AxoSim Leads a Biotech Startup Scene in New Orleans

AxoSim Technologies Leads a Biotech Startup Scene in New Orleans August 29, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Biotech company AxoSim Technologies, based in New Orleans, is dubbed a contract research organization (CRO), at least by the New Orleans BioInnovation Center. That’s largely because the company’s technology, called a nerve-on-a-chip, is designed to provide an alternative to animal testing for pharmaceutical companies.

The company was founded in 2014 by two Tulane University researchers, J. Lowry Curley, chief executive officer, and Michael Moore, chief science officer. Lowry received his doctorate at Tulane in biomedical engineering under Moore, performed postdoctoral studies in Belgium, and returned to New Orleans to commercialize AxoSim’s technology. Moore is a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane, and received his doctorate from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.

New Orleans is generally not the first place one thinks about when it comes to biotech startups. And Curley noted that even five years ago, biotech was essentially nonexistent there. The petrochemical industry is big in the area, but as that industry struggles with lower gas and oil prices, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans have begun to focus on developing biotech.

One of those efforts is the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, a nonprofit business incubator. In addition to a state-of-the-art facility, the center has assisted almost 100 new companies in the region. It offers facilities, free and direct business consulting, educational events, and a low-cost capital program. The BioInnovation Center’s website now lists a number of startups, among them AAAneurysm Outreach to Bioceptive, InnoGenomics Technologies and Scout BioDiagnostics.

AxoSim has been a stand out among New Orleans’ biotech companies. AxoSim’s technology, which is a patent-pending nerve-on-a-chip, uses microengineering and biomaterials to create a 3D cell-based model that mimics living tissue. Curley told BioSpace in an exclusive interview, “Essentially we have a proprietary three-dimensional scaffolding system we can use, and utilize multiple hydrogels that gives us three-dimensionality to our nerve-on-a-chip. We can specifically place neuronal cells in certain locations in our matrix. And then we can basically control the growth of the axons and nerve fibers themselves, and the glial cells within that matrix.”

Despite the “nerve-on-a-chip” description, it is not a chip-based computer model. It uses actual nerve cells, but allows for high throughput analysis and has the potential of replacing animal models for certain types of studies.

AxoSim is developing the technology for multiple applications. “Our initial application was for the peripheral nervous system,” Curley said. “There are many diseases that affect the peripheral nervous system, but there are also toxic side effects of chemical compounds that can measurably affect the peripheral nervous system. We’re able to screen those.”

They also are developing the technology for use on the central nervous system (CNS), as well. Those applications tend to be based more on disease models.

So far, the company is operating on three grants. The first was from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which it received in February. Curley said, “The focus [for this grant] is on the peripheral nervous system model. There are a lot of drugs that cause some neurodegeneration in the PNS and we’re using the grant to determine how sensitive our model is, how predictive it would be compared to clinical trials, and how to use it on a larger scale.” The second grant, for $225,000, is from National Science Foundation Small Business Technology Transfer program. This one is focused on the CNS, primarily as a model for neurodegenerative diseases that target myelin, such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Curley said, “With some modifications, it could potentially be used to study ALS and Alzheimer’s, although they’re more complex.”

And most recently, AxoSim received a $230,000 grant from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space(CASIS). CASIS is a non-profit that supports research on the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory. In this case, the grant was for a project titled, “3D neural microphysiological system for investigating myelination processes in microgravity.” It is also designed to show that the company’s technology can be used to study disorders that affect myelin, such as ALS, MS and Alzheimer’s.

Although the company does not have partnerships or investors yet, it is in talks with several. “We kind of wanted to get the experience under our belt to prove ourselves,” Curley said, “but we are talking to investors and companies in the next couple months.”

At the moment, he said, much of the data they’re generating is additional validation data that can be used for marketing, to prove to pharmaceutical companies what AxoSim can do.

“We’re working to position ourselves with two to three companies,” Curley said, “that want something that’s not out there yet but will soon be available.”

AxoSim’s success dates back to 2014, when the company won the Louisiana BioChallenge business pitch, which gave it national recognition and a $25,000 prize. The Louisiana BioChallenge is hosted by the New Orleans BioInnovation Center every year. New Orleans does have a fairly strong research-oriented academic environment, not only with Tulane University, but the Tulane University Medical Center, the LSU Health Science Center, and Xavier University, which Curley noted “has a pretty robust pharmacology department.” The Louisiana biotech ecosystem, Curley said, “It’s made pretty good strides. Although it has a ways to go, they’re developing some of the physical infrastructure, some of the intellectual infrastructure, and venture capital and pharmaceutical companies are starting to be more interested.”

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