Biolocity | Guiding Medical Innovation to Market

Biolocity

Biolocity GUIDING MEDICAL INNOVATION TO MARKET

What is Biolocity?

Welcoming New Leadership

Biolocity grew from the successful pilot of the Coulter Translational Fund. The program uses an integrated approach to accelerate the development and commercialization of promising innovations from faculty members at Emory University and Georgia Tech.

Biolocity provides a combination of funding, project management, and consulting resources to technologies, diagnostics, and therapies that address unmet clinical needs and have compelling commercial appeal.

The Biolocity approach encompasses three components: • Biolocity U – educational resources focused on lifescience commercialization, including consultations, workshops, internships, and legal office hours.

• Biolocity Fund – more than $1.5 million in funding available each year to Emory and Georgia Tech innovations through a multistage, competitive application process.

• Biolocity Launch – active project management and formal coordination with the life-sciences commercialization ecosystem for Biolocity Fund awardees.

Law

Nicosia

Courtney Law joined Biolocity as managing director in late 2020 followed in short order by a new associate director, John Nicosia.

As managing director, Law provides business leadership and commercialization strategy at the intersection of academia, medicine, investment, and industry to successfully bridge early-stage technologies into successful startups and licenses to industry. She earned a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Nicosia is responsible for developing and executing product development strategy for the Biolocity portfolio. He also leads the Biolocity internship program. Nicosia earned his doctorate from the Coulter Department and a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester.

“As a scientist without formal business training, I had no idea how to speak with venture capitalists or create an appropriate pitch deck. The Biolocity team helped me learn these valuable skills.”

James Dahlman ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, COULTER DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Biolocity

New This Year A gift to the Emory School of Medicine from John and Rosemary Brown has expanded project funding for Biolocity for 2021. The Browns established an innovation-to-market fund to take a multi-pronged approach to advancing new technologies, including $1.5 million in support for Biolocity over three years through the Brown Innovation Fund. Learn more about the Brown Family’s gift on page 60.

Biolocity also has been working to fill a critical gap for life-sciences startups across the region: academic spin-outs tend to stall due to a lack of early-stage funding.

With the support of a 2020 Capital Challenge Grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Biolocity team is working to build the Emory Catalyst Fund, which will combine this support with funding from Emory and philanthropic donations from Emory supporters to fill this gap and avoid the startup “valley of death” — where startups and emerging-stage companies struggle to reach scale.

The fund — focused on technologies with the potential to impact human health — extends Biolocity’s bench-to-business support to helping Emory innovations reach scale and business success.

Proud Partner in the BARDA DRIVe Accelerator Network Biolocity is now in year two of a five-year, $1 million award as a DRIVe Accelerator through the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA. This national network of top medical technology accelerators expands Biolocity’s reach to health security technology teams, connecting innovators with BARDA’s development resources.

As BARDA’s focus and resources shifted to Covid-19 response efforts in 2020, Biolocity responded and facilitated connections throughout the program's ecosystem. The Biolocity team also supported BARDA’s nationwide Mask Innovation Challenge, providing expert reviewers for the more than 2,000 applications and hosting the Southeast regional mask showcase of teams creating innovative masks for public use.

Erika Tyburski, co-founder of Sanguina — one of Biolocity's success stories. Inset: Sanguina's AnemoCheck device. GARY MEEK.

“Biolocity has truly enabled me to pursue dreams that would otherwise have been impossible.

I never knew I could do so much with an idea, and I feel much more knowledgeable with Biolocity guiding me through the process.”

Andrea Joyner ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF GYNECOLOGY & OBSTETRICS, EMORY UNIVERSITY

Biolocity

58

projects funded

10.8x

ROI leverage in follow-on funding

“We applied with the idea that funding would be the primary determinant necessary for our success. What we learned is that the guidance, advocacy, mentorship, and regulatory resources received were every bit as critical. Our team is profoundly grateful to the Biolocity team for their guidance in translating a technical idea into a real-world clinical resource that will soon benefit patients.”

Frank Tong ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF NEUROSURGERY, EMORY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

22

startups

2

licenses to industry

4

product launches

The NozeBot device. PHOTO COURTESY: NOZEBOT.

Biolocity

Peter Yunker, co-founder of Heteroresistance AST.

Success Stories Guide Therapeutics was acquired by Beam Therapeutics in 2021.

Founded by Coulter BME’s James Dahlman, Guide develops nonviral drug-delivery vehicles for genetic medicines. Dahlman participated in the Biolocity Launch program in 2019, receiving funding, project management, and business mentoring to achieve commercialization milestones for his technology. Read more about the acquisition on page 58.

Sanguina entered into a new partnership with drugmaker AstraZeneca on a study to develop a custom version of the AnemoCheck Mobile smartphone app for patients with anemia of chronic kidney disease. The app provides noninvasive and equipment-free estimates of hemoglobin levels from a simple snapshot of a finger, foregoing a measurement that typically requires special equipment a laboratory blood draw. The AnemoCheck/ Sanguina team of Coulter BME Professor Wilbur Lam and Erika Tyburski, BME 2012, received support from Biolocity in 2016.

Dr. Noze Best launched sales of the Biolocity-supported NozeBot in January 2021. NozeBot is a battery-powered suction device designed to clear nasal congestion in babies and young children that features a unique, patented nosepiece.

Recent Biolocity Launch graduate Heteroresistance AST has secured a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The grant will support their continued work studying heteroresistance, a stealthy form of antibiotic resistance that undermines the treatment of bacterial infections.

“The Biolocity team provided invaluable assistance that moved our project from an NIH focus to a commercial venture.

They recognized the value of our technology and how to promote it to industry.

We would not have succeeded without their expertise.”

Jeff M. Sands DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF RENAL MEDICINE, EMORY UNIVERSITY