On Wednesday, July 10, the Philadelphia region hosted the first Life Science Future – MedTech conference at the Sheraton Valley Forge Hotel. The day-long conference connected those in the Mid-Atlantic medical device, diagnostics, and digital health community, including researchers, startups, business leaders, and investors with the goal of forming relationships that could take products and ideas to the next level.
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and PCI had a strong presence at the event as a sponsor, poster display, and on the presentation stage:
Brendan Purcell of Prohibix, a company spun-out of Penn’s Department of Bioengineering in 2014, presented with an educational poster in the main lobby. Prohibix is developing an injectable hydrogel-based platform drug delivery technology that targets a critical mediator of many diseases including cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, and chronic ulcers.
RightAir‘s Chief Medical Officer, Jake Brenner, was the first to present from Penn on the main stage. RightAir is a technology company focused on providing better quality of life to those suffering from COPD. Their invention, the AIR-AD, looks like a regular clothing vest, but it dramatically offloads work of breathing and reduces dynamic hyperinflation, allowing patients to increase their physical activity and stay out of the hospital.
Avisi Technologies, a pre-clinical stage company developing a nanotechnology-enabled defense against blindness from glaucoma, was the last presenter of the day. The company was founded by three former undergraduates at Penn. Along with winning the President’s Innovation Prize in 2018, they are a part of the JPOD accelerator of the Pennovation Center.
The Penn Center for Innovation was one of the sponsors of the Life Sciences Future – MedTech conference, with Mark Turco, M.D., PCI’s Chief Innovation and Corporate Outreach Officer, on the Planning Committee. He was joined by Victoria Berenholz, Executive Director of Penn Health-Tech. PCI’s Managing Director, Dr. John Swartley, is on the Life Sciences Pennsylvania Board of Directors.