Explore the RESI Boston September 2025 Program Guide 

9 Sep

By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation (LSN)

DF-News-09142022The official program guide for RESI Boston, September 2025 is now available! Redefining Every Stage of Investment (RESI) is designed to connect life science and healthcare innovators with a global network of investors across diverse funding strategies, from Seed through Series B and beyond.

This guide provides a complete overview of what to expect throughout the conference, detailing the content and layout for our in-person event on September 17th. Inside, you’ll find the full agenda, speaker bios, panel descriptions, and essential information to help you navigate your RESI experience. Whether you’re participating in investor meetings, the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge, workshops, or ad hoc networking, this guide is your resource to stay organized and maximize your time at RESI Boston.

Access the full guide here:

Register for RESI Boston

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Genaxis, Silver Sponsor of RESI Boston, Hosts Exclusive Startup Showcase

9 Sep

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

LSN is excited to announce Genaxis, a leading South Korea based accelerator and early-stage fund dedicated to deeptech and biotech innovation, as a Silver Sponsor of RESI Boston.

Genaxis is bringing five of Korea’s most innovative biotech and medtech startups to the global stage. These companies will be pitching at RESI Boston on September 17, 2025, where they will showcase breakthrough solutions spanning therapeutics, medical devices, digital health, and enabling technologies.

To provide an additional opportunity for investor engagement, Genaxis will also host an exclusive pre-RESI pitch session the day before the conference. The event will take place on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 9:00 – 11:00am EST, at CIC Boston (50 Milk St, Boston, MA 02109).

At this session, 5 startups will each deliver a 6-minute pitch followed by a 7-minute Q&A, and active investors and strategic partners are invited to join. Please RSVP below if you are interested in meeting Genaxis and the pitching companies. Brief descriptions are provided below:

RSVP

Bilix, Inc. is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing innovative therapies for intractable diseases in inflammation and cancer, with the mission to improve human health one patient at a time for better and longer lives. Driven by courage and determination, Bilix takes on the challenge of finding cures for conditions long considered incurable. Our goal is to expedite drug development and provide therapeutic answers for patients in urgent need, while upholding a commitment to fairness and accessibility. By delivering cost-effective, equitable treatment solutions, Bilix strives to transform the lives of patients worldwide and bring hope where few options exist.

DeepsonBio is a company specialized in ultrasound devices for treating dementia. By utilizing a non-invasive method, we offer a safe and highly effective treatment for patients with Alzheimer’s dementia and normal pressure hydrocephalus dementia.

Our therapeutic ultrasound device is designed to improve cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, utilizing Multiple Low Intensity Pliant Ultrasound (M-LIPUS) for cerebrofluid stimulation.

Main Business Area:

  • Neurology
  • Neurodegenerative disease
  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • Normal pressure hydrocephalus

EXOSYSTEMS Inc. is a South Korea–based digital health company pioneering AI-driven neuromuscular biomarkers to transform how motor function is assessed, diagnosed, and monitored. Founded in 2017 as a spin-out from ETRI, EXOSYSTEMS develops integrated solutions that combine clinical-grade EMG/IMU sensors with advanced AI analytics to deliver objective, quantitative insights into muscle and motor performance.

Its flagship technologies include the Muscle Function Index (MFI), a digital biomarker platform designed to replace fragmented and subjective in-person motor assessments with standardized, high-resolution measures. These solutions serve both pharmaceutical companies, by providing validated digital endpoints for clinical trials, and hospitals and clinics, by enabling efficient point-of-care diagnostics and patient monitoring.

With $4M secured in VC funding, over $10M in national R&D grants, regulatory recognition from the Korean FDA, and validation studies with Roche Korea, EXOSYSTEMS is positioned to set a new global standard for neuromuscular digital health.

Laon Medi is a digital health company transforming orthodontics with software-driven workflows. Our flagship platform, Laon Ortho, solves the inefficiencies of clear aligner treatment planning, a process that traditionally requires hours of manual work and outsourced lab services. By automating case setup and integrating multimodal data such as CBCT and intraoral scans, Laon Ortho reduces planning time to minutes while allowing clinics to manage cases in-house. This shift improves margins, lowers patient costs, and accelerates adoption of clear aligner therapy. Laon Ortho is commercially deployed in dozens of clinics and labs across Korea, generating post-pilot revenues and validating scalability. The company is now expanding globally with a model that serves clinics, labs, and DSOs, positioning itself as a scalable digital dentistry platform with clear cost advantages and growing international demand.

RadaHaim, founded in 2022, is a biotechnology company pioneering standardized, scalable organoid platforms for drug discovery and toxicology testing. We have developed patient-derived and iPSC-derived liver organoids with consistent size and morphology, enabling reliable disease modeling and drug-induced liver injury (DILI) assays. Our preclinical service platform operates under GLP-inspired workflows, including batch-level QC, reference compound benchmarking, and high-content imaging analytics. By bridging the translational gap between animal studies and clinical outcomes, RadaHaim provides pharmaceutical and biotech partners with more predictive data to accelerate drug development and reduce failures in clinical trials. In addition to CRO services, our long-term goal is to commercialize assay kits that integrate standardized organoids with ready-to-use protocols. Based in Korea and now expanding into the U.S., RadaHaim aims to become a global leader in organoid-based NAMs (New Approach Methodologies) aligned with regulatory acceptance and the future of animal-free testing.

About Genaxis:

Genaxis is a leading accelerator dedicated to supporting deep-tech and biotech startups. We deliver customized acceleration programs, strategic mentoring, and global investor access to help companies grow beyond their local markets. With expertise in investment readiness, cross-border collaboration, and global market entry, Genaxis equips entrepreneurs with the tools and networks they need for sustainable growth. As a Silver Sponsor of RESI Boston 2025, we are committed to connecting innovative startups with global life science investors, fostering collaboration between Korea and the world. Our mission is to empower founders to achieve impactful innovation, create long-term value, and strengthen the global startup ecosystem.

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Partnering for Growth: DLA Piper on Supporting Life Science Innovation at RESI Boston 

9 Sep

At RESI Boston, global law firm DLA Piper plays a key role in guiding early-stage innovators through the legal and commercial challenges of scaling in the life sciences. In this interview, Lauren Murdza, Co-Chair of Technology & Life Sciences Licensing & Commercial Transactions, shares why DLA Piper chose to sponsor RESI, what the firm looks for in collaborations, and the trends shaping licensing and commercial transactions today.

Lauren Murdza
 CaitiCaitlin Dolegowski

Caitlin Dolegowski (CD): What motivated DLA Piper to sponsor RESI Boston, and why do you see value in supporting this conference?

Lauren Murdza (LM): DLA Piper is committed to supporting innovation in the life sciences sector, and RESI Boston offers a unique opportunity to engage directly with early-stage companies and investors. Sponsoring RESI aligns with our mission to be a strategic partner to emerging life science ventures, helping them navigate legal complexities while fostering meaningful connections that drive growth.

CD: From your perspective, what makes RESI a strong platform for connecting with early-stage life science innovators and investors?

LM: RESI creates a unique environment where entrepreneurs, investors, and advisors come together to solve real challenges. For DLA Piper, it’s an opportunity to listen and engage in conversations that matter—how to protect IP, manage data rights, and structure collaborations that attract capital. Those discussions allow us to show how DLA Piper’s integrated approach—combining legal, regulatory, and commercial insight—helps companies accelerate their next milestone.

CD: Can you share what types of companies, technologies, or partners DLA Piper is most interested in engaging with during RESI?

LM: We’re particularly interested in companies developing novel therapeutics, diagnostics, digital health platforms, and medical devices. Our team seeks to engage with founders and executives who are navigating the transition from concept to commercialization and who value strategic legal guidance in areas such as licensing, IP protection, and regulatory compliance.

CD: How does your team at DLA Piper support life science and healthcare companies as they move from early-stage development to commercialization?

LM: DLA Piper supports clients across the full lifecycle of a company—from corporate formation and IP strategy to licensing, financing, and M&A. We help clients identify the core aspects of their technology, assess patentability, and streamline initial filings to create contingent assets that support fundraising. What sets DLA Piper apart is our ability to deliver this seamlessly across jurisdictions, giving clients the confidence that their legal strategy scales with their business.

CD: Are there particular trends or challenges in licensing and commercial transactions that you think entrepreneurs at RESI should be especially mindful of?

LM: We’re seeing three big themes. First, clarity on data and AI rights is critical—investors want to know who owns what and how data can be used, especially across borders. Second, deal structures are evolving, with more options-to-license, milestone-based terms, and royalty monetization to help bridge funding gaps. Finally, regulatory and supply chain issues—from FDA expectations to manufacturing scale-up—are showing up earlier in negotiations. At DLA Piper, we help clients anticipate these challenges so they don’t slow down growth.

CD: What does DLA Piper hope to accomplish through its participation at RESI Boston this year?

LM: We aim to deepen our engagement with the life sciences community, share actionable insights through workshops and panels, and identify promising companies that could benefit from our legal and strategic expertise. RESI Boston is a chance to listen, learn, and contribute to the ecosystem that’s shaping the future of healthcare innovation.

CD: Looking ahead, what excites you most about the current life science innovation landscape, and how does DLA Piper plan to play a role in advancing it?

LM: We’re excited by the convergence of AI, data science, and biotechnology, which is accelerating discovery and personalization in medicine. DLA Piper plans to continue supporting innovators by offering forward-thinking legal solutions and fostering connections that help companies bring transformative technologies to the market.

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Freedom to Operate: What It Is and Why Your Startup Can’t Afford to Ignore It 

9 Sep

By Michael J. Moedritzer, Associate, Polsinelli (Special Guest Contributor)

For biotech founders, intellectual property (IP) can make or break a company. The life sciences industry is driven by innovation, but it is also crowded with patents. While it’s essential to build your own IP portfolio, it is just as critical to ensure that your product will not infringe on someone else’s. Overlooking this risk can expose your startup to costly lawsuits that could derail your business before it has a chance to grow.

What is an FTO Opinion?
An FTO Opinion is a legal review by an IP attorney that determines whether your startup can develop, manufacture, and sell a product without infringing existing patents. The attorney analyzes relevant patents and applications in your target markets and provides guidance on whether changes to your design or a licensing agreement might be necessary.

Why Founders Need It
For founders, an FTO Opinion provides more than legal coverage. It gives you peace of mind that you are not unknowingly putting your company at risk. It can also provide protection if litigation arises, helping you defend against claims of willful infringement and limiting potential increased damages. Most importantly, it strengthens your credibility with investors and partners by showing that you have done the due diligence to safeguard your innovations.

Where to Start
Securing an FTO Opinion requires working with an experienced IP attorney, who will tailor the analysis to your product and market strategy. While it is an investment, it is one that could save your company millions and ensure that your innovation makes it to market.

Michael Moedritzer is an Associate in Polsinelli’s Intellectual Property department. He focuses his practice on domestic and international patent prosecution and works with clients to revise, analyze and evaluate intellectual property-related issues to provide comprehensive overview of the portfolio.

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The Needle Issue #14

9 Sep
Juan-Carlos-Lopez
Juan Carlos Lopez		 Andy-Marshall
Andy Marshall

It is now nearly a decade since Dublin-based startup ​Inflazome burst onto the scene with the description of MCC950, the first nanomolar selective inhibitor of the inflammasome. Inflammasome-mediated low-grade inflammation has been associated with cancers, numerous chronic complex diseases—including inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS—as well as rare autoinflammatory diseases, such as cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS). There is a wealth of compelling human genetic evidence from Muckle-Wells syndrome and other autosomal dominant familial genetic diseases showing gain-of-function mutations in NLRP3 are causative of autoinflammatory disease.

Given the ‘pipeline in a product’ potential of drugs targeting this pathway, big pharma has shown considerable interest, with Genentech/Roche snapping up Jecure Therapeutics for an undisclosed amount, and both Novartis and Roche splashing out hundreds of millions of dollars for pioneer companies IFM Tre and Inflazome, respectively. In 2022, Novo Nordisk licensed Ventus Therapeutics’ peripherally restricted NLRP3 inhibitor in a deal worth up to $703 million, lending weight to pharmacological inhibition of NLRP3 as a complement to glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists (GLP-1s) in cardiometabolic disease. And with several programs now entering the clinic, investment activity in the area has continued, with Enveda’s announcement last week of a $150 million series D round to fund a phase 1 trial for ENV-6946, an orally delivered gut-restricted small molecule targeting the NLRP3/tumor necrosis factor-like cytokine 1A (TL1A) pathway in inflammatory bowel disease.

Today, Haystack counts at least 17 independent companies pursuing inflammasome therapeutics (AC Immune, Azome Therapeutics, BioAge Labs, Cardiol Therapeutics, EpicentRx, Enveda, Halia Therapeutics, InflammX Therapeutics, Insilico Medicine, Neumora Therapeutics, NodThera, Olatec Therapeutics, Shaperon, Ventus Therapeutics, Ventyx Biosciences, ZyVersa Therapeutics and Zydus LifeSciences) and 8 programs now in clinical testing specifically targeting the key inflammasome component NLRP3.

While drugmakers have traditionally targeted downstream extracellular mediators of the inflammasome pathway (canakinumab or rilonacept against IL-1β or anakinra to block IL-1 receptor), NLRP3 represents a key upstream intracellular signaling hub, activated by innate immune pattern-recognition receptor (Toll like receptors 2/4) signaling via MyD88 and NFkappaB. Once activated, NLRP3 monomers unfold and associate into a massive 1.2 MDa oligomeric supracomplex with three other proteins: ASC, NEK7 and caspase 1. The mature complex then cleaves and activates proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 and primes gasdermin D to instigate cell pore formation and cell death via pyroptosis.

Discovering effective drugs against NLRP3 has proven challenging. The first NMR structure was obtained in 2016, but the structural basis for how NLRP3 ring-like oligomers associate with intracellular membranes and how its pyrin domains associate with ASC to orchestrate speck formation and caspase activation have only recently been elucidated. Thus far, the majority of small-molecule inhibitors (e.g., Inflazyme’s archetypal MCC950 and inzolemid; Zydus’s (ZYIL1), Olatec’s OLT117 and Jecure Therapeutics’ GDC-2394) form hydrogen bonds via a sulfonylurea group to NLRP3’s NACHT domain nucleotide-binding motifs, thereby obstructing ATP hydrolysis. Other companies are taking a different tack: thus, Halia Therapeutic’s small-molecule inhibitor orniflast and Monte Rosa Therapeutics’ MRT-8102 molecular glue target NEK7 rather than NLRP3.

But it has been less than straightforward to identify compounds with sufficient potency to target this pivotal innate immune signaling pathway without debilitating off-target effects. Indeed, several of the first wave of compounds entering the clinic have been dogged by serious toxicities, including liver problems (MCC950 and GDC-2394) and hypoglycemia (glyburide). Now, a team led by Rebecca Coll (Queen’s University Belfast) and Kevin Wilhelmsen (of BioAge Labs) reports in The Journal of Experimental Medicine the discovery and characterization of BAL-0028, a novel and selective small-molecule inhibitor of the human NLRP3 inflammasome.

Unlike previously studied inhibitors, BAL-0028 acts through a unique mechanism of action; it binds NLRP3’s NACHT domain at a site distinct from other inhibitors that act by directly interfering with ATPase activity. BAL-0028 has nanomolar potency against human and primate NLRP3 but, remarkably, has weak activity against the mouse target, highlighting species-specific differences.

As BAL-0028 showed very high plasma protein binding in mice, limiting its use in vivo, the team developed a derivative, BAL-0598, with improved pharmacokinetic properties. In a humanized NLRP3 mouse peritonitis model, BAL-0598 effectively reduced IL-1β and IL-6 production, confirming its anti-inflammatory activity in vivo. Importantly, both BAL-0028 and BAL-0598 inhibited hyperactive NLRP3 mutants associated with autoinflammatory diseases, in some cases more effectively than Vertex’s VX-765, a caspase 1 inhibitor, and compounds like MCC950, one of the best characterized NLRP3 inhibitors available.

The novel mechanism of action of BAL-0028 and BAL-0598 would suggest their off-target effects may be different from those associated with other NLRP3 inhibitors blocking ATP hydrolysis. The concern that such compounds might also bind other members of the NOD/NLR family (e.g., NLRP1, NLRP4 or AIM2 inflammasomes) is mitigated by most published studies indicating that NLRP3’s unique fold around the ATP binding site makes small-molecule binders selective for this family member alone. The most likely explanation from trials published to date is that the observed toxicities are associated with small molecule chemotype rather than any NLRP3 class-specific problem. In any case, the findings from this study support further investigation of these compounds as candidates for treating inflammatory and age-related diseases where NLRP3 plays a role. The race to develop a safe and effective NLRP3 inhibitor is on, with big pharma billion-dollar bets and startups jostling to create best-in-class assets across cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and metabolic disease.

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Hot Investor Mandate: Europe-Based VC Firm Invests Through Seed to Growth-Stage Life Science Companies Across the Globe, With Preference for Therapeutics and Platform Technologies 

3 Sep

A venture capital firm with a major presence in Europe invests in life science companies through various funds. The firm targets seed, venture, and growth-stage investments in European companies but also considers North American and Asian opportunities. Initial investment size ranges from €500K – 10M, preferentially in the form of straight equity. The firm is capable of leading or co-investing in financing rounds; however, for U.S. deals, the firm prefers a local investor to lead unless it is a later-stage round (i.e., B, C, etc.) and the prior round was led by a U.S. investor. The firm has greater flexibility for European-based companies and typically leads these rounds. The firm is currently in investing mode, actively seeking opportunities, with the average investment ranging from €3–5M. 
 

The firm takes a true venture approach to investing and prioritizes breakthrough technologies with a strong IP position. Microbiome therapeutics and platforms are the primary interest, with willingness to invest as early as pre-clinical in this subsector. For other therapeutics, preferred phases of development are typically limited to pre-clinical investments into companies with a platform technology rather than those reliant on a single therapeutic asset. Medical technology and connected health companies are also evaluated, regardless of stage. 
 

The firm prefers to work with mature, experienced management teams but is open to all entrepreneurs. The firm will invest in pre-revenue as well as revenue-generating companies, with maximum revenues of €50M. 

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email salescore@lifesciencenation.com. 

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Hot Investor Mandate: Investment Firm With Global Interests Seeks Novel Disruptive Therapeutics and Platform Technologies from Pre-Seed to Series A

3 Sep

A global venture capital investor builds, incubates, and invests in biotech companies. The firm invests from an evergreen fund and prefers to invest at company formation or seed stage, with the latest stage being Series A. Typical investments range from $1-5M, but larger tranched investments may be made in therapeutic opportunities. With offices across multiple global hubs, the firm invests worldwide. The firm can act as either a lead or a co-investor. 

The firm’s investment strategy focuses on disruptive therapeutics platform technologies and novel therapeutic modalities. 

The firm prefers to back teams with a strong track record but is also open to first-time entrepreneurs. At company formation, the firm not only provides funding for initial proof-of-concept studies, but also supports the assembly of the founding team and other essential business development activities. 

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email salescore@lifesciencenation.com. 

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