Program Participants


Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program Participants

Since 2014, the Flinn Foundation has selected 66 Arizona bioscience companies to participate in the program through a competitive process. The 11 program cohorts have received nearly $2 million in funding support through the foundation’s nonprofit partners.

Learn more about the companies below.


2024

BioBolt Medical Corporation   

Tucson-based BioBolt Medical has developed surgical-stapler technology with the goal of allowing surgeons to perform procedures with greater speed, efficiency, and precision. The patented deployment system is designed to work for all mesh types, enabling surgeons to utilize biologic meshes more often and improve patient outcomes.

Dr. Fossum’s Pet Care   

Dr. Fossum’s Pet Care is a Carefree-based supplement company offering alternate solutions to synthetic medications, specifically for itching, which accounts for more than 50% of veterinary visits. The product is a treatment for itching caused by canine atopic dermatitis with topical and oral administration.

Dx4Liver, Inc.   

Dx4Liver aims to provide highly accurate diagnostic biomarker tests for liver diseases. The Phoenix-based company offers a MMP7 disease biomarker test for biliary atresia—a significant liver disease in children. Current testing can take days or weeks to receive. This product will require a single blood draw, with results the same day, aiming to simplify and accelerate care while significantly reducing health care costs for children.

Macula Vision Systems   

Tucson-based Macula Vision Systems is developing a technology to fully automate clinical laboratory analysis and AI-based interpretation. The technology is being designed to address the critical labor shortages in medical test labs, testing costs, and availability of timely clinical information.

Metfora   

Metfora of Tucson is developing a blood test to differentially diagnose four lung diseases from a single blood draw. The diseases include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and asthma.

Precision Epigenomics   

Tucson-based Precision Epigenomics Inc. is developing a blood test to deliver earlier and more accurate cancer diagnoses. The EPISEEK™ multi-cancer detection test detects more than 20 different cancer types from a single blood draw.


2023

Delta Development Team   

Delta Development Team is a developer of ruggedized refrigeration systems, specializing in military applications. The Tucson-based company leveraged the knowledge and wisdom of military medical personnel to design its Autonomous Portable Refrigeration Unit, which provides days of use from one battery charge and is designed to withstand harsh weather conditions, so medical-care teams can take it with them no matter where their skills are needed.

EMR Data Cloud   

Located in Scottsdale, EMR Data Cloud offers a platform for clinical genetic testing with electronic medical record (EMR) integration. Users can order genomic panels and other laboratory tests with just a few clicks on its platform. The company’s lab-integration technology bridges the gap between health care providers and diagnostic laboratories and quickly transfers information, including clinical notes, family history, medication lists, and insurance information in seconds.

Reference Medicine   

This Phoenix-based company’s mission is to become a one-stop shop for oncology biospecimens, enabling researchers to easily get specimens they need, at half the cost, to build cancer diagnostics. The company will address the gap in the oncology biospecimen market by combining partnerships with accredited teams worldwide with an innovative approach to specimen formatting. Its approach ensures that each set of specimens is fully utilized and creates a variety of formats, enabling the company to connect an individual donation to a diverse group of diagnostic research teams—increasing supply of critical specimens while driving down the cost for researchers.

Televeda   

Televeda is a mental-health platform used by public-health and community-based organizations to combat social isolation for vulnerable populations. The platform incorporates robust accessibility designs including a proprietary live-streaming user interface, an administration dashboard for CBOs to source content, hybrid-event management for broadcasting, data-reporting, and white-labeling. The Phoenix-based company helps streamline operations, saving clients 15-25 hours and $2,000-4,000 a month while improving their community-outreach metrics.

The Patient Company   

The Patient Company is reimagining how patients are moved, starting with lateral patient transfer—moving a patient from one flat surface to another. The process currently takes a median of 22 minutes and is the second-leading cause of injury for health care employees. The Scottsdale-based company has developed SimPull™, a device that can be operated by a single clinical staff member, allowing for safe, efficient, and effective lateral transfer of patients, while decreasing the transfer time to 2 minutes.

TheraCea Pharma   

Tucson-based TheraCea Pharma addresses the greatest challenge in the emerging $145 billion cancer immunotherapy market by providing clinical diagnostic products for patient selection and therapy guidance. TheraCea detects immunotherapy biomarkers using PET imaging. The company has developed a set of diagnostic agents that allow oncologists and pharmaceutical companies to select the right segment of patients who will be responsive to specific immunotherapy drugs.


2022

Anuncia Medical   

Anuncia Medical of Scottsdale is the developer of the ReFlow™ Ventricular System, which helps patients with cerebrospinal fluid disorders, such as hydrocephalus, a debilitating and life-threatening condition affecting more than 1 million U.S. patients. The device, which is placed beneath the scalp, facilitates a safe, noninvasive retrograde fluid flush when ventriculoperitoneal shunt flow is restricted or blocked.

Beacon Biomedical   

Beacon Biomedical provides easy, accurate, and affordable blood tests for earlier cancer detection as well as COVID-19 virus detection and antibodies testing. The company’s lead product, BeScreened™-CRC, is a blood-based test for the early detection of colorectal cancer. The Phoenix-based company also has early detection assays for breast, lung, prostate, and ovarian cancers in development.

Navi Nurses   

Phoenix-based Navi Nurses offers personalized, private nursing care after surgery and hospitalization. Navi Nurses exclusively hires bachelor-degree-and-higher registered nurses and provides carefully matched care based on the needs of the individual in the homecare setting.

NeuTherapeutics   

NeuTherapeutics is a Tucson-based company whose mission is to provide safe and effective regenerative treatments for the brain to cure neurodegenerative diseases and precision therapies that preserve women’s brain health. The company’s lead molecule, Allopregnanolone, is a clinical-stage, regenerative treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases that generates new neurons, new synapses, and new neural circuits in the Alzheimer’s brain.

ReSuture   

ReSuture has created a synthetic vasculature that mimics the properties of live human tissue for surgical training, delivering a lifelike procedural experience to allow surgeons to gain operative experience in a controlled environment. The Surprise-based company seeks to reduce surgical complications and improve patient outcomes by giving future surgeons a superior training experience.

SaiOx   

Tucson-based SaiOx Inc. has developed Hespiro™, a respiratory-assist device that helps treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD, and other respiratory diseases. The system, which improves patient comfort and reduces intubation occurrences, delivers a mixture of helium and oxygen, and captures exhaled gas and scrubs it free of carbon dioxide in a completely closed “rebreather” system.

uPetsia   

uPetsia solves the problem of bad dog breath by modifying natural canine oral bacteria. The bacteria can be incorporated into dog treats and chews, giving them fresh breath with a mint aroma for several hours. The Tucson-based firm was one of five companies that won Purina’s 2022 Pet Care Innovation Prize.

2021

Botanisol Analytics   

Botanisol Analytics of Phoenix is developing rapid, digital virus screeners for COVID-19 and other pathogens. The portable device can be operated anywhere by minimally trained, non-medical personnel and provides results about chemical and biological threats in less than 10 minutes. A laser is used to detect molecular signatures and allows for real-time analysis in the field.

LabPair   

LabPair is a web application that matches scientists with incomplete, complementary work, thereby improving their collective chances of publishing and receiving funding. The Tucson-based company will be especially impactful for biomedical research, as it will help eliminate redundancy, increase the pace of research, and result in more impactful studies.

Movement Interactive   

Movement Interactive is a developer of wearable technology to address undiagnosed concussions and unreported falls. The Phoenix-based company is the maker of the Hiji® band, a comfortable and versatile headband with a Bluetooth sensor that connects to a mobile app to provide real-time data directly to parents and coaches about possible concussion-strength impacts.

Paxauris   

Paxauris is a Phoenix-based company that has created soft, silicone earplugs that inflate in the ear to provide a comfortable seal that blocks unwanted noise. The earplug is fabricated from durable materials and is designed to be reusable for more than 100 insertions. The earplug can also serve as a biometric platform for many physiological measurements.

Satori Orthopaedics   

Phoenix-based Satori Orthopaedics is developing a next-generation intramedullary nail that expedites healing from tibia and femur fractures and decreases the potential for complications requiring additional surgery. This is the first intramedullary nail which allows surgeon-modulated controlled axial motion.

Scintillation Nanotechnologies   

Scintillation Nanotechnologies develops, manufactures, and sells multiplexed nanoscale radioisotope detectors for use in drug discovery in academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical research laboratories. The unique chemical and physical properties of the Tucson-based company’s products give researchers unprecedented insight into drug uptake, binding, and distribution while saving time and reducing costly hazardous waste.

TapRoot Interventions & Solutions   

TapRoot Interventions & Solutions has created an AI-powered digital assistant, Ella, to provide a personalized behavioral approach in caring for cognitively impaired individuals, beginning with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The Phoenix-based company’s TapRoot smartphone-based system provides behavioral interventions for patients, helping caregivers improve their efficiency and performance.

2020

Additive Implants  

Additive Implants of Phoenix has created an FDA-approved, 3D-printed titanium alloy SureMAX Cervical Spacer System for use in back and neck surgery. The cervical spacer offers a roughened porous surface with several unique features on the superior, inferior, and lateral aspects of the implant, designed to effectively engage bone on the vertebral endplates. These features combine to provide an ideal environment for fusion while also helping to resist rotational forces throughout the healing process. 

GenetiRate  

GenetiRate aims to improve the food supply through natural-selection technology that measures metabolic rates to identify animals that are genetically superior for growth, including fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. Tucson-based GenetiRate uses its proprietary diagnostic assay and sorter to test various aquatic eggs, embryos, hatchlings, and tissues to select aquatic species with greater growth potential and feed efficiency. 

Humabiologics 

Humabiologics provides a stable supply of highquality, human-derived biomaterials for tissue engineering, research, and regenerative medicine. The Phoenix-based company, dedicated to bridging the gap between researchers and the gift of donated human tissues, partners with academic and industry institutions to develop biomaterials to address debilitating diseases and improve the quality of life for patients. 

Resonea

Resonea is the developer of DROWZLE, an FDA-approved proprietary software and analytical algorithm system for sleep-health guidance deployed on consumer smartphones, including medical-grade screening, detecting, monitoring, and measuring outcomes of obstructive sleep apnea. Scottsdale-based Resonea haalso developed the DROWZLE Sleep Health Program and the online Sleep Well/Live Well sleep-improvement program. 

Rivia Health

Rivia Health  provides an innovative solution to the medicalbilling industry through an app where patientcan understand, manage, and pay their medical bills and check insurance coverage all in one place. By making it easier for patients to pay, Phoenix-based Rivia Health helps healthcare providers by reducing delayed and defaulted payments, improving patient satisfaction, and reducing operating costs. 

SafKan

SafKan, a Tucson-based company, has developed the first automated earcleaning device for clinical use, the OtoSet, for the more than 600 million people worldwide with excess or impacted earwax. The OtoSets pulsed irrigation and continuous suction automatically breaks down and removes excess earwax in 35 seconds. 

2019

AdviNow Medical

AdviNow Medical integrates artificial intelligence and augmented reality into a medical encounter with a patient, revolutionizing patient-provider interaction. The clinical visit is completely automated as the AI interacts with patients to collect symptoms, take vitals, and deliver a complete patient workup with a breakdown of predicted illnesses and treatment options. The technology is currently in use at select Safeway stores.

CATS Tonometer

CATS Tonometer has developed the FDA-approved Correcting Applanation Tonometer Surface prism, which studies show significantly improves intraocular-eye-pressure measurement data—a key metric in the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma and other conditions. The CATS solution is implemented by simply changing out the existing prism and does not require any changes in clinician measurement technique.

Desert Valley Tech 

Desert Valley Tech is the creator of the HemaPorter, a cold-chain custody and storage solution for blood products, organs, pharmaceuticals and vaccines that provides medical personnel greater access to critical tools in war zones, remote locations, and disaster areas. The rechargeable, dockable container provides real-time monitoring and can be transported by drones.

Emagine Solutions Technology

Emagine Solutions Technology is a mobile health-care company and developer of VistaScan, a software platform that transforms a mobile phone or tablet into a powerful, high-quality ultrasound device. The company’s mission is to provide affordable, quality ultrasound to clinicians in low-resource settings to improve health outcomes around the world.

NANOPEC

NANOPEC offers scalable solutions to businesses by helping to make pharmaceuticals safer. The company manufactures MetaPurex nano-filtration solutions for high-precision purification of pharmaceuticals, avoiding both harm to patients and product recalls. MetaPurex pores are nano-size, highly ordered, free of defects, and able to filter out all bacteria, including mycoplasma and most common viruses.

Ordinatrix

Ordinatrix’s mission is to be the leader in translational proteomics and offer researchers a disruptive tool for the analysis of protein function. The company’s ActiveArrays can place a human protein microarray on a small slide for the research and development of new drugs, biomarkers, and other precision-medicine tools.

2018

Avery Therapeutics

Avery Therapeutics is a Tucson-based startup company dedicated to advancing tissue-engineered therapeutics to treat diseases and injuries to human muscle. Avery’s lead product, MyCardia, a tissue-engineered heart graft developed to treat heart failure, is in the pre-clinical development phase. MyCardia is positioned to be the world’s first off-the-shelf product for treating heart failure.

Gemneo Bioscience

Scottsdale-based Gemneo Bioscience has created a new immune-cell profiling technology that identifies each patient’s unique tumor signature and also identifies rogue cells that current technologies have not been able to detect. The technology will give physicians a more precise tool for effectively treating cancer and a host of other diseases.

GT Medical Technologies

GT Medical Technologies, a Mesa-based medical-device company, has developed an innovative approach to the treatment of brain tumors by combining a conformable collagen matrix with brachytherapy (radiation) seeds. The company’s first product, GammaTile, is protected by 10 issued U.S. patents and is available for investigative uses.

NanoCheq (formerly Vapometry Biolabs)

NanoCheq, formerly Vapometry Biolabs, of Phoenix analyzes the gases released by biological specimens to create accurate, cost-effective diagnostics for hospitals and consumers. The company’s flagship product is a diagnostic for sepsis, which affects over 1 million Americans every year, that diagnoses the disease within four hours—a four-to-tenfold improvement over the current standard of care.

TheraSpecs

Phoenix-based TheraSpecs manufactures and sells precision-tinted eyewear that helps people with more than 50 conditions, including migraines, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, autism spectrum disorders, and traumatic brain injuries. The lenses directly address light-triggering symptoms from fluorescent lighting, computer and device screens, or sunlight for those with conditions triggered or worsened by light.

TouchPoint Solution

The Scottsdale-based company’s flagship product, TouchPoints, is a neuroscience wearable that alleviates stress in as little as 30 seconds. A successful PTSD therapy component isolated into the patent-pending BLAST technology can reduce general stress, improve sleep and focus, enhance performance, reduce cravings, and help users manage anger by safely and non-invasively interfering with nervous-system reactivity.

2017

Biosensing Instrument

Biosensing Instrument is a Tempe-based company that designs high-sensitivity instruments to analyze molecular interactions based on Surface Plasmon Resonance, a technique used across the life sciences and nanotechnology applications.

BMSEED

BMSEED, or BioMedical Sustainable Elastic Electronic Devices, is a Phoenix-based company that develops commercial products based on stretchable gold films. The company focuses on products for biomedical applications that require soft and stretchable electronic interfaces with cells, tissue, or skin.

Iron Horse Diagnostics

Iron Horse Diagnostics, a Scottsdale-based company, is developing the first diagnostic test to rapidly determine if a patient has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The firm is also developing markers of disease progression to be used during clinical trials and a test to detect and monitor brain injury and concussion.

Phoenix Interface Technologies

Phoenix Interface Technologies of Tempe has developed a solar-powered device that serves as a platform to attract and eliminate destructive disease-causing and crop-damaging insects. The device uses five sensory outputs to attract specific insects while sparing beneficial ones.

Poba Medical

Poba Medical is a Flagstaff-based medical device company that provides engineering expertise in balloon design and development, device assembly, pilot manufacturing, and the production of catheter devices and intricate balloon assemblies.

Reglagene

Reglagene, a Tucson-based startup, uses a unique technology known as DNA quadruplex science to regulate genes as part of the drug-discovery process.

SMART Brain Aging

SMART Brain Aging is a Phoenix-based health-care technology company delivering research-supported programs, in person and virtually, that reduce cognitive decline in aging brains.

2016

AniCell Biotech

AniCell Biotech is a Chandler-based company that extends the active life of animals using a revolutionary treatment that can alleviate debilitating injuries through accelerated regeneration of tissue and bone. The treatment uses amnion growth factors and cellular components collected non-invasively during birth at zero risk to the animals.

bioSyntagma

bioSyntagma’s Light Stream FloCell is capable of extracting a single cell or bulk cells from a targeted area, facilitating the evolution of health care towards personalized medicine. The process developed by the Scottsdale-based company, formerly known as Omica Science, increases the overall quantity and quality of cellular material collected.

Breezing

Breezing has created the world’s first mobile metabolism tracker that measures an individual’s metabolism through breathing. The Tempe-based company tracks one’s metabolism over time and integrates with weight, activity, and dieting goals to provide customized feedback on reaching weight goals.

EpiFinder

EpiFinder’s proprietary app software enables neurologists to improve the consistency of seizure classification and the accuracy of epilepsy diagnosis. By providing quicker and more accurate diagnoses for a specific epilepsy syndrome, the Scottsdale-based EpiFinder reduces health-care costs for hospitals, enables doctors to provide personalized medicine, and helps to improve the quality of life of patients.

Neolight

Neolight uses phototherapy beds to cure jaundice in pre-term and full-term babies quickly and without side effects. The Scottsdale-based company developed a small and portable incubator with LEDs that provides quick treatment time, reduces the amount of parts needed, uses a small amount of power, and enables newborns to remain close to their mothers.

Symple Surgical

Symple Surgical’s DirectAblate Renal Denervation System is designed to help hundreds of millions of patients worldwide living with chronic hypertension, or high blood pressure, through a minimally invasive vascular procedure. The system developed by the Flagstaff-based company delivers microwave thermal energy directly to the precise location of overactive sympathetic nerves while minimizing thermal exposure to non-targeted tissue.

2015

EndoVantage

EndoVantage is building a virtual patient treatment planning center in which medical procedures are planned before treatment and medical devices are tested before patient exposure, in both cases dramatically improving patient care and reducing cost. The EndoVantage Interventional Suite (EVIS) utilizes real patient data to plan patient-specific endovascular treatments and review the outcomes before surgery using advanced mathematics, computer modeling, and mechanical and fluid dynamics.

NextPotential

NextPotential recycles CO2 emissions directly into natural gas. NextPotential can produce natural gas for less than half the market price in the United States using the patented photocatalyst that is activated directly by light, with no additional thermal or photovoltaic energy input. The product is a modular, turnkey unit that can be easily integrated with existing infrastructure to generate a low-cost, zero-carbon biofuel that can be re-used onsite.

Photon Medical Communications

Photon Medical Communications has a secure communications software system that enables hospital emergency room physicians to share vital patient information with on-call specialists in “real-time” utilizing unique, patent-pending “push-notification” technology. Photon provides a HIPAA-compliant way for hospitals to relay images and lab results using mobile devices. Physicians can respond with directions using text or the voice transcription tool.

Pollen-Tech

Pollen-Tech is developing a high-tech method to pollinate crops and reduce food growers’ dependence on standard bee pollination, which has become particularly important in light of the collapse of bee colonies around the world. The firm’s mission is to revolutionize agriculture by significantly improving food security in the United States and in countries around the world.

SIO2 Nanotech

SiO2 Nanotech has created an anti-fogging technology that solves the problem of lens fogging for high-precision medical instrumentation. The company’s product controls droplet formation, and thus fogging, by physically changing the way the surface responds to condensation and ensuring the surface remains transparent. The technology has also established demand within the sports, automotive, construction, and consumer-goods industries.

Verve Medical

Verve Medical is creating a medical device that uses radio frequency energy to stop certain nerves from causing high blood pressure. The technology is based on a non-surgical, non-invasive, low-risk, natural-orifice approach to Renal Denervation. The treatment is safe, bloodless and can be performed in an outpatient clinic or potentially an urologist’s office.

2014

Arbsource

Arbsource designs, builds and sells electricity-producing, wastewater treatment equipment to breweries, dairies, potato chip companies, and similar customers, solving the problem of using old, inefficient, and expensive on-site treatment systems and incurring high raw wastewater discharge fees from municipalities.

MSDx

MSDx is a diagnostics firm that provides novel biomarker tools for studying disease processes, including a blood test panel to monitor disease activity and therapeutic response to those individuals affected by Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease. These biomarkers may provide meaningful information that can aid in monitoring disease progression and response to drug therapy, predict an impending relapse, and facilitate drug development.

Pinnacle Transplant Technologies

Pinnacle Transplant Technologies is a multi-service tissue bank that processes donated cadaveric tissues for transplant into live human recipients. The company has also developed and is commercializing a demineralized bone matrix (DBM) putty that is used with bone extending and grafting.