Carolina Kickstart, a service of the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute, has awarded a total of $80,000 to four start-up companies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to help promote the technical development of a biomedical innovation. Over the past four years, $800,000 in awards has been provided to 22 UNC start-ups resulting in $10 million of additional outside funding.
- Augment Medical is a spinout company from N.C. State University/UNC’s biomedical engineering department. The team is developing PatientLink, a wireless platform to improve the care of disabled patients in the hospital setting. Augment is led by Tim Martin, M.S.; Richard Daniels; Daniel Bieber; and Andrew DiMeo, Ph.D.
- Meryx Pharmaceuticals is a spinout company from UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. In partnership with the National Cancer Institute, they are developing a novel treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The team is led by Stephen Frye, Ph.D.; H. Shelton "Shelley" Earp III; M.D., Raj Malik, M.D.; and Anil Goyal, Ph.D.
- Glycan Therapeutics is an early-stage spinout from the Eshelman School of Pharmacy that is developing therapies for thrombosis and tools to aid research in the study of sugar chains or glycobiology. The team is led by Jian Liu, Ph.D., and Pieter de Ridder, MBA.
- Spirovation is a contract research organization spinout from the UNC School of Medicine and was formed in partnership with UNC’s respiratory departments, led by the Cystic Fibrosis / Pulmonary Research & Treatment Center. Their goal is to accelerate the discovery and development of effective new therapies for respiratory disease. The team is led by David Spencer, Ph.D., and Howard C. Hollar.
NC TraCS contact: Michelle Maclay, (919) 843-5365, Michelle_Maclay@med.unc.edu
News Services contact: Thania Benios, (919) 962-8596, thania_benios@unc.edu