A Breakthrough Organ-Scale Biology Platform for Drug Development

OccamPoint® Webinar

Wednesday, March 27 1:00 - 2:00 PM PST / 4:00 - 05:00 PM EST
OccamPoint webinar is an interactive platform featuring breakthroughs in pharmaceutical and medical device development.
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Host

Julia Varshavsky, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO, OccamPoint

Speaker

Frank Lau, MD, FACS
CEO & Co-Founder, Keliomics

Sponsored By

Presentation Abstract

Organ-scale biology is defined as physiologically faithful systems that capture the structure, function, and composition of real human tissues. The NIH and FDA have funded  programs to develop organ-scale biology platforms as a means of addressing critical challenges in the drug development pipeline. However, older solutions such as organoids and on-a-chip systems cannot engineer the cellular composition of tissues, let alone the full structure, function, and patient-specific heterogeneity of human tissues. Keliomics’ technology leapfrogs current technologies by maintaining primary human tissues alive ex vivo for a minimum of 8 weeks. In this presentation, CEO Dr. Frank Lau, MD, FACS, will highlight the competitive advantages that biopharmaceutical companies can gain by incorporating Keliomics’ ex vivo organs and tumors into preclinical efficacy testing and biomarker/companion diagnostic development.

Dr. Lau previously co-founded two medical education SaaS companies, with a successful exit in 2018 when Firecracker was acquired by international publisher Wolters Kluwer Wolters. He earned his Bachelor’s in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics from Yale, and his M.D. with Research Honors from the University of Michigan. He has completed his plastic & reconstructive surgery residency and a stem cell research fellowship at Harvard.

About Keliomics:
Keliomics is an emerging biotechnology company whose breakthrough platform for organ-scale biology preserves the full composition, structure, and function of primary human tissues for drug development. Its initial product categories are 1) ex vivo adipose tissues, including lean vs. obese, subcutaneous, visceral, and peri-organ depots; and 2) ex vivo tumors (EVTs) that leapfrog current technologies by growing tumors in donated human tissues: for example, "breast cancer in human breast tissue". The resulting EVTs have key clinical characteristics including T1-T4 tumor stage, adjuvant vs. neoadjuvant states, obesity status, menopausal status, and patient-specific responses to treatment. This groundbreaking technology generates human data before human testing, thereby helping biopharmaceutical companies achieve preclinical certainty when selecting efficacious assets to advance into the clinic. Keliomics has raised $2.5 million of a $7 million seed round and has pilot studies/collaborations with leading cancer labs at Duke, UT Southwestern, UC Berkeley, Tulane, LSU, and Legacy Health.