Catching Up with 2022 Crab Trap Winners Neuroene and Polaris
With federal funding and solutions that address major risks and aim to improve outcomes for warfighters and civilians, Polaris and Neuroene are set to continue their momentum as showcase companies in the DMV life science scene.
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As the BioHealth Capital Region and other life sciences sectors continue to evolve and innovate, it’s crucial for start-ups and entrepreneurs to seize every opportunity to showcase their groundbreaking work.
One of those incredible opportunities is this year’s 8th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap competition, part of the 9th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum. This event has evolved significantly over the years, attracting applicants not only from the region but also from across the country and around the world.
Here’s a look at 2022’s Winners, Runner-Ups and Finalists
(Winner) Neuroene Therapeutics (watch presentation)
(Montgomery County Winner) Polaris Genomics (watch presentation)
(Finalist) Kubanda Cryotherapy (watch presentation)
(Finalist) Perfusion Medical (watch presentation)
(Finalist) VPIX Medical (watch presentation)
Neuroene Therapeutics
Dr. Sherine Chan had taken some improv classes, but she didn’t consider herself a master of the stage. Nevertheless, the Australian-born CEO of Neuroene Therapeutics delivered a command performance at the 2022 BioHealth Innovation Crab Trap competition, and her team took home top honors. Neuroene won alongside Polaris Genomics, which also hooked the crowd with its origin story and compelling scientific and business narrative describing its plans for growth and impact.
As BioHealth Innovation and the 2023 Crab Trap come closer on our regional innovation calendar, we checked in with the leaders of Neuroene and Polaris to see what’s happened since they climbed their way to the top of the trap–a hyperlocal metaphor for a forum that organizers work hard to show as a showcase for life science innovation in the DC, Maryland, Virginia sphere.
“We had just moved to the DMV region and didn’t know anybody,” says Chan, who previously taught at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston (that’s where she took the improv class). Getting in front of the crowd at JLabs was a bit intimidating because, as Chan says, “Everybody was so good,” but so was Neuroene’s science and plan.
Chan emerged from the 2022 Crab Trap strengthened with resources and connections–ties that grew stronger and were built on at BIO in Boston in June 2023, where Neuroene was a pitch finalist again. Headquartered in Montgomery County, Neuroene is utilizing a scholarship from the Maryland Tech Council and its venture mentoring service to advance its orphan-drug lead compound to treat rare seizures toward IND enabling studies and first-in-human trials.
The company also received an NIH countermeasure award based on the broad neuroprotective potential of its non-sedating, mitochondrial approach shown in multiple epilepsy and seizure animal models, because as well as treating civilians with chronic conditions, the therapeutic approach is also effective against nerve agents that might be deployed as weapons by bad actors on an international scale.
Neuroene now calls Maryland home, but as of 2022’s Crap Trap, its HQ was just across the district line at JLABS, Johnson & Johnson’s Innovation facility in Washington, DC. That fact causes a happy dual-winner scenario, leading us to an update on Polaris Genomics.
Polaris Genomics
Polaris Genomics impressed the 2022 Crab Trap crowd with its novel approach to precision mental health screening solutions for PTSD and other conditions. The company and its black, veteran-led team is now partnering with Optum and Illumina in the Catalyst Program, and it received $1.25 million in Phase II SBIR funding via the US Air Force AFWERX Program, which continues to fund Polaris research through summer 2024. This funding supports clinical validation of the company’s PTSD screening tool.
Polaris has found that its approach to civilian and military mental health and trauma–rooted in the experience of CEO Charles Cathlin, who recently shared his story from being a military member who was part of the recovery and cleaning team at Ground Zero in NYC after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Cathlin speaks of the unseen scars of difficult military and civilian experiences, and his work as former Chief of Staff at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, and as a US Air Force and US Public Health Service veteran, and Polaris’s work to prevent suicides stepping from undiagnosed PTSD, giving clinicians and patients objective methods to diagnose PTSD and other mental health issues via next generation RNA sequencing that surfaces biomarkers as indicators of disease–”a new gold standard for mental health,” Cathlin says. Polaris has raised $3.4 million total through May 2023.
With federal funding and solutions that address major risks and aim to improve outcomes for warfighters and civilians, Polaris and Neuroene are set to continue their momentum as showcase companies in the DMV life science scene.
Kubanda Cryotherapy
Kubanda took its minimally invasive cryotherapy for pet tumors on the road from its Baltimore City HQ to New Orleans, where it participated in the 4-month VillageX accelerator program from January to May of 2023.
Perfusion Medical
Perfusion Medical has continued its work to extend low-volume IV care into acute scenarios such as massive hemorrhage, sepsis, cardiac arrest, and traumatic brain injury. The Virginia Bio-Tech Park member company met with US Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) early in 2023 to discuss their continued funding needs and the relevance of their PEG-20-based therapies in the defense sphere. Perfusion has raised $12 million in grants.
VPIX Medical
VPIX Medical, which came all the way from South Korea to participate in the 2022 Crab Trap competition, uses a digital tissue imaging platform called cCELL to identify tumor tissue during brain surgeries in real time. The company published in Frontiers in Oncology in January 2023, detailing the potential of its intraoperative device in brain tumor surgery, and it is moving to develop use cases for kidney, stomach, prostate, and other tumor surgery locations.
How to Apply for the 2023 Crab Trap
Ready to showcase your innovation?! Applications for the 8th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap are being accepted through August 24th, 2023; apply here. Please note that application does not guarantee a slot to compete. The competition will take place on Tuesday, September 21st, at the US Pharmacopeia in Rockville, MD.
Valuable Prizes
The Crab Trap competition offers a package of prizes worth more than $50,000 to the winner. These include:
A $10,000 cash prize from Greenberg Traurig
A $25,000 cash prize from the Montgomery County Government (for a firm headquartered in Montgomery County)
A one-year residency at JLABS @ Washington, D.C. (for a firm of their choice)
$10,000 in Preclinical CRO services from Noble Life Sciences.
In conclusion, the BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap competition offers a unique platform for start-ups and entrepreneurs in the life sciences sector to showcase their innovations, gain exposure, win valuable prizes, and network with industry leaders. Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your company to the next level. Apply now!
