No sharks in these waters! Harvard's Office of Technology Development and LabCentral invite you to the latest event in the Guppy Tank series, where two teams of Harvard life-science innovators will pitch their super-early-stage concepts to a panel of entrepreneurs and investors for constructive, in-depth feedback. This "episode" features projects from the labs of Lee Rubin and Joanna Aizenberg.

Please join us on Monday, June 24, from 4 to 6 p.m. to hear the presentations, learn from experts on startup formation, and participate in giving audience feedback. The event is accompanied by a networking reception. All are welcome!

Register Here

Pitches

Innovative ear tube implants for improved drug delivery

Ida Pavlichenko, PhD, Research Associate in Prof. Joanna Aizenberg’s lab at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

PionEar Technologies, a startup company emerging from the Aizenberg Lab, aims to advance the treatment of ear infections with minimally invasive ear tube implants that reduce microbial attachment and enable drug transport into the middle ear. The PionEar team is utilizing a novel technology from the Aizenberg lab to develop a new generation of easy-to-manufacture, customizable, liquid-infused ear tubes based on biocompatible materials that prevent cells, microbes, and biofluids from sticking to the surface, and provides a friction-free conduit for a more effective resolution of infection and targeted drug delivery to treat a broad spectrum of ear diseases.

Harnessing transcriptional profiles of the aging brain to develop novel therapeutics

Lee Rubin, PhD, Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University

The neuro-vasculature is well-known to be affected by aging and to be a key driver of degenerative changes in the brain. However, no attempts have been made to target it therapeutically. The Rubin Lab aims to develop a new class of therapeutics that act on brain vasculature to reverse the effects of aging, thereby improving neural function and behavior. The lab has performed single-cell transcriptomics on young and old mouse brains, and on old mouse brains after heterochronic parabiosis (which exposes old mice to factors circulating in young blood). This work provides a comprehensive list of genes and pathways that are dysregulated with aging across multiple individual cell types, providing an unprecedented level of detail in the aging brain. The results highlight many important molecular alterations underlying the aging process and determine which pathways can be reversed in aged brain cells, including the brain vasculature.