Start Up Companies

Aeolus Pharmaceuticals is developing AEOL 10150, a small molecule catalytic antioxidant that has shown the ability to scavenge a broad range of reactive oxygen species. AEOL 10150 is currently undergoing human clinical evaluation in patients with ALS. James Crapo, MD, and Brian Day, PhD, of National Jewish Health are inventors on the intellectual property underlying this discovery.

Arthroventions is a Colorado LLC developing a family of devices that distend the synovial fluid to improve the accuracy of aspirating and injecting medication into the joint space. Joint taps for the treatment of arthritis are common, out-patient procedures. However, these procedures can be painful, inconvenient, and ineffective if the joint space if missed. Based on the work from Dr. Richard Meehan, MD at National Jewish Health, Arthroventions developed a medical device, The KneeTap™, which simplifies precision injections and ensures that pain relieving therapies are delivered accurately and safely. The simple design allows for medial or lateral approaches without increasing procedure time or requiring additional training. The KneeTap™ is the flagship product for Arthroventions. The patented technology can be utilized for all joints and is also available for veterinary applications.

BioMimetix is a Colorado company founded in 2013 based on some intellectual property developed in part at National Jewish Health by James Crapo, MD. The company is developing a new class of redox active metalloporphyrin drugs for the treatment of cancer and dermatologic diseases. These novel drugs have successfully completed Phase I clinical trials.

Celestial is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of first in class of a new class of novel and groundbreaking anti-infective lipid and protein therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of a variety of infectious diseases and inflammatory conditions.

Celestial’s therapeutics are dual modal, broad spectrum anti-infectives with potent anti-inflammatory activity and offer a very unique opportunity to treat and prevent a variety of infections and inflammatory conditions with a single therapeutic. Celestial is initially focusing on developing new therapeutics to treat respiratory infections that currently have limited or no therapeutic options and have high unmet medical needs.  Drs. Dennis Voelker, PhD and Mari Nakamura, MD, PhD, of National Jewish Health are co-inventors on some of the intellectual property licensed to Celestial.

Juvaris BioTherapeutics was founded in 2003, based on the intellectual property developed at National Jewish Health by Steven Dow, DVM, PhD. Juvaris BioTherapeutics is developing therapeutic vaccines for cancer and infectious diseases using its novel technology platform of cationic lipids and non-coding DNA complexes.

Oncomatrix was founded in 2010 by a group of Spanish, British, and French entrepreneurs with extensive experience in the biotechnology industry. Oncomatrix is developing innovative treatments that target the tumor connection to the surrounding stroma: a cancer treatment aimed at attacking not tumor cells, but the peritumoral cells and extracellular matrix that facilitate tumor invasiveness and resistance. Oncomatrix is developing a cystatin-c related drug candidate based on a research discovery from scientist Dr. William Schiemann, PhD at National Jewish Health. This strategy targets the TGF-beta signaling and aims at inhibit cancer progression and improving the prognosis and treatment of cancer patients.

OrPro Therapeutics, Inc. is a pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in San Diego, CA. The company's goal is to develop a breakthrough class of safe, well-tolerated and more effective inhaled non-systemic drugs based on the thioredoxin active site for the treatment of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), COPD/emphysema, bronchiectasis, severe asthma, and other serious obstructive pulmonary diseases. OrPro's lead product, ORP-100, an aerosolized variant of recombinant human thioredoxin, will target abnormal viscosity due to excess protein gels in CF and has the potential for broader clinical efficacy than existing mucolytic approaches. OrPro is the exclusive licensee of intellectual property relating to the thioredoxin active site developed by pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Carl White, MD at National Jewish Health.

SustentoBio Inc. is a veterinary biotechnology company dedicated to providing animals with the latest advancements in immunotherapeutics. Using a proprietary protein, SustentioBio product is able to enhance the animal’s own immune system to fight solid tumors and infectious disease. SustentoBio was co-founded by Yosef Refaeli, PhD and Brian Turner, PhD, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Taiga Biotechnologies Inc.

Taiga Biotechnologies, Inc. was co-founded by Yosef Refaeli, PhD and Brian Turner, PhD, at the time research scientists at National Jewish Health. The company is developing a new class of cell-based therapies utilizing autologous immune cells and allogeneic stem cells.

Taligen Therapeutics, Inc., which was founded in March 2004 by Drs. Woody Emlen and V. Michael Holers, is working to develop and commercialize technologies created by scientists from National Jewish Health (Erwin Gelfand, MD) and the University of Colorado Denver. Taligen is a development stage biotechnology company focused on the treatment of serious inflammatory diseases including asthma, macular degeneration and immune kidney disease. The Company employs novel technologies designed to modulate and regulate activation of the complement system.

VistaGen applies their innovative in vitro embryonic stem (ES) cell technologies to discover and develop new generation drugs and protein biologics, both internally and through strategic collaborations with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Vistagen's clinically predictive in vitro embryonic stem cell technologies are based on intellectual property developed at National Jewish Health by Gordon Keller, PhD.