Boryung, an investment and management company, Axiom Space, the world’s leading commercial space station company, and Starburst Aerospace, the leading global aerospace and defense startup accelerator and strategic advisory practice, have officially announced the six startup winners of the inaugural Care In Space (CIS) Challenge.
Hosted by Boryung in collaboration with Axiom Space and Starburst Aerospace, the CIS Challenge aims to advance the future of space health and the next generation of pharmaceutical, bioscience, and medtech development in space. The first of its kind, the program is positioned to accelerate the development of space health and health-adjacent solutions to increase access to space, solve human healthcare-related problems in space, and create novel healthcare solutions in space for terrestrial use.
Space health encompasses all stages of the ‘Healthcare Journey’— from initial monitoring and diagnosis, to treatment, therapeutics, and continuing care. The CIS Challenge leverages the extreme conditions of space to drive innovation and build viable, scalable companies at the intersection of commercial space and biomedical science. The annual challenge supports early-stage entrepreneurs and their startups as they develop revolutionary solutions and technologies that will allow for extended life and travel in space as well as the manufacturing of advanced health treatments to be built in space for use on Earth.
August 4, 2022, was the first annual CIS Challenge Pitch Day at UCLA. Finalists selected from the initial application process had the opportunity to pitch their solutions to aerospace, bioscience, and bio/medtech industry experts who assessed entrepreneurial acumen, scientific merit, business model viability, and overall feasibility in order to choose winners.
The six founders and their startups are awarded an equity investment of $100K, admission into the Care In Space 13-week accelerator program mainly operated by Starburst to help bring their ideas to fruition, and the unique opportunity to receive mentoring directly from Axiom. The winners will gain access to Axiom’s integration team, which has successfully flown dozens of payloads to the International Space Station. This mentorship helps to prepare these startups for on-orbit research and manufacturing and to address the critical challenges we face with extended periods of space travel and habitation. The winners will also benefit from a large network of biomedical and aerospace industry leaders, academic labs, startups, and investors at the global scale.
The CIS accelerator cohort launched on September 12, 2022, and it will conclude with a CIS Challenge Demo Day at the beginning of December 2022, during which teams will showcase their progress to investors.
The 2022 Care In Space Challenge Winners are Advanced TeleSensors, Deep Space Biology, Myelin-H, Nano PharmaSolutions, ViBo Health, and Xtory.
Advanced TeleSensors builds a Non-Intrusive Cardiac Monitor for Remote Patient Monitoring. Led by Sajol Ghoshal (CEO & President) and Eric Farrell, M.D. (Chief Medical Officer), the ATS team provides touchless, non-intrusive, continuous, real-time cardiac and respiration monitoring by using radar to sense the patient’s vital signs, which eliminates the issues with wearable devices, customer discomfort, and other concerns. Learn more about Advanced TeleSensors at www.cardio.io
Deep Space Biology develops an AI-Driven Platform for Biological Discoveries in Space. Led by Montana Bilger (Co-Founder), Michael Boerrigter (Co-Founder), Guillermo Delgado Aparicio (Co-Founder) and Kimberly Washington (Executive Vice President), Deep Space Biology’s platform aims to accelerate the scientific discovery of unknown and unforeseen biological relationships that may aid or hinder human space exploration by providing proactive identification of adverse health outcomes faced by space crews. Learn more about Deep Space Biology at www.deepspace.bio
Myelin-H works on the Development of Neuromorphic Software for Terrestrial and Space Health. Led by Zied Tayeb (Co-Founder), Samaher (Co-Founder) and Othman Baraka (Co-Founder), Myelin-H’s goal is to accelerate medical research on brain diseases and support hospitals and doctors by providing an intelligent processing engine to interpret complex biosignals and indicate the right treatment for patients suffering from various neurological disorders. Learn more about Myelin-H at www.myelinh.com
Nano PharmaSolutions is Improving Drug Solubility Through Nano-Formulation. Led by Kay Olmstead, Ph.D., MBA (CEO), Sam Koh, Ph.D. (CTO), Saeyeon Lee, MS, PMP (COO) and Mahdi Trish Lady, MBA, CPA (CFO), the team at NanoPharma Solutions is supporting the bioavailability of insoluble drugs by generating drug nanoparticles using physical vapor deposition (PVD) nanocoating method without using any chemicals or solvent. Learn more about Nano PharmaSolutions at www.nanopharmasolutions.com
ViBo Health is designing Personalized Predictive Healthcare using Smart Health Tracking. Led by Gil Travish, Ph.D. (CEO & Co-Founder), Ronald C. Stone, CPA (CFO) and Michael Corrigan (Strategy & Business Development), ViBo Health is democratizing Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) from a research clinical tool into a table-top multi-metabolite scanner to help patients track their health with actionable guidance provided on a dashboard. Learn more about ViBo Health at www.vibo.health
Xtory is Enhancing Human Performance through Extended Reality (XR) and Interactive Storytelling. Led by Mahdi Ebnali (Co-Founder), Roger D. Dias (Co-Founder), Rodrigo Cerqueira (Co-Founder) and Mahdi (Ehsan) Nabiyouni (Co-Founder), the Xtory platform, which is dedicated towards professionals working in high-stress, psychologically challenging environments like astronauts and clinicians, devises solutions for more efficient training using immersive stories and real-time decision support. Learn more about Xtory at www.xtory.io
As opportunities for space exploration and commerce expand, the CIS Challenge is set to support critical developments that will make space accessible and safe for all of humanity. To learn more about Care In Space and how to apply to future rounds of the challenge, please visit: www.careinspace.com
About Boryung
Boryung contributes to the progress and development of the pharmaceutical industry by embodying the spirit of interdependence and is committed to human health. Accordingly, we strive to realize the company’s vision of becoming a “Lifetime Care Company”. Boryung pursues the “achievement of interdependence based on humanism” and participates in various corporate philanthropic activities. Furthermore, we aim to become a global company, not by becoming content, but by continuously innovating and transforming. More information about Boryung can be found at www.boryung.com
About Axiom Space
Axiom Space is guided by the vision of a thriving home in space that benefits every human, everywhere. The leading provider of human spaceflight services and developer of human-rated space infrastructure, Axiom operates end-to-end missions to the International Space Station today while privately building its successor, Axiom Station, the first permanent commercial destination in Earth’s orbit that will sustain human growth off the planet and bring untold benefits back home. More information about Axiom can be found at www.axiomspace.com
About Starburst
Starburst is an innovation catalyst in the aerospace industry. They are the first and only global aerospace accelerator, connecting startups with corporates, investors and government, while providing strategic growth and investment consulting services for all. With offices in Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, Singapore, Seoul, Tel Aviv, and Madrid, the team has built an ecosystem of key players with 15000+ startups in its network. Starburst’s accelerator program helps startups scale their business in aviation, space, and defense with access to the largest group of corporate stakeholders to help startups win their first contracts. More information about Starburst can be found at www.starburst.aero
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