| Name | Title | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|
Yih-Wei Chien |
Director, Strategic Marketing | Profile |
Matt Brokaw |
President and Chief Executive Officer | Profile |
Fred Dinger |
Chief Executive Officer | Profile |
Novan is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on topical delivery of nitric oxide. The company`s proprietary platform technology enables the stable storage and release of nitric oxide in a variety of dosage forms. Novan is currently developing innovative, first-in-class therapies for the field of dermatology.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a chronic, life-threatening disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States, 30,000 new cases are estimated every year with half of those cases diagnosed in young children. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the patient`s immune system goes awry and attacks and destroys the pancreatic beta cells. Beta cells are responsible for regulating blood sugar (glucose) levels by producing precise amounts of the essential hormone insulin. The discovery of injectable insulin in the 1920s changed T1D from a uniformly fatal disease with a life expectancy of months to one that could be carefully managed for decades through multiple daily blood glucose measurements and insulin injections. However, insulin injections are not a cure and patients face a lifetime of difficult disease management and serious complications including kidney failure, blindness and nerve damage. Despite nearly a century passing since the discovery of insulin, insulin injection remains the only treatment available to patients. Semma Therapeutics was founded to develop transformative therapies for patients who currently depend on insulin injections. Recent work in the laboratory of Professor Douglas Melton led to the discovery of a method to generate billions of functional, insulin-producing beta cells in the laboratory. These cells develop in islet-like clusters grown from stem cells. Initial preclinical work in animal models of diabetes has shown that transplantation of these cells are sufficient to control blood glucose levels. This breakthrough technology has been exclusively licensed to Semma Therapeutics for the development of a cell-based therapy for diabetes. Ongoing research at Semma Therapeutics is focused on combining these proprietary cells with a state-of-the-art cell delivery and immune protection strategy that can protect these cells from the patient`s immune system and allow the beta cells to function as they do in non-diabetic individuals. Implantation of the beta cell-filled device has the potential to provide a true replacement for the missing beta cells in a diabetic patient and would not require patient immunosuppression. Semma Therapeutics is working to bring this new therapeutic option to the clinic and improve the lives of patients with diabetes.
Vidara Therapeutics is a Alpharetta, GA-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Perseus is a Washington, DC-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is committed to solving the most challenging problems in health by developing research programs dedicated to urgency, excellence and honesty. Part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ARPA-H aims to accelerate breakthroughs that empower every American to realize their full health potential – turning the seemingly impossible to the possible to the actual. The ARPA model is a continuous cycle of planning, implementing, and evaluating, and we`re looking for the best ideas and the brightest minds to carry out each process. We`re committed to diversity in all its forms.