSpec announced the start of operation of a broadband Molecular Rotational Resonance spectrometer at BASF’s research center in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF will utilize MRR spectroscopy for the concise structure elucidation of organic compounds where isomerism is an underlying question. Major applications comprise stereochemical analysis, including chirality, defining the composition of mixtures without purification, and the

09/16/2021

Embody, Inc. Appoints New Board Member and Expands Leadership Team

Embody, Inc., a privately held medical device company focused on soft tissue healing, announces new appointments to its board and leadership team following the recently announced growth funding round of $20.5M to support continued commercial growth. The company adds Rene Salas to its Board of Directors.  Rene is a 30-year life science veteran and previously

09/16/2021

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute spinoff Tiny Cargo Co. among Washington, DC Health Innovation QuickFire Challenge awardees

Tiny Cargo Co., a biotech startup founded by Rob Gourdie, professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, is among five companies to receive a Washington, DC Health Innovation QuickFire Challenge award. Spencer Marsh, a postdoctoral researcher in Gourdie’s laboratory, presented the pitch that awarded the company $50,000, the opportunity to reside at JLABS @ Washington, D.C. with