Our Start Ups

b2: Population Health Solutions, LLC

b2 Website

Founded: September 2017

Focus: Innovative behavior change solutions

B2 unites technology and evidence-based interventions to optimize accessible healthcare solutions that return power to the consumer (people, user, patient). We are revolutionizing healthcare delivery by uniting technology and culture to create appealing healthcare solutions that work.

 

Blinktbi, Inc.

Blinktbi Website

Founded: June 2017
Focus: Blink reflex assessment & correlation to neurological function and drug impairment.

Blinktbi has developed world’s first FDA-cleared technology indicated to measure and assess the blink reflex. Blinktbi's device, called EyeStat™, delivers objective data about the blink reflex in under one minute by stimulating and measuring the blink reflex using light puffs of air, high speed videography and a proprietary algorithm. EyeStat is non-invasive, lightweight and completely portable.

 

Bodhi NeuroTech

E-Meditation Website

Founded: 2017

Focus: Enhanced Meditation via Neurostimulation OR Meditation Enhancement

Bodhi NeuroTech is a Charleston-based startup company founded by neuromodulation experts developing innovative tehcnology for enhancing human wellness and performance. Current neurotechnology methods are expensive or unsafe for direct, at-home consumer use. Bodhi NeuroTech aims to change that, by developing affordable, medical-grade, take-home systems to enhance human performance and wellness. Our first product – Zendo – is a consumer neurostimulation device to enhance meditation and contemplative practice. 

 

Clinacuity

Clinacuity Website

Founded: 2012

Focus: Electronic Health Record (EHR)

Clinacuity unlocks the unstructured data in the Electronic Health Record (EHR), producing actionable clinical information – information that supports clinical research and care in real time.

CliniDeID™ uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to intelligently and automatically de-identify medical records, focusing on unstructured clinical data. It improves access to richer, more detailed and more accurate clinical data for clinical researchers, eases research data sharing and helps healthcare organizations protect patient data confidentiality. It greatly reduces financial risks by avoiding penalties for leaks of patient data.

For most users of EHRs, obtaining a complete overview of a patient takes far too long, and maintaining the problem and allergy lists is too time-consuming. CliniWhiz automatically extracts key patient information from EHRs by unlocking the unstructured data (physician notes, clinical narratives as well as coded data) with proprietary AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). It uses this key clinical information to generate automatic summary dashboards for each patient and also helps with audit trails for reimbursement and meaningful use certification.

 

CuRE Innovations

Cure Innovations Website

Founded 2016

Focus: Dental materials

CuRE Innovations is dedicated to development of products that improve oral health.  CuRE is utilizing copper iodide particles as a platform technology in numerous dental materials, including adhesives, sealants, Implants and denture acrylic.

 

Dokbot, LLC

Dokbot Website

Founded: 2019

Focus: Chatbot for Data Collection

Dokbot is an artificial conversational interface engine that helps researchers and healthcare providers build and deploy conversational user interfaces (i.e. chatbot) to collect data from patients for clinical care and research studies. Our research shows that 3 out of 4 patients prefer providing information through conversational interfaces than through traditional surveys and forms.

 

Doxy.me, LLC

Doxy Website

Founded: 2014

Focus: Telemedicine Platform

Doxy.me is a simple, free, and secure award-winning telemedicine platform used by over 60,000 healthcare providers.

 

FirstString Research, Inc.

FirstString Research Website

Founded: 2005

Focus: Therapies for Inflammation & Injury Based Medical Conditions

FirstString Research is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the delivering breakthrough solutions for inflammation and injury based medical conditions. Our lead product, Granexin® gel, helps restore cellular communication that is compromised after injury, prevents the spread of injury signal, and ‘reboots’ the healing process. Granexin has been tested in multiple successful clinical trials and is currently in late-stage trials for cutaneous radiation injury, diabetic foot ulcers, and scar reduction.

 

GlycoPath, LLC

GlycoPath Website

Founded: 2019

Focus: Glycosylation-targeted Clinical Assay Development for Cancer, Aging and Infectious Disease

GlycoPath’s goal is to generate new clinical assays utilizing MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry workflows applied to detecting changes in glycosylation associated with cancer, aging and infectious disease

 

Grùthan Bioscience, LLC

Grúthan Bioscience Website

Founded: 2019

Focus: Liver Disease

Grùthan Bioscience has a mission to use stem cell-based approaches to develop new treatments for rare liver diseases. Inborn errors in metabolism are a group of diseases, which primarily affect the liver. Examples of such disorders include those that affect cholesterol levels, glycogen storage, mitochondrial function, and amino acid metabolism. We are developing Grùthan Bioscience as a world leader in generating new, effective medicines for the treatment of liver disease.

 

Infinite Arms, LLC

Infinite Arms Website

Founded: 2017

Focus: Software platform for Citizen Science

Infinite Arms creates software platforms for Citizen Science. We work with top researchers to develop smart and efficient health studies that participants join and complete using an iPhone and consumer health devices. Our status/post platform integrates REDCap with Apple's HealthKit and ResearchKit to allow rapid and inexpensive development of single studies to address the specific aims of investigator-driven research. The presents/with platform adds HL7 FHIR support to Apple CoreML and expert-developed models to analyze incoming data in real-time and provide analytics, reporting, clinical decision support, and care-team communications. Gene Doe is a direct-to-consumer app built on top of both platforms to create a comprehensive solution for anonymous citizen science, with the goal of providing guided access to an unlimited number of investigator-published studies concerning all areas of medicine.

 

ItRunsInMyFamily, Inc.

ItRunsInMyFamily Website

Founded: 2015

Focus: Family Health History Platform

ItRunsInMyFamily.com is an consumer-facing informatics tool that helps patients and their families work together to collect and share their family cancer history. It also provides comprehensive hereditary cancer risk assessment and evidence-based recommendations based the patient’s personalized risk for cancer.

 

Leukogene Therapeutics, Inc.

Founded: 2012

Focus: Cancer Therapeutics

Leukogene Therapeutics Inc. (LTI) is an early-stage oncology drug discovery company spun out of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. LTI’s broad technology platform is working to bring a new class of targeted cancer therapy to patients with advanced stage cancer. Proprietary LTI molecules have demonstrated activity in models of treatment resistant multiple myeloma (MM), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), neuroblastoma, ovarian, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers. LTI lead compounds potentiate the effects of FDA-approved proteasome and HDAC inhibitors, and will be paired with these agents in clinical development.

 

MitoChem Therapeutics Inc.

Founded: 2011

Focus: Neurodegenerative Disease Therapeutics

MitoChem has developed a new class of small molecules designed to treat neurodegeneration by protecting the powerhouse of the cell: mitochondria.  Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in the underlying pathological basis in neurodegenerative diseases.  MitoChem compounds have a first-in-class target and unique mechanism of action that protects mitochondrial function from pathology caused by aging, environment and genetic mutations.  Funding from NIH and foundations have resulted in a robust patent portfolio, favorable early tox data and a lead compound with proof of concept in numerous animal models for rare and more common diseases.  The company is pursuing institutional investment to advance current development programs as well as out-licensing partnership for other indications. 

 

MitoHealth Inc.

Founded: 2010

Focus: Acute Ischemic Pathologies & Degenerative Disease Therapeutics

Mitohealth has used high-throughput screening and sophisticated secondary assays, medicinal chemistry optimization and computational strategies to develop small molecules that induce mitochondrial biogenesis - a process that is often rate limiting in acute acute ischemic pathologies and degenerative diseases. The molecules have been validated in animal studies of acute kidney injury, chronic kidney injury, and spinal cord injury.

 

Neuroene Therapeutics

Neruoene Therapeutics Website

Founded: 2015

Focus: Vitamin K Therapies for Neurological Diseases

Neuroene Therapeutics formed in 2015 after the Co-Founders discovered neuroactive Vitamin K (VK) analogs that improve mitochondrial health. This is a new drug development strategy for neurological disorders, because a major underlying cause, mitochondrial dysfunction, is targeted, rather than the symptoms. The goal is to utilize the VK platform to develop a pipeline for multiple indications, as VK analogs are differentially selective in animal models of medication-resistant epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, and the rare Mitochondrial DNA Depletion Syndrome. VK analogs cross the blood-brain barrier, unlike dietary VKs, which are big and bulky and need extensive metabolism to become the specific form of VK needed for mitochondrial health. 100+ VK analogs have been derived and are covered by patents for treating several disease indications and the corresponding methods. Neuroene Therapeutics has secured exclusive rights to the VK platform, and is currently funded by an NIH $1.5M SBIR Phase II award.

 

QuicksortRx

QuicksortRx Website

Founded: 2018

Focus: Pharmacy Spend Analytics

AscendRx was created to assist health systems in lowering their drug spend through advanced analytics.

 

RehabLearning, LLC

Rehab Learning Website

Founded: 2016

Focus: Educational Mobile Apps for PT & OT

GONI: Goniometry for Clinicians (GONI) and MOBI: Mobility Aids (MOBI) are mobile application textbooks on goniometry skills and ambulatory assistive devices, respectively (www.rehablearning.com).  GONI and MOBI offer high-definition videos and images along with evidence-based text, quizzes, and functional application. Both apps are currently marketed via iTunes and Google Play stores and are utilized as required textbooks in health professions classrooms worldwide, including schools in South Carolina, New York, Idaho, California, Florida, and Israel. GONI and MOBI have been pilot tested with occupational therapy, occupational therapy assistant, and physical therapy students with outcomes related to improved clinical confidence, increased preparation for class, and positive attitudes towards apps as textbooks. Support and funding for these apps was provided by the MUSC Changing What’s Possible grant and MUSC Department of Health Professions Seed Grants.

 

SealCath, LLC

SealCath Website

Founded: November 2013

Focus: Double Balloon Catheter

 A disabled veteran owned medical device company with a patented double balloon catheter known as the Cephus Catheter that will be used to treat Intussusception in children and for colorectal cancer screening. The double balloon catheter has two balloons that will augment each other and create an airtight rectal seal. The creation of a rectal seal has the potential of improving the efficiency of various colorectal procedures.

 

SimTunes LLC

Founded: 2008

Focus: Medical Simulation Education

SimTunes is an MUSC spin-out that was created in order to commercialize medical simulation program research efforts at MUSC and provide employment opportunities in South Carolina. Spearheaded by Dr. John Schaefer, a world-renowned expert and early pioneer in Medical Simulation Education and Heyward Coleman, a Navy veteran with an MBA from Harvard Business School with extensive managerial experience, SimTunes has focused its attention on creating graded integrated medical simulation learning systems that are more effective in teaching, cheaper to run, and produce data that can be used to measure performance.  SimTunes has also taken an active role in developing training programs that can be used by medical associations to provide training for their members and has partnered with the National Association of EMS Educators (NAEMSE) since 2013 on this effort.

SimTunes currently employs 5 people and has 2 part-time employees.  The company has had grants and contracts as well as license and royalty revenue from products it has created.  In addition, the company continues to have mutually cooperative relationships with the dominant players in the simulation hardware market, Laerdal and CAE.

 

SphingoGene, Inc.

SphingoGene Website

Founded: 2006

Focus: Cancer Relapse Prevention Therapies

SphingoGene, Inc. is a cancer therapeutic development company based in Charleston, South Carolina. The therapeutic platform focuses on sphingolipid metabolism in cancer. The company was founded in 2006 by scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). The core products, technology platform, and intellectual property were licensed from MUSC in 2010.

SphingoGene is developing products which inhibit the function of acid ceramidase which in turn is now know to prevent neosis and cancer relapse (Journal of Lipid Research, 2019, White-Gilbertsen et al, M092247,  Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2013 Cheng et al, Vol 123, 10, 4344-4358). Our products will prevent relapse in certain cancer types by inhibition of the process of neosis that occurs in polynuclear giant cells which are formed in tumors post radiation or chemotherapy.   SphingoGene’s mission is to improve the clinical outcomes, treatment tolerability, and quality of life for patients with cancer.

 

ToleRaM Nanotech, LLC

ToleRaM Nanotech Website

Founded: 2014

Focus: Organ Transplantation Nanoparticle Therapies

ToleRaM Nanotech, LLC was developed to use novel graft targeting nanoparticles to attenuate both acute and chronic rejection in organ transplantation. To facilitate graft targeting, we have conjugate these Targeted Rapamycin Micelles (TRaM) to various targeting moieties that have been extensively characterized. Ultimately, TRaM nanoparticles may be tracked, targeted to, and released at the level of a transplanted allograft as a means for drug delivery and local immunosuppression.  Although our initial products were initially developed for transplantation, their utility is vast.  The objective of our company is to utilize these nanodevices as a platform to deliver various therapeutics in a targeted fashion to specified cell types in order to alleviate a variety of disease processes. These devices are patent pending.   

 

Zeriscope, Inc.

Zeriscope Website

Founded: 2015

Focus: Mobile Telemedicine Exam Kit  

Zeriscope™ is the open access, web-based mobile exam system that facilitates live, secure, online, video-enabled telemedicine exams. Zeriscope™ benefits patients, physicians, and a host of progressive healthcare business models leveraging advanced telemedicine applications.

 

Zucker Institute for Applied Neurosciences (ZIAN)

ZIAN Website

Founded: 2012

Focus: Technology Accelerator

The Zucker Institute for Applied Neurosciences (ZIAN), a technology accelerator embedded in MUSC, is a bold experiment in bringing the worlds of medicine and engineering together to speed the translation of technological innovation in the neurosciences into the clinic. ZIAN develops clinician-inspired breakthrough technologies that solve unmet clinical needs while addressing market needs, and backs them with strong intellectual property and investment capital. The result is a portfolio of products that clinicians want to have and industry wants to produce.