A startup created by University of California-Irvine alumni who created a device to treat diabetic foot ulcers with stem cells received a grant for $300,000. The funds will enable Syntr Health Technologies to continue research and development. The grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Innovation Research Grant Program is through the National Institutes of Health.
Diabetes affects over 29 million Americans, roughly 10% of the population, who spend $245 billion annually on treatments, including foot ulcers, according to Syntr. Up to 25% of diabetic patients carry a lifetime risk of developing a foot ulcer that could lead to amputation.
Irvine-based Modulated Imaging is also in the space, having created a medical device that can screen the risk of diabetics for developing foot ulcers.
Syntr is a member of UCI Applied Innovation’s Wayfinder incubator, in The Cove’s collaborative workspace. Applied Innovation is UCI’s innovation center.
The Syntr team was formed by a group of engineering students from the BioENGINE undergraduate senior design class. Derek Banyard, a research fellow in the Center for Tissue Engineering in the department of plastic surgery at UCI Medical Center, partnered with the team, and they founded the company in July 2016. The BioENGINE program is a part of the Bridging Innovation Gaps initiative at Applied Innovation, which seeks to help promising UCI research get to market.
Zobi, a recent UCI graduate, said the synergy of The Cove helped the company get off the ground.
“Throughout our senior design class, we learned via workshops at the Cove at UCI how to pitch, create effective [presentations], and prepare for investor meetings,” he said.
The Small Business Innovation Research program is highly competitive and encourages small businesses to do federal research and development that has the potential for commercialization, according to Applied Innovation.
The foundation of Syntr’s core product is based on technology developed at the Center for Advanced Design & Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics, a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. The technology was first conceived and introduced to the BioENGINE program through a collaborative effort by UCI’s School of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Tissue Engineering.
Firm Nabs Chapman Client
A company that won the first episode of a “Shark Tank”-like game for university-based startups at Chapman University has been selected by the school to power its newest technology initiative. Ulyngo will underpin Chapman’s Student Marketplace, which will enable students to buy and sell in a safe and secure environment. The startup won “The Raise,” which filmed its debut episode in April 2016 at Chapman’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts. The show has since gone on hiatus.
Alex Jekowsky, a former Chapman student at the Argyros School of Business and Economics, founded Ulyngo, which creates online platforms for schools and universities. He left Chapman after his sophomore year to pursue Ulyngo full time. Last year, he won the regional round of the Entrepreneur’s Organization’s Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in Orange County. The awards are based in Alexandria, Va.
The platform for Chapman is accessed through the school’s website and mobile app. It’s a Chapman initiative, with Ulyngo providing the technology, Jekowsky said.
Schools pay a per-student usage fee for Ulyngo. The company also applies a 5% transaction fee to every completed purchase and shares a portion of the revenue with universities.
The company projects that each school will begin to make money off Ulyngo’s marketplace by the second year, Jekowsky said.
Another school launching with Ulyngo is California State University-Northridge, Jekowsky said. The company is in the midst of deals and launches with other schools in the CSU system, as well as schools around the country.
Ulyngo was founded in 2015 and moved its headquarters to San Francisco last year.
Vape Co. Grows
A San Clemente vape startup said it would expand into national convenience store chains, growing from its current 4,000 stores to 10,000 by year-end and 25,000 stores by the end of next year. Space Jam Juice LLC’s e-liquid products are available in vape and smoke shops nationally, as well as at online retailers.Â
Recent developments have pointed to the “quality of life” benefits of vaping versus smoking cigarettes, according to Space Jam Chief Executive Officer Danny Peykoff. The expansion is based on customer demand for the product and convenience stores seeing the increasing revenue they were passing up to vape shops and online stores, he added. In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a new comprehensive plan for tobacco and nicotine regulation that will serve as a multiyear roadmap to better protect children and reduce tobacco-related disease and death, according to a company news release. Space Jam was founded in 2012 by two smokers who were dissatisfied with the vaping flavors available and decided to make their own. Mike Crawford and Aaron Pederson started creating their own e-liquid flavors in Pederson’s garage in Costa Mesa. Five years later, Space Jam Juice moved its headquarters to San Clemente, grew to employ more than 60 people, and distributes products nationwide and exports globally.
The private company doesn’t disclose its financials.
Its products are manufactured in Southern California.
