The Innovation Accelerator is open for business.
Entrepreneurs in the regenerative medicine space can now experience support from the world’s first organization dedicated to advancing regenerative medicine manufacturing scale-up and automation – the RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO) – to speed up the translation of technologies to patients.
As two driving forces of the regenerative medicine field, ReMDO and its collaborating research partner, the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), have launched the Innovation Accelerator, which is housed in WFIRM’s space. This proximity provides access to state-of-the-art biomanufacturing equipment, industry expertise, and talent to support novel prototyping and commercial product development through its ReMDO Test Bed.
New tenants in the Innovation Accelerator include players in regenerative medicine and biotechnology. Moving from Research Triangle Park’s First Flight Center in Raleigh, the first tenant to sign is BioMedInnovations (BMI), a company that focuses on innovative technologies that work toward solutions for tissue and organ perfusion and preservation. Their reduced scale mobile platform, known as recove™, will help the medical field transport donor organs further and for longer to help more patients. BMI is seeking FDA clearance so it can begin to focus on the kidney transplant market.
“Joining the ReMDO Innovation Accelerator space in Winston-Salem has just enabled us to find collaboration, engage in the ReMDO Testbed with our devices, and to launch faster,” said Carrie DiMarzio, CEO of BMI. “We are learning and gaining feedback to improve our designs of these devices. Everything starts with learning and when we learn and work together, we’re all winning together.”
Anthony Atala, MD, director of WFIRM, said the new companies coming to the Innovation Accelerator represent a broad range of technologies, such as 3D printing, and cell and tissue therapies.
“We are excited to see the Innovation Accelerator officially launch. This endeavor helps us advance the regenerative medicine field nationally,” Atala added.
Gary Green, ReMDO’s Chief Operating Officer, said, “With support from WFIRM and many area businesses that support the regenerative medicine field in areas such as the production of reagents and diagnostics, we believe these companies can be successful in getting their technologies commercialized.”
The Innovation Accelerator is a key component of the established Regenerative Medicine Hub (RegenMed Hub), an ecosystem that brings together and draws upon the resources and talent available through the Innovation Quarter, and includes regenerative medicine focused entities dedicated to advancing the field nationwide. A number of regenerative medicine start-ups and established companies already operate in RegenMed Hub and the region, offering expansive resources for entrepreneurs and life science professionals.
BMI Media Contact: Mark Finlay, mfinlay@bmi.llc; 202-550-2120.
About the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine: The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is recognized as an international leader in translating scientific discovery into clinical therapies, with many world firsts, including the development and implantation of the first engineered organ in a patient. Over 400 people at the institute, the largest in the world, work on more than 40 different tissues and organs. A number of the basic principles of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine were first developed at the institute. WFIRM researchers have successfully engineered replacement tissues and organs in all four categories – flat structures, tubular tissues, hollow organs and solid organs – and 15 different applications of technologies, such as skin, urethras, cartilage, bladders, muscle, kidney, and vaginal organs, have been successfully used in human patients. The institute, which is part of Wake Forest School of Medicine, is located in the Innovation Quarter in downtown Winston-Salem, NC, and is driven by the urgent needs of patients. The institute is making a global difference in regenerative medicine through collaborations with over 400 entities and institutions worldwide, through its government, academic and industry partnerships, its start-up entities, and through major initiatives in breakthrough technologies, such as tissue engineering, cell therapies, diagnostics, drug discovery, biomanufacturing, nanotechnology, gene editing and 3D printing.
About the RegenMed Development Organization: The mission of the RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO) is to accelerate the discovery and translation of regenerative medicine therapies. ReMDO is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that manages a clinical translation initiative that includes thought leaders, representatives from leading US research centers, government representatives, and companies of all sizes. ReMDO conducts research to de-risk technologies and speed up the translation of regenerative medicine to clinical practice and to the global market. ReMDO manages the world’s first and only professional organization dedicated solely to advancing the regenerative medicine field, the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society (RMMS), and the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Innovation Consortium (RegMIC), which manages a private-public partnership of industry and academic members focused on scaling up technologies.
About the Innovation Quarter: Innovation Quarter (www.innovationquarter.com), home to iQ Labs, is a vibrant, mixed-use innovation district located in downtown Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Anchored by Wake Forest School of Medicine, Innovation Quarter is home to a community of more than 3,700 workers in 90 companies and four other institutions of higher learning where almost 1,800 degree-seeking students come to learn every day. In addition to more than 1,100 residential units, the Innovation Quarter also features a dynamic urban park, publicly accessible greenway and free community events that make this a true “Live.Work.Learn.Play” community.