Transplantation Archives - Page 11 of 19

Driving visions, actions, impact, and collaborations within biotech & life science to discover new opportunities and to develop better treatment opportunities. Entrepreneur, focusing on helping transplant patients live their life again. Synklino strives to provide rapid relief as well as to improve long term survival for transplant recipients by providing fast and safe eradication of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections. Synklino’s drug candidate SYN002 efficiently eliminates both lytic as well as latently infected cells, and thereby potently inhibits viral replication and eradicates the virus – simply taking CMV out of the equation for the transplant recipient.

“I am always working to build and develop the strongest team, for what we are about to accomplish – focusing on our ability to execute our ambitious plans. At the same time relations to people, and working with committed, courageous, and skilled people is the greatest single motivating factor”.

Rory is a Preclinical Scientist at Ochre Bio’s New York based lab, where he focuses on deep phenotyping perfused human livers. A physiologist by training, Rory’s PhD research involved identifying key proteins involved in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease development. This led him to a postdoc at the National Cancer Institute, studying how hepatic mitochondrial dynamics are perturbed during the onset of liver disease. Rory originally hails from Galway in Ireland, before coming to the US for graduate school in 2014 to complete his MS at Central Michigan University, and PhD at the University of Missouri.

NEW YORK and NORTH CAROLINA, September 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Lyfebulb, a patient-empowerment platform that connects patients with industry experts to support user-driven innovation, and Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, a fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company, are pleased to announce 10 finalists for the 2022 “Transforming Organ Transplantation Through Innovation” Challenge.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Lyfebulb and are encouraged by the tremendous response to the Innovation Challenge, and the solutions our finalists have developed for this unique patient population,” says Mark Hensley, CEO of Veloxis, an Asahi Kasei company. “Veloxis shares their collective energy and dedication to the transplant community, as we continue to invest in solving the many unmet needs that remain in transplantation.”

The finalists, who were co-selected by the Lyfebulb and Veloxis Pharmaceuticals teams, have brought forward promising innovations to improve the lived-experience and outcomes for transplant recipients and their loved ones. The potential impact on patients and their care partners, as well as the feasibility and sustainability of innovations in the market, were considerations in the selection of the following finalists:

Isabel Portero, MD, PhD, CEO and founder, Biohope Scientific Solutions for Human Health
Rory Cunningham, PhD, pre-clinical scientist, Ochre Bio
Dalton Shaull, CEO and founder, OmniLife Health
Thomas Kledal, PhD, co-founder and CEO, Synklino A/S
Genevieve Springer, PhD, founder and CEO, Organ-AI
Nick Housby, PhD, co-founder and CEO, Accunea Ltd.
Joseph Scalea, MD, co-founder and CMO, MediGO, Inc.
Chet Bennett, founder and CEO, C Alan Foundation
Sharyn Kreitzer, founder & executive director, Donor Outreach for Veterans, Corp. (DOVE)
Patricia Scheetz, founder & CEO, The Sweetest Gift

“We are very excited about the diverse group of finalists that we’ve selected to work towards bringing innovation to transplantation,” said Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD, founder and CEO at Lyfebulb. “They have already shown strength in their commitment and creativity, and we are looking forward to the impact that their work will make on patients and care-givers everywhere.”

The finalists will be joined by industry leaders spanning business, venture capital and health care industries for a two-day summit in Cary, N.C. Each finalist will present their solutions to an expert panel of judges on October 13-14, 2022. The judges include:

Mark Hardy, MD, PhD (Hon), FACS, Auchincloss Professor of Surgery, Director Emeritus and founder of Transplantation Program at Columbia New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Shelby Hansen, transplant recipient, Lyfebulb patient ambassador and health coach
Howard Kim, MD, managing director, corporate venture capital at Asahi Kasei America
Glenda Roberts, director, external relations and patient engagement at UW Kidney Research Institute/Center for Dialysis Innovation; chief strategy and operations officer – Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Center
Greg Lewis, president and managing partner at Calcium

Prizes will be awarded to two finalists to further grow their companies. The Innovation Award will be presented to a for-profit company and include a $25,000 monetary grant. The Impact Award will be presented to a not-for-profit company and include a $15,000 monetary grant.

To learn more about the Lyfebulb-Veloxis Innovation Challenge, visit Lyfebulb.com.

Veloxis Pharmaceuticals

Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, an Asahi Kasei company, is a fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company committed to improving the lives of transplant patients. Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, Veloxis is focused on the global development and commercialization of medications utilized by transplant patients and by patients with serious related diseases. For further information, please visit Veloxis.com.

About Asahi Kasei

The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to life and living for people around the world. Since its foundation in 1922 with ammonia and cellulose fiber business, Asahi Kasei has consistently grown through the proactive transformation of its business portfolio to meet the evolving needs of every age. With more than 40,000 employees around the world, the company contributes to sustainable society by providing solutions to the world’s challenges through its three business sectors of Material, Homes, and Healthcare. Its healthcare operations include devices and systems for acute critical care, dialysis, therapeutic apheresis, transfusion, and manufacture of biotherapeutics, as well as pharmaceuticals and diagnostic reagents. For further information, please visit Asahi-Kasei.com.

About Lyfebulb

Lyfebulb is an innovation accelerator that bridges the gap between patient communities and the healthcare industry by working directly with patients and care partners to generate insights and build new solutions to reduce the burden of living with chronic disease. The company operates two digital patient communities, TransplantLyfe and IBDLyfe. For more information, visit Lyfebulb.com, TransplantLyfe.com, IBDLyfe.com, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Karin Hehenberger’s personal LinkedIn.

For more information:

Veloxis Contact:

Caroline Barnhill
Oak & State Communications
919.244.1130
caroline@oak-state.com

Lyfebulb Contact:
Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD
CEO & Founder, Lyfebulb
Phone: + 1 917-575-0210
Email: karin@lyfebulb.com

This is the Lyfebulb CVS kidney care innovation challenge fireside chat. This innovation challenge highlighted the sparking of innovation and care to improve quality of life with people with kidney disease. Significant inequalities exist in kidney care and poor prognosis from the diagnosis point as well as transplant access – the gold standard for care – are common. Patient education for those living with kidney disease remains scant and spotty.

This panel includes Dr. Jesse Roach, a key thought leader representing nephrology at CVS kidney care, Jennifer Miller, an executive in CVS kidney care and a judge of the challenge, the winner, Dalton Shaull, CEO of Omni Life, as well as honorable mention, Sharron Rouse, who developed Kindness for Kidneys, a movement aimed at improving education and equity for kidney warriors.

CVS sponsored this innovation challenge to highlight healthcare inequality in the United States. 35% of people with renal end stage disease are BIPOC. They are 1.3 times more likely to develop kidney disease and 40% less likely to receive a transplant or home dialysis. Some inequalities are due to social determinants of health, like diminished access to technology. Finalists were chosen whose innovations support underserved communities and assist patients find resources and improve their care.

The leaders of each company are personally associated with kidney disease. They are either patients or care partner – for them, the commitment is personal. There were ten wonderful finalists, all of whom represented diverse solutions to address diagnostic, treatment, and support issues. They were asked, how each innovation addresses an unmet need while proving market feasibility and proof of concept.

OmniLife, the challenge winner, is a care provider collaboration tool designed to improve patient care in transplantation and organ failure. It leverages the provider network to increase access to transplant. A clinical decision support tool that analyzes how centers are evaluating patients for transplant is included. This care coordination tool also includes mobile access to track where a patient is at in their journey.

With the monetary award, OmniLife plans to release a patient referral app. Understanding the organ review process is vital to patient transparency in the care continuum, educating patients on how, and by whom, organ offer decisions are made. In transplantation, there is a surgeon-led intake service that reviews the kidney offer. This software would assist how AI and data is leveraged to optimize kidney allocation decisions. Additionally, in the evaluation and listing process, this transparency ensures that patients with the greatest need are at first in line.

The honorable mention winner, Sharron Rouse, is a kidney transplant recipient who publicly shares her transplant experience. During her transplant process she saw a need for greater community connectedness to expand conversation with others. On her fifth kidney anniversary, she founded Kindness for Kidneys, whose goals are providing education, resources, encouragement, and empowerment so patients can actively partner with their healthcare teams.

CVS strives to put the patients’ needs first and meeting the patient where they are. There can be wonderful solutions to patients’ needs but, if those solutions never reach the patients; it’s an exercise in futility. Initial evaluative efforts shone a light on those innovations with the greatest potential to increase connectedness. Within this award process, there were so many connections made within finalists. No one person or organization knows it all; it takes team-based approaches and collaborative thinking to ensure innovation and representation. That is how equitable healthcare becomes possible for everyone.

Lyfebulb, in partnership with Columbia University, presents a virtual education series, sponsored by Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, to address key topics of living from late-stage disease through the transplantation process and beyond. Providing informative patient education is key to improving the patient experience, health communications, and health outcomes.

This session discusses an overview of identifying the gaps and unmet needs in innovation, and although science is on the verge of significant advancement, efforts are needed in advocacy, regulatory and financial strategies, and formalizing observational studies to trigger innovation, funding, and research.

What Areas Are Being Addressed?

Some particular areas in transplantation where there exist unmet needs are antibody mediation and inhibiting antigen development, as these are common causes of organ rejection, and for which there are no preventative or treatment therapeutics available. Transplant medications for suppressing the immune system are far from perfect, often causing numerous side effects and long term, almost inevitable organ rejection. Medications that can effectively offset these two significant issues are desperately needed. Delayed graft function, the condition in which the transplanted kidney doesn’t work immediately, occurring in about 20-50% of deceased donor kidneys, requires patients to be on dialysis after the transplant for some time. This significantly affects quality of life and there is an unmet need for prevention of this issue as well.

From an industry perspective, the areas of focus for transplant innovation fall into the categories of incremental improvements in daily quality of life, including developing less toxic immunosuppressives, less frequent dosing requirements, and fewer and less severe rejection episodes. Immunological innovations are another area of focus, with the developments in better organ matching through the use of genetic testing, machine perfusion to allow for the organ to be outside the body for long for better testing and diagnostic, and lastly, the expanded use of non-human/xenotransplants using stem cells and 3D organ printing.

What Are the Hurdles in Transplantation Research?

There exist numerous hurdles in conducting research in the transplant population. From drug developers’ perspectives, transplant patients typically have various health issues and there is concern about the inclusion of transplant patients skewing data to affect the approval of a drug for a larger patient market. Often, once a drug is approved for other indications, the research in transplant stops, especially when transplant is not the pharmaceutical companies primary target. For this reason, transplant drugs are often used off-label for transplant patients. Since drug companies want to also recoup costs of research and development, drug prices are quite expensive, so insurance companies don’t want to pay for off-label use.

There are regulatory hurdles as well in developing and then getting validated surrogate endpoints approved. There are appreciable opportunities here, for example, currently the focus for measuring the success of a drug is on the rate of rejection and patient survival but rate of kidney function loss is a more precise endpoint to be measured.

How Can A Patient Contribute to Research in Transplantation?

From a collaborative advocacy perspective, transplants occur as a result of a variety of diseases, so many patients are associated with the disease they had before transplant, yet they don’t have those diseases anymore so there isn’t a “home” community for the transplant community. This makes advocacy as one group pushing for innovation, policy change, and funding that much more difficult. Nonetheless, patient advocacy is important, for unmet needs and public campaigns make a difference for early research which leads to innovative therapies down the road.

A focus on developing what are called enrichment trials, allows more information and research to be gathered from a population that did benefit from the drug, even if the drug didn’t meet its endpoints in trials. In addition, giving companies or academic institutions grants to do exploratory studies using a drug that may be approved for another indication, could be beneficial in transplant. However, overall, pulling a drug from another indication won’t be a huge innovation as they still have similar side effects and transplant rejection rates.

Listen to the full webinar and learn more about these conversations and information about life with transplant. This, and future webinars can be found on transplantLyfe.com.

Panelists

Dr. Llyod Ratner, Chief of Kidney Transplantation at Columbia
Dr. David Cohen, Medical Director of Transplantation Service
Dr. Syed Husain, Transplant Nephrologist
Kevin Kovaleski, Pharmaceutical Industry Expert

Moderators

Mark Hardy, Professor of Surgery at Columbia University
Dr. Karin Hehenberger, CEO of Lyfebulb and Visiting Associate Researcher at Columbia

Greg Lewis has over 21 years of working in the pharmaceutical marketing sector at large global agencies as well as small boutique shops. In 2019, he joined Calcium as President and Managing Partners – prior roles included Managing Partner at WPP’s Grey Health Group and President at Havas Health and You.

With a range of experience from biologics to toothpaste, and from large DTC-launched brands to specialty products, he has a keen understanding of the fundamentals needed to drive brand growth in today’s marketplace. He has acted as an integrated world-wide team lead on large global brands for J&J, Pfizer, and Bayer, yet he understands the nuances of becoming a trusted partner at more agile and entrepreneurial client organizations.

Greg has led multiple cross-functional marketing launches and campaigns including all on- and off-line professional promotion, medical education, pharmacy outreach, PR and DTC efforts. He likes to connect the dots and has served in lead integration roles as a Brand Chemist for JNJ’s anti-TNF Golimumab, a US Team Leader for Boehriger Ingelheim and as a Global Brand Leader over-seeing Pfizer’s Hematology portfolio.

Greg received a dual degree in marketing communications and political science from Villanova University. He has taken executive classes at the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth and the Harvard Business School. In 2017 and 2020, he was recognized as a Transformational Leader by PM360 and in 2020 was named as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People by Pharma Voice. He sits on two non-profit boards and lives in Mt Lakes, NJ with his wife and 5 children.

Howard is a Managing Director and focuses on healthcare investments at Asahi Kasei, a diversified conglomerate based in Tokyo. A physician by training, Howard has over 20 years of experience investing in innovative public and private healthcare companies. Prior to Asahi Kasei, he was an investor at Hambrecht and Quist Capital (a leading healthcare fund) and Advent International (one of the largest global private equity firms). His early career includes time at The Advisory Board Company and Goldman Sachs.

Howard received his AB in Economics from Harvard University where he was a member of the Varsity Tennis Team. He then received his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine. Howard lives in the Boston area with his wife and three children.

An Interview with Chet Bennett, our community manager Alisha sat down with Chet to talk about changing the world.

When I interview people for these articles, the focus of conversation is mostly about their lives, and I take the role of a viewer in the retelling of their story. When I spoke with business man Chet Bennett, I was pleasantly surprised when he began asking me about my life. A welcome change and a great introduction to a man who brings this friendly energy to all his relationships!

Chet is the founder and CEO of Bennett Career Institute: a barber and cosmetology school located in the heart of Washington, DC. An alumnus of Morehouse College with a master’s degree from Howard University, Chet has over thirty combined years working in the beauty industry. He started in a tiny salon, a college educated grad, for seven dollars an hour back in 1992 at the encouragement of his pastor, and the rest was history. The Bennett Career Institute opened its doors in 1996, a family business with a desire to educate the next generation (of beauticians, cosmetologists, aestheticians, etc). Being a beauty school that worked primarily with financially disadvantaged individuals, Chet realized one of the barriers to education involved childcare. Thus Bennett Babies was born: a quality childcare facility created to serve students of the Bennett Career Institute that has since evolved into serving the greater Washington metropolitan area.

This story alone is a successful one, but this was only the beginning for Chet. He seemingly had it all: running his own businesses, speaking at engagements, and hosting a radio program. He also had kidney disease that, without a transplant, would ultimately have proven fatal.

Chet describes his diagnosis as shocking, but not surprising. He had high blood pressure, and diabetes. His initially-prescribed diabetes treatment induced gout, ultimately resulting in kidney failure. His doctors warned him this was the path he would go down without a diet change and lifestyle overhaul. An innocuous-enough stomach ache prompted Chet to book an appointment with his primary care doctor, who diagnosed him with kidney failure, and soon he learned he required dialysis to live.

“As a motivational speaker and radio show host, I felt like I failed,” says Chet. He recalled the memory of slinking into dialysis, hiding from anyone who might know who he was, feeling an intense amount of shame around the need for dialysis and a kidney transplant. “I didn’t want people to know Mr. Bennett was vulnerable,” he said.

While waiting for a transplant, Chet had an epiphany. If God gave him the opportunity, if he received a transplant, he would do everything in his power to change the way people look at kidney disease. After a year on dialysis, a donor was found and he received his long awaited kidney transplant, and entered into the next phase of his life.

From this place, the Kidney Kafé was born. What started out as an online talk show turned into a line of seasonings and spices, all with the focus of teaching kidney and dialysis patients how to nourish themselves through food. “So much of our diet is centered on sodium, especially in African American communities,” Chet explained. “And I wanted to show people that flavor can be achieved in other ways.”

With a target audience of 18-30 year olds, Kidney Kafé not only taught people how to cook but provided a jumping-off point for conversations surrounding health and wellness.

His innovation didn’t stop there, and Chet moved into launching the C. Alan Men’s Grooming Salon. The salon is an upscale, modern establishment targeted at men, who are often overlooked in the beauty and self-care industry, not only aspiring to make one look better, but also feel better.

“We want to make the customer feel amazing, special,” Chet said. Kidney disease, dialysis, and body changes can take a huge toll on a person mentally and emotionally, and the need for a safe space where people could come and be taken care of was huge. At the salon you’ll find everything from basic grooming to detoxes curated to what Chet himself needed while undergoing treatment to male units created to combat post-transplant hair loss.

“When you look better, you feel better,” said Chet, “and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Chet hasn’t slowed down in being an advocate for the kidney disease and transplantation communities, and I asked him if he had a chance to talk to himself prior to his diagnosis, what he would say. He told me, “I should have become more of a health advocate.” Knowledge is power, and when you’re able to identify problems earlier, an entire world of options and treatment opens up. Men, particularly African American men, avoid medical visits for fear of what they might find, and this avoidance can create long term problems.

“If I’m not good for Chet, I’m not good for anyone,” he said. “You have to be mature and responsible enough to take that initiative and take care of yourself.”

Chet Bennett personifies, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Even with everything on his plate, this is only the beginning for Chet.

You can find the Kidney Kafé, Kidney Conversations, and everything Chef Benne at kidney-kafe.com

For the shop, speaking engagements, and events, check out calanlifestyle.com

His YouTube channel is Kidney Kafé Chef Benne or you can find him on Instagram @chefbenne_kidneykafe or @chetbeautykingbennett

NEW YORK and CARY, N.C., July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Lyfebulb, a patient-empowerment platform that connects patients with industry experts to support user-driven innovation, and Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, an Asahi Kasei, fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company, invite entrepreneurs to apply to their “Transforming Organ Transplantation Through Innovation” Challenge.

The Lyfebulb-Veloxis Innovation Challenge is seeking a wide range of solutions to improve lived-experience and outcomes for individuals affected by transplant:

Treatments, methods and/or procedures
Diagnostics, patient monitoring and/or services
System-wide improvements to care
Advancements in health equity
Improvements to quality of life

“Transplantation is a complex medical, surgical, and mental process that not only gives the recipient a new take on life, but also brings new challenges that need to be addressed personally and understood by society. Living life post-transplant should not mean hiding from activities you loved before your diagnosis, nor should it lead to the need for additional medical procedures. Through this Innovation Challenge, we encourage entrepreneurial thinkers globally to bring us concepts, services and products that will allow patients, care partners and donors to thrive,” said Dr. Karin Hehenberger, CEO and Founder of Lyfebulb.

Selected applicants will receive an invitation to pitch their business ventures to an expert panel of judges composed of healthcare industry, medical and patient leaders over the course of a two-day summit at Veloxis’ headquarters in Cary, N.C. on October 13-14, 2022. Prizes will be awarded to two finalists to further grow their companies. The Innovation Award will be presented to a for-profit company and includes a $25,000 monetary grant. The Impact Award will be presented to a not-for-profit company and includes a $15,000 monetary grant. Additionally, Veloxis Pharmaceuticals may consider possible partnerships or investment opportunities with finalists beyond the challenge.

In addition to the pitch competition, finalists will have the opportunity to engage with representatives from the patient community, industry, Lyfebulb and Veloxis through workshops, learning hubs and informal networking.

“At Veloxis, we are committed to improving the lives and outcomes of transplant patients across the globe,” says Mark Hensley, CEO of Veloxis. “We are excited to partner with Lyfebulb in hosting the Innovation Challenge and are looking forward to seeing what talented entrepreneurs come up with as solutions to problems facing this unique population.”

The competition is free to enter and open to U.S. and international applicants. Official eligibility criteria and terms and conditions can be found on Lyfebulb.com: https://lyfebulb.com/innovation-challenges/challenges/veloxis-pharmaceuticals-innovation-challenge-the-future-of-transplantation/.