AlphaLab Health Launches Fourth Cohort of Startups

AlphaLab Health, a joint program of Innovation Works (IW) and Allegheny Health Network (AHN) to accelerate the growth of healthcare and life sciences startups, today announced the fourth cohort of companies to participate in the program.

Six companies were competitively selected to participate in a six-month program that will help them navigate key risk points in the clinical and commercial development of their early-stage companies.

The startups are tackling some of the most complex issues facing patients and clinicians today, including metastatic cancer, obesity, personalized medicine, opioid use, sustainable and improved medical devices for individuals with disabilities, and complications from diabetes. The cohort companies are:

• D. Sole (www.d-sole.com) – D.Sole is a smart insole that utilizes multimodal sensors for the early detection and monitoring of foot complications, such as ulcers, in diabetic patients with neuropathy. The technology provides clinicians with critical data to proactively prevent severe ulcers and amputations, while also providing personalized care to diabetic patients.
• Ilant Health (ilanthealth.com) – Ilant Health is an obesity treatment company, focused on increasing access to obesity treatment while reducing the total cost of care for employers and payers. The company provides the single front door for individuals with obesity, delivering end-to-end evidence-based solutions (bariatric surgery, medication, intense behavioral therapy) through a technology-enabled and analytics-driven obesity medicine practice.
• Magnify Bioscience (https://magnifybiosci.com/) – Magnify Biosciences Inc. empowers its customers by removing the traditional barriers to high-end nanoscale imaging. Their innovative Tissue Magnification technology enhances customers' microscopes to accelerate biological discovery, offering profound insights that catalyze breakthroughs in both fundamental research and clinical applications.
• MetasTx (https://metastx.com/) – MetasTx, LLC is developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics to treat and prevent metastatic cancer beginning with prostate cancer (PCa). The MetasTx platform is focused on PAK1, a target that has been demonstrated to be crucial for cancer cell initiation, proliferation, and metastasis. MetasTx is designing and developing novel chemicals to create a breakthrough, First-In-Class PAK1 inhibitor that will significantly improve patient survival and quality of life.
• Resilient LifeScience (https://www.resilient.bio/) – Opioid overdose is the leading killer of Americans under 50, and roughly 80% of the 80,000 annual overdose deaths occur without a bystander to administer lifesaving naloxone. Resilient LifeScience is developing a wearable medical device to automatically detect and reverse an opioid overdose.
• Testa-Seat (https://www.testa-seat.com) – Testa-Seat is revolutionizing the manufacturing process of products for individuals with disabilities to create life-changing custom products in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

“The companies that have gone through the AlphaLab Health accelerator have been confronting some of medicine’s most complicated issues, including addressing difficult issues regarding specific diseases, and how hospitals operate, bill, and care for patients,” said Dr. Jeff Cohen, chief physician executive, community health and innovation for AHN. “No matter their target, they are all striving to improve the future of healthcare. This new cohort continues in this innovative vein, and we look forward to seeing how AlphaLab Health amplifies their outcomes.”

Each company in the fourth cohort will receive up to $100,000 in pre-seed investment, wet and dry lab space, one-on-one and group education sessions, and access to clinicians, hospital executives and other experts who can help these emerging companies succeed through the early stages of development.

“AlphaLab Health is central to our ongoing commitment to supporting life sciences companies in Southwest PA ” said Ven Raju, president and CEO of IW.

Ven continued, “AlphaLab Health supports life sciences companies with capital, deep domain expertise in conjunction with our partnership with Highmark-AHN and state-of-the-art facilities including wet lab space. The programming is designed to shepherd companies through the early stages of the business and development life cycle and provide companies with access to key networks such as investors, customers and mentors. The unique partnership between Highmark AHN and IW brings to bear the resources and know-how of a large integrated health system with that of a leading venture development organization to help early stage life sciences companies in the region. We are excited to welcome our 4th cohort of companies to the program."

To learn more about AlphaLab Health, visit https://www.alphalabhealth.org/.