Eight Innovative, Virginia Life Science Startups to Know

Oct 18, 2020 | Company, News

CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE

At BioBuzz, we’re dedicated to bringing you interesting and important stories that emerge from the thriving life sciences ecosystem that is the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR).

The heart of the BHCR biohealth cluster is Maryland, with its vast network of government research agencies, the strong university system, and a deep network of established, emerging, and startup life science companies across a wide range of fields, including cell and gene therapy, advanced biomanufacturing, phage therapy, medical devices and more traditional biotech and pharma organizations. That’s not even to mention the remarkable efforts of myriad Maryland vaccine companies to develop the first approved, safe, and efficacious SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

Maryland is certainly the most mature market within the wider BHCR, and the one we tend to cover the most, especially recently, but it isn’t the only growing and thriving BHCR sector.

In addition to exciting developments in Washington, DC, Charlottesville, Virginia is quietly emerging as an exciting hub for life science companies and promising startups that have spun out of the University of Virginia (UVA). UVA and CVilleBioHub, which was founded in 2016 by biotech industry leaders to support the growing biohealth ecosystem in and around Charlottesville, Virginia, have been catalysts for growth in what they call the CVille ecosystem. CVilleBioHub’s mission is to double the size of the biohealth cluster it serves by 2030 through strong engagement, deft resourcing, valuable programming, and grassroots advocacy.

It seems the collaboration between UVA and CVilleBioHub is working. There are a host of exciting, innovative startup companies that call Charlottesville home. We’re excited to highlight these nine innovative Charlottesville, Virginia startup companies and look forward to telling their stories well into the future.

AMPEL Biosolutions

Location Charlottesville, Virginia
Founders/Leadership Dr. Peter E. Lipsky, Co-founder, CEO, and CMO
Dr. Amrie C. Grammer, Co-Founder, Scientific Director
Recent Funding N/A
Stage Clinical/Late

Overview

AMPEL BioSolutions is a precision medicine company. Current customers are Pharma to accelerate trial success by enrolling patients into trials that express drug target/pathway.  Funding will scale and commercialize LuGENE® for the decision support markets (MD/patient and payors). AMPEL’s markets are Patient/Physician, Payer, and Pharma.

Technology

AMPEL has developed a clinical genomic test in the Immunology space to predict flares and the correct drug for a patient based on machine learning of gene expression. The company’s proof-of-concept was lupus and it is expanding into other autoimmune/inflammatory diseases. AMPEL has also developed Covgene™, a novel prognostic technology that can predict the severity of illness in COVID-19 patients and that can help identify treatments.

Pin It on Pinterest