A collaborative effort with University of Miami Miller School of Medicine aims to improve wound healing, recovery time, and patient quality of life

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BioAesthetics Corporation today announced that it has received a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I grant through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to further develop its platform technology of enhanced biologically derived grafts — capable of sustained drug delivery — to improve outcomes for third-degree burn survivors in collaboration with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. These grants are awarded with the objective of translating promising technologies to the private sector and enable life-saving innovations to reach consumer markets.

“Through the NIH I-CORPS grant, we will be able to receive user, patient, and physician feedback ensuring that we address the pain-points early on in product development”

Nearly half a million Americans are affected each year by burns requiring medical treatment, with nearly 40,000 patients needing to be hospitalized. Burn wounds have a long-lasting impact on health-related quality of life and affect both physical and mental health. The work under this grant aims to provide proof-of-concept that an acellular biologic graft infused with a drug delivery system — providing a sustained release of an anti-infective to the burn wound site — has the potential to reduce infection rates and act as a scaffold for skin regeneration, thus speeding wound healing and recovery.

“We are enthusiastic to collaborate with BioAesthetics on this grant to study the role of their novel biologically derived graft for burn wound healing. Having grafts with active agents that can accelerate healing and reduce infection are critical components in the development of successful therapies for wound care providers,” said Stephen Davis, Research Professor in the Dr. Phillip Frost Department of Dermatology & Cutaneous Surgery at the Miller School. Davis is the sub-awardee of the grant and will work on this collaboration with BioAesthetics along with his colleagues Carl Schulman, M.D., Ph.D., MSPH, FACS, Executive Dean for Research at the Miller School and expert in acute and reconstructive burn care, and Jie Li, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Dr. Phillip Frost Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery.

“We are incredibly excited about this grant and we are looking forward to the collaboration between the Miller School of Medicine and BioAesthetics,” said Nicholas C. Pashos, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of BioAesthetics. “The University of Miami has a well-established burn model that is essential to developing a graft for third-degree burns. Burn reconstruction is one of many indications where we believe our patent-pending platform technology of a drug delivery system within an acellular biologic graft has the potential to improve wound healing, recovery time, and patient quality of life.”

In conjunction with this STTR grant, BioAesthetics is also the recipient of an NIH I-CORPS grant — a mechanism through which companies conduct customer discovery research, complementary to the research grant, that is intended to help inform the company on end-users’ biggest challenges and pain-points to better ensure that the research grant is directed in an informative way.

“Through the NIH I-CORPS grant, we will be able to receive user, patient, and physician feedback ensuring that we address the pain-points early on in product development,” added Pashos.

Founded as a spin-out of Tulane University in New Orleans, BioAesthetics is now located in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and was recently honored as Best Medical Device Company through Triangle Business Journal’s Life Science Awards. For more information on BioAesthetics, please visit https://bio-aesthetics.com/.

About BioAesthetics: BioAesthetics Corporation is a biotechnology company focused on transforming lives through advancements in biomaterials. Its inaugural product is a tissue-engineered nipple-areolar complex graft (NACgraft™ biologic matrix) for patients who are undergoing breast reconstruction generally following breast cancer and mastectomy; the company is enrolling patients for its clinical study for the NACgraft. In addition, it has a product pipeline focused on acellular regenerative grafts for advanced wound and reconstructive care. BioAesthetics was founded as a spin-out of Tulane University in New Orleans, LA and is now located in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Fluence Analytics Closes New Financing Round and Business Collaboration Agreement with Yokogawa Electric Corporation

(Houston, TX) ‒ Fluence Analytics, the global leader in continuous polymer reaction monitoring and control, whose industry-leading ACOMP (Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization Reactions) device is the only commercially available system that continuously monitors and measures polymerization reactions in real-time, today announced the close of a venture funding round and new business collaboration agreement with Yokogawa Electric Corporation. In addition to signing the collaboration agreement, Yokogawa also participated in the $7.5M financing with other investors, including Energy Innovation Capital, Diamond Edge Ventures (CVC arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation), and JSR Corporation.

Yokogawa and Fluence Analytics announced that under the collaboration agreement they will work together to expand and accelerate the deployment of ACOMP systems to customers worldwide. Yokogawa will be Fluence Analytics’ exclusive distributor of ACOMP systems in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, including providing field engineering, sales, and system integration with customers.

Fluence Analytics will use the funds from the new financing to accelerate the design and production of its next-generation, industrial ACOMP, increasing its ability to reduce cycle times and eliminate the production of off-spec products. Specific ACOMP enhancements will include industrialization for hazardous locations, expanding the smart manufacturing system’s output of measurements, adding more analysis algorithms, and enhancing its data mining correlation framework. The company will also scale up production efforts, invest in sales and marketing, and increase personnel.

“Our team is very excited to add Yokogawa Electric as a strategic partner and investor. Yokogawa’s global leadership in measurement and process control technologies will be a major asset, enabling us to scale up operations, augment field engineering efforts, and expand our installed base throughout the world,” said Alex Reed, CEO of Fluence Analytics. “We look forward to working with Yokogawa as we facilitate the creation of next-generation materials and continue to improve efficiency, quality, yield and sustainability in polymer manufacturing.”

Kenji Hasegawa, a Yokogawa Electric vice president and head of the Yokogawa Products Headquarters, commented, “We have been supporting the petrochemical industry through the provision of measurement and control solutions. By cooperating with Fluence Analytics, we will be able to offer additional value in polymerization processes. We look forward to providing our customers with these new systems, which, in addition to benefiting health, safety, and the environment, will enable the reduction of cycle time, eliminate the production of off-spec products, and produce an estimated $1.5 million in cost savings per year based on average reactor size.”

About Fluence Analytics
Fluence Analytics delivers real-time industrial and laboratory analytics solutions to polymer manufacturers. The real-time data streams that are generated by the company’s products provide novel insights into material properties. This enables customers to optimize and control polymerization processes—leading to greater yields, improved product quality, and reduced cycle times. Current investors include Energy Innovation Capital, a premier energy technology venture firm, Diamond Edge Ventures (Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporate Venture), JSR Corporation, and Yokogawa Electric Corporation. Visit www.fluenceanalytics.com to learn more about the company’s solutions for real-time data acquisition and real-time optimization.

About Yokogawa
Yokogawa provides advanced solutions in the areas of measurement, control, and information to customers across a broad range of industries, including energy, chemicals, materials, pharmaceuticals, and food. Yokogawa addresses customer issues regarding the optimization of production, assets, and the supply chain with the effective application of digital technologies, enabling the transition to autonomous operations. Founded in Tokyo in 1915, Yokogawa continues to work toward a sustainable society through its 17,500 employees in a global network of 119 companies spanning 61 countries. For more information, visit www.yokogawa.com.

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MEDIA CONTACT

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Matt.Willard@fluenceanalytics.com