Founded in April 2014, ORIG3N is an interesting and innovative company that is developing the world’s largest uniformly consented blood cell repository, known as LifeCapsule. They are using these blood cells to produce patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The company also has two other business segments, called LifeProfile and LifeSystems. As a newcomer to the biotech industry, there has been a great deal of activity going on at the company, which you can read more about in this fascinating interview with James Lovgren, Chief Business Officer of ORIG3N.
In major news released today, ORIG3N now announced that it will be presenting at the upcomingJ.P. Morgan/Biotech Showcase and named three new board members, Tom Mac Mahon, George Hara, and Justin Xiang.
With permission from Cyanta Therapeutics, the full press release is included below.
BOSTON, Jan. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — For the second year in a row, ORIG3N Inc. will present at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Biotech Showcase in San Francisco, Jan. 11-13, 2016. ORIG3N is a biotechnology company based in Boston that is leading a transformation in the understanding and treatment of rare, genetically inherited diseases and is a pioneer in regenerative medicine.
At the conference, ORIG3N will launch its much-anticipated LifeSystems™ offering. This new business unit will leverage the company’s biorepository, LifeCapsule™, for disease modeling, drug development and potential therapeutic applications. LifeCapsule launched in 2015 and already contains a diverse set of thousands of samples including patients with a variety of genetically inherited diseases.
“The cellular models that we’ll create through LifeSystems will help researchers around the world accelerate the development of safer and more effective drugs,” said ORIG3N Chief Business Officer James Lovgren. “Patient-derived induced pluripotent stems cells offer researchers access to cell populations that are otherwise unavailable from living donors. Theses cells provide an ideal physiologically relevant model for drug efficacy screening and toxicity testing.
Biotech Showcase is the life sciences investor conference that runs parallel to the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Now going into its eighth year, Biotech Showcase has emerged as the key venue for small/mid-cap public companies and private companies to present to investors during this annual gathering for the healthcare community.
In December 2015, ORIG3N announced the close of a $12.5 million Series A financing from an investor syndicate co-led by Hatteras Venture Partners and Syno Capital, with DEFTA Partners, Harris + Harris Group, MGC Venture Partners and KTB-KORUS Fund also participating. The funding is being used to support the launch of LifeSystems.
New Board Members
Three new board members join existing members Douglas W. Jamison (Managing Director, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Harris + Harris Group), Jon Meltzer (Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, LabCorp), Clay B. Thorp (General Partner, Hatteras Venture Partners) and ORIG3N CEO and Co-Founder Robin Y. Smith. They are:
- Tom Mac Mahon, LabCorp Chief Executive Officer 1997-2006, Chairman 1997-2009. Mr. Mac Mahon previously served as Senior VP of Hoffman-La Roche and President of Roche Diagnostics Group where he pioneered the commercialization of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. Mr. Mac Mahon is the Lead Director of the Express Scripts Board of Directors, a member of the Boards of PharMerica Corporation, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics and several venture capital boards. Mr. Mac Mahonhas been cited by both Forbes Magazine and Harvard Business Review as one of the best performing CEOs in the world.
- George Hara, Chairman, DEFTA Partners. Mr. Hara is the founder and Group Chairman of DEFTA Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm active in IT and healthcare since the 1980s. He is internationally recognized as a visionary in the technology field and has invested in more than 100 innovative companies in the US, the UK, Israel, and Japan.
- Justin Xiang, PhD, Chief Investment Officer, Syno Capital. Dr. Xiang co-founded Syno Capital, a global cross-border biotech and healthcare investment firm that, among other forms of support, helps portfolio companies plan and build international expansions, especially with respect to China. In addition to his role with Syno Capital, Dr. Xiang serves as the Senior Advisor to Zhong An Online Insurance, the leading Chinese online insurance provider backed by Alibaba, Tencent and Ping An Insurance. Dr. Xiang is also on the Board of Cynvenio Biosystems, a next-gen LiquidBiopsy diagnostic company based in California.
“We are fortunate to have all three of these accomplished individuals joining our board,” said Robin Y. Smith. “Their significant experience across the fields of technology, healthcare services, biotechnology, in-vitro diagnostics, and biotech combine to provide a valuable asset to ORIG3N as we continue working toward our goals of securing additional financing and expanding our core business areas, especially our LifeCapsule bio-repository.”
About ORIG3N Inc.
ORIG3N is leading a transformation in the understanding and treatment of rare, genetically inherited diseases. We’ve established the world’s largest uniformly consented cell repository to better understand the cellular and molecular foundations of disease. The cells are ever-renewing and give rise to a living database of humanity we call LifeCapsule. Thousands of people have already contributed to advancing the future of healthcare—and to safeguarding their own future health. The founders are serial entrepreneurs whose previous venture, ArtusLabs, was acquired by PerkinElmer in 2011.
For more information, visit www.orig3n.com
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