“The Cloud” is basically just someone else’s computer, taking up acres of land and consuming cities’ worth of power, and billions of dollars in cost of ownership. It generates more carbon every year than the entire airline industry. The amount of data we produce each year as a species is growing exponentially, but our storage capacity is not. Hard drives not getting smaller–we’ve reached the physical limits of that. There are also serious concerns about the archival materials in the long term. Hard drives need to be replaced every 5 years, and magnetic tape can maybe last 30 years.

Catalog Technologies might be the solution to that. Their writer can write over a terabit of data onto DNA in a single day. The system is basically a printer, but instead of ink, it’s DNA. Not only can this store DNA, but it opens up new possiblities through which we interact with archival data: If you have millions of copies of your information (as DNA) you can operate on all of them in massively parallel ways.

AnimalBiome creates microbiome-based therapeutics to treat the more than 9 million cats and dogs in the US living with chronic digestive disorders. They have developed a patent pending process for creating a fecal microbiota transplant pill that is stable at room temperature and highly effective. Animal Microbiome has been treating cats and dogs for more than 3 years and over 90% have shown a decrease in the frequency of diarrhea, vomiting, and/or constipation. In the course of creating this product, they have also created the world’s largest database of microbiome samples in the order Carnivora, and are leverage this database to create next generation probiotics and veterinary diagnostics.

Tidal Vision is the only commercial scale US-based manufacturer of chitosan, a non-toxic, non-hazmat, biodegradable and market-proven industrial biopolymer extracted from crab shells. Tidal Vision’s zero-waste chitosan extraction process produces by far the most consistent quality and lowest cost chitosan in the industry. Tidal Vision converts chitosan from different into ready-to-use formulas that are optimized for industrial applications.

Mendel is a hybrid intelligent engine (human/AI) that can collect a patient’s medical records and combine it with the genetic profile of his or her cancer to find personalized meds that are still in the trial phase. It can also pair a patient with oncologists with a track record matching the patient’s case for a second opinion. Mendel’s business model is free for patients, including the 56% of cancer patients outside the U.S. and Europe.

Traditional commercial gas sensors lack a middle ground: They are either really expensive and bulky, or they are small but lack sensitivity. There is a technical trilemma between specificity, sensitivity and, durability, and the devleopment of new chemistry-based sensors often have long development times and scalability problems.

Calyx uses a bio-based sensor that unlocks new opporutinies for indsutries that traditionally rely on chemistry-based sensors. Viruses are used to detect the analytes, and which changes the output of a colorimetric chip. This has high specificity, high sensitivity, and durability. Calyx’s platform has over a trillion receptors in one protein library, so with short development cycles, they can churn out new virus-based sensors for new customers in no time. Since 2018 their solutoins have been validated by major industry players, resulting in 5 paid pilots. Their go to market product will be targeting the poultry industry for ammonia monitoring and has already been demonstrated to outperform the state of the art.

A2A Pharmaceuticals is a partnership driven drug design company with candidates across cancer, infrectious disease, and rare diseases. Most of the pharmaceutical industry is focused on analysis of existing libraries of drug-like molecules with computational tools and high-throughput screening. By contrast, A2A is exploring 100s of millions of molecules in chemical space to develop proprietary databases of safe and effective new drug candidates. The approach enables rigorous pre-optimization of therapeutics before laboratory testing begins. Interest in A2As oncology programs with multiple pharmaceutical partner possibilities has picked up after revealing positive data from the Leukemia program.

They have a robust internal pipeline, with a focus on drug designs for breaking protein-protein interactions and collaborations with Daewood Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, and In Silico Medicine.

Consumers demand sustainable and healthier food ingredients to replace the chemical additives that we can’t even pronounce. Among these are the preservatives, texturizers, and emulsifiers that are buried deep in the ingredients label. The alternative is to find and produce proteins to replace these chemicals, but the bottleneck is the identification and design.

Protera Biosciences is advancing the science of protein engineering to address critical challenges in food, agriculture, the environment, and human health. They have a database containing billions of protein sequences from GRAS organisms, and screen them for the top variants, which are then produced in using yeast fermentation. Protera is optimizing the full protein engineering process, from design to testing and development of a proof of concept in less 3 months. Their antifungal protein (patent pending) has already been shown to prevent bread mold for more than a month, and are already scaling this up for commercial production.

Ria Health is a tech-enabled telehealth medical practice that provides evidence-based treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).

Our Physician managed program includes Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), digital tools for tracking progress, harm reduction, peer support and one on one coaching all done through the convenience of telehealth.

Our members have embraced our engaging program and achieved breakthrough outcomes in reducing their drinking and staying active and engaged to make meaningful behavioral change.

We work with health plans, self-insured employers and health systems to provide a treatment option that is effective, convenient and affordable.
For more information visit www.riahealth.com.

NeuroQore is comprised of a team of passionate and motivated scientists, engineers, and clinicians dedicated to developing pioneering neuromodulation treatments for various neurobehavioral conditions. We collaborate with world-class universities and research clinics to investigate ways to transform lives. At NeuroQore, we strive to create a world with effective solutions to devastating disorders: major depressive disorder and suicidality.