TMC names 2025 cohort of cancer treatment innovators

ready to grow

Innovators in immunotherapy, precision drug discovery, monoclonal antibodies, and diagnostic and therapeutic technologies have joined TMC's Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics. Photo courtesy TMC.

Texas Medical Center Innovation has named more than 50 health care innovators to the fifth cohort of its Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics (ACT).

The group specializes in immunotherapy, precision drug discovery, monoclonal antibodies, and diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, according to a statement from TMC.

During the nine-month ACT program, participants will enjoy access to a network of mentors, grant-writing support, chemistry resources, and the entrepreneur-in-residence program. The program is designed to equip participants with the ability to secure investments, develop partnerships, and advance the commercialization of cancer therapeutics in Texas.

“With over 35 million new cancer cases predicted by 2050, the urgency to develop safer, more effective, and personalized treatments cannot be overstated,” Tom Luby, chief innovation officer at Texas Medical Center, said in a news release.

Members of the new cohort are:

  • Alexandre Reuben, Kunal Rai, Dr. Cassian Yee, Dr. Wantong Yao, Dr. Haoqiang Ying, Xiling Shen, and Zhao Chen, all of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Dr. Andre Catic and Dr. Martin M. Matzuk, both of the Baylor College of Medicine
  • Cynthia Hu and Zhiqiang An, both of UTHealth Houston
  • Christopher Powala, Aaron Sato, and Mark de Souza, all of ARespo Biopharma
  • Daniel Romo, Dr. Susan Bates, and Ken Hull, all of Baylor University
  • Eugene Sa & Minseok Kim, both of CTCELLS
  • Gomika Udugamasooriya and Nathaniel Dawkins, both of the University of Houston
  • Dr. Hector Alila of Remunity Therapeutics
  • Iosif Gershteyn and Victor Goldmacher, both of ImmuVia
  • João Seixas, Pedro Cal, and Gonçalo Bernardes, all of TargTex
  • Ken Hsu and Yelena Wetherill, both of the University of Texas at Austin
  • Luis Martin and Dr. Alberto Ocaña, both of C-Therapeutics
  • Dr. Lynda Chin, Dr. Keith Flaherty, Dr. Padmanee Sharma, James Allison, and Ronan O’Hagan, all of Project Crest/Apricity Health
  • Michael Coleman and Shaker Reddy, both of Metaclipse Therapeutics
  • Robert Skiff and Norman Packard, both of 3582.ai
  • Rolf Brekken, Uttam Tambar, Ping Mu, Su Deng, Melanie Rodriguez, and Alexander Busse, all of UT Southwestern Medical Center
  • Ryan Swoboda and Maria Teresa Sabrina Bertilaccio, both of NAVAN Technologies
  • Shu-Hsia Chen and Ping-Ying Pan, both of Houston Methodist
  • Thomas Kim, Philipp Mews, and Eyal Gottlieb, all of ReEngage Therapeutics
The ACT launched in 2021 and has had 77 researchers and companies participate. The group has collectively secured more than $202 million in funding from the NIH, CPRIT and venture capital, according to TMC.
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CrossBridge Bio, formed during the TMC Innovation’s Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics program, closed a $10 million seed round led by TMC Venture Fund and CE-Ventures. Photo via Getty Images

Houston biotech startup secures $10M seed round to propel cancer-fighting therapy from bench to bedside

fresh funding

A Houston biotech company based off research out of UTHealth Houston has raised seed funding to continue developing its cancer-fighting therapeutic.

CrossBridge Bio, formed during the TMC Innovation’s Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics program, closed a $10 million seed round led by TMC Venture Fund and Crescent Enterprises' VC arm, CE-Ventures. The round also included participation from Portal Innovations, Alexandria Venture Investments, Linden Lake Labs, and several pre-seed investors.

“We are thrilled to have the support of such experienced investors who share our vision of bringing transformative cancer therapies to patients in need,” Michael Torres, CEO of CrossBridge Bio, says in a news release. Torres served as an entrepreneur in residence of ACT.

The company is working on the next-generation of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) therapeutics that process dual payloads as targeted treatments for a set of challenging cancers. The innovative treatment is based on research from UTHealth experts Dr. Kyoji Tsuchikama and Dr. Zhiqiang An.

“Our dual-payload ADC technology is designed to deliver synergistic therapeutic effects using highly stable linkers that ensure payload release only within the targeted cancer cells, thereby maximizing their therapeutic effectiveness while minimizing the liabilities associated with uptake in unintended tissues, as seen with many of today’s cancer treatments," Torres continues.

He explains that the funding will toward advancing CrossBridge's first development candidate, CBB-120, into preclinical non-GLP toxicology studies in addition to derisking the company’s proprietary linker technology with dual-payload applications, per the release.

As a result of the raise, William McKeon, president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, and Damir Illich, manager of life sciences of CE-Ventures, will join CrossBridge Bio’s board of directors.

“We are proud to back CrossBridge Bio in their mission to develop the next generation of cancer therapies,” McKeon says in the release. “Their dual-payload ADCs are designed to deliver targeted drug release within cancer cells with greater stability, precision, and control. These breakthrough advancements have the potential to change patients’ lives worldwide and we look forward to helping drive their development.”

TMCi named its 2024 Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics cohort.

TMC names 2024 cohort of cancer treatment innovators

ready to grow

For the fourth year, Texas Medical Center Innovation has named its annual cohort of Texas health tech innovators working on promising cancer therapeutics.

TMCi named its 2024 Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics cohort last week, and the 23 Texas researchers and companies selected will undergo a nine-month program that will provide them with mentorship and programming, as well as open doors to potential investors and strategic partners.

“The ACT program provides a bridge to commercialization in Texas by surrounding innovators with strategic mentorship, milestone development, and a network of resources to move their projects forward,” Emily Reiser, associate director of TMC Innovation, says in a news release. "We are excited to welcome this year's cohort and to continue enabling participants to advance their solutions to treat cancer."

The program has accelerated 76 researchers and companies to date, many of which — like March Biosciences and Mongoose Bio — have gone on to secure $130 million in funding from venture capitalists and grant funding.

“Our program has cultivated a dynamic ecosystem where partners, researchers, and inventors, who have been part of the journey since its inception and received various forms of funding, continue to propel their life-saving products and technologies forward," Ahmed AlRawi, program manager of ACT, says in the release. "Our 2024 cohort represents our most diverse cohort to date, including eight companies led by women entrepreneurs. Additionally, we are particularly proud that the cohort includes a blend of new and recurring organizations that have leveraged this opportunity in the past to extend their work and continue the momentum to build off the successes of our previous years.”

The 2024 participants are:

  • Alexandre Reuben of UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Betty Kim & Jiang Wen of UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Bin He of Houston Methodist
  • Daniel Kiss & John Cooke of PeakRNA at Houston Methodist
  • Hongjun Liang of Texas Tech-Lubbock
  • Jacob Goell & Isaac Hilton of Mercator Biosciences at Rice University
  • Jay Hartenbach & Matthew Halpert of Diakonos Oncology Corp.
  • Kathryn O’Donnell of UT-Southwestern
  • Maralice Conacci Sorrell of UT-Southwestern
  • Neeraj Saini of UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Neil Thapar of Barricade Therapeutics Corp.
  • Nina Keshavarzi of Celine Biotechnologies
  • Raphael G. Ognar & Henri Bayle of NKILT Therapeutics Inc.
  • Richard Austin & Michael Abrahamson of Reglagene Inc.
  • Tim Peterson & Joppe Nieuwenhuis of Bioio Inc.
  • Todd Aguilera & Eslam Elghonaimy of UT-Southwestern
  • Venkata Lokesh Battula of Siddhi Therapeutics Inc. at UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Weei-Chin Lin & Fang-Tsyr Lin of Baylor College of Medicine
  • Yong Li & Dongxiao Feng of Sotla Therapeutics at Baylor College of Medicine
  • Anil Sood & Zhiqiang An of UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Narendra Kumar & Jayshree Mishra of Texas A&M-College Station
  • Tao Wang of NightStar Biotechnologies Inc. at UT-Southwestern
  • Jian Hu of UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center
Enrique Gomez joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss Houston as an oncology innovation hub. Photo via TMC.edu

How Houston is emerging as a leader for oncology innovation, according to this expert

Houston innovators podcast episode 114

Houston is currently establishing itself as a hub for health care innovation — and Enrique Gomez should know. He's worked in the field of biopharmaceuticals across the continent.

As entrepreneur in residence at Texas Medical Center Innovation's Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics, he works with early stage startups and researchers. However, for decades he's worked in a much later stage of drug development, holding leadership positions at Takada in Latin America and Shire in Boston.

"Texas is very well recognized for cancer therapeutics," Gomez says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "There's a lot of research going on. These researchers are looking at every angle — every possible strategy to tackle cancer."

At ACT, Gomez connects the startups or instigators with the resources they need to get their life-saving solutions to market. With cancer, there's not one thing that's going to work. There have to be options for treating cancer.

"Cancer is very heterogeneous. Not one strategy will be the single silver bullet to overcome the disease," Gomez says. "We are talking about personalized medicine. Every person is different and every cancer in every patient is different. It will require a number of approaches to overcome the health situation."

Thankfully, through TMC's ACT and the numerous research institutions working on the future of oncology, Houston's a great spot to move that needle.

"Houston is a place where everyone looks at when it comes to novel research and approaches to treating cancer," Gomez says. "The landscape here is going to be accelerated because we see much more collaboration between the founding institutions — and that's a very important element of growth. Houston has no comparison to any other place in terms of what's going on here and the level and quality of research."

He shares more on how COVID-19 has affected drug development and research — as well as what's next for his own career — on the podcast. Listen to the full interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

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Houston institutions launch Project Metis to position region as global leader in brain health

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Leaders in Houston's health care and innovation sectors have joined the Center for Houston’s Future to launch an initiative that aims to make the Greater Houston Area "the global leader of brain health."

The multi-year Project Metis, named after the Greek goddess of wisdom and deep thought, will be led by the newly formed Rice Brain Institute, The University of Texas Medical Branch's Moody Brain Health Institute and Memorial Hermann’s comprehensive neurology care department. The initiative comes on the heels of Texas voters overwhelmingly approving a ballot measure to launch the $3 billion, state-funded Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT).

According to organizers, initial plans for Project Metis include:

  • Creating working teams focused on brain health across all life stages, science and medical advances, and innovation and commercialization
  • Developing a regional Brain Health Index to track progress and equity
  • Implanting pilot projects in areas such as clinical care, education and workplace wellness
  • Sharing Houston’s progress and learnings at major international forums, including Davos and the UN General Assembly

The initiative will be chaired by:

  • Founding Chair: Dr. Jochen Reiser, President of UTMB and CEO of the UTMB Health System
  • Project Chair: Amy Dittmar, Howard R. Hughes Provost and Executive Vice President of Rice University
  • Project Chair: Dr. David L. Callender, President and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System

The leaders will work with David Gow, Center for Houston’s Future president and CEO. Gow is the founder and chairman of Gow Media, InnovationMap's parent company.

“Now is exactly the right time for Project Metis and the Houston-Galveston Region is exactly the right place,” Gow said in a news release. “Texas voters, by approving the state-funded Dementia Prevention Institute, have shown a strong commitment to brain health, as scientific advances continue daily. The initiative aims to harness the Houston’s regions unique strengths: its concentration of leading medical and academic institutions, a vibrant innovation ecosystem, and a history of entrepreneurial leadership in health and life sciences.”

Lime Rock Resources, BP and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center served as early steering members for Project Metis. HKS, Houston Methodist and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation have also supported the project.

An estimated 460,000 Texans are living with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, and more than one million caregivers support them.

“Through our work, we see both the immense human toll of brain-related illness and the tremendous potential of early intervention, coordinated care and long-term prevention," Callender added in the release. "That’s why this bold new initiative matters so much."

Texas launches cryptocurrency reserve with $5 million Bitcoin purchase

Money Talks

Texas has launched its new cryptocurrency reserve with a $5 million purchase of Bitcoin as the state continues to embrace the volatile and controversial digital currency.

The Texas Comptroller’s Office confirmed the purchase was made last month as a “placeholder investment” while the office works to contract with a cryptocurrency bank to manage its portfolio.

The purchase is one of the first of its kind by a state government, made during a year where the price of Bitcoin has exploded amid the embrace of the digital currency by President Donald Trump’s administration and the rapid expansion of crypto mines in Texas.

“The Texas Legislature passed a bold mandate to create the nation’s first Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock wrote in a statement. “Our goal for implementation is simple: build a secure reserve that strengthens the state’s balance sheet. Texas is leading the way once again, and we’re proud to do it.”

The purchase represents half of the $10 million the Legislature appropriated for the strategic reserve during this year’s legislative session, but just a sliver of the state’s $338 billion budget.

However, the purchase is still significant, making Texas the first state to fund a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. Arizona and New Hampshire have also passed laws to create similar strategic funds but have not yet purchased cryptocurrency.

Wisconsin and Michigan made pension fund investments in cryptocurrency last year.

The Comptroller’s office purchased the Bitcoin the morning of Nov. 20 when the price of a single bitcoin was $91,336, according to the Comptroller’s office. As of Friday afternoon, Bitcoin was worth slightly less than the price Texas paid, trading for $89,406.

University of Houston energy economist Ed Hirs questioned the state’s investment, pointing to Bitcoin’s volatility. That makes it a bad investment of taxpayer dollars when compared to more common investments in the stock and bond markets, he said.

“The ordinary mix [in investing] is one that goes away from volatility,” Hirs said. “The goal is to not lose to the market. Once the public decides this really has no intrinsic value, then it will be over, and taxpayers will be left holding the bag.”

The price of Bitcoin is down significantly from an all-time high of $126,080 in early October.

Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, argued the state is making a good investment because the price of Bitcoin has trended upward ever since it first launched in early 2009.

“It’s only a 16-year-old asset, so the volatility, both in the up and down direction, will smooth out over time,” Bratcher said. “We still want it to retain some of those volatility characteristics because that’s how we could see those upward moves that will benefit the state’s finances in the future.”

Bratcher said the timing of the state’s investment was shrewd because he believes it is unlikely to be valued this low again.

The investment comes at a time that the crypto industry has found a home in Texas.

Rural counties have become magnets for crypto mines ever since China banned crypto mining in 2021 and Gov. Greg Abbott declared “Texas is open for crypto business” in a post on social media.

The state is home to at least 27 Bitcoin facilities, according to the Texas Blockchain Council, making it the world’s top crypto mining spot. The two largest crypto mining facilities in the world call Texas home.

The industry has also come under criticism as it expands.

Critics point to the industry’s significant energy usage, with crypto mines in the state consuming 2,717 megawatts of power in 2023, according to the comptroller’s office. That is enough electricity to power roughly 680,000 homes.

Crypto mines use large amounts of electricity to run computers that run constantly to produce cryptocurrencies, which are decentralized digital currencies used as alternatives to government-backed traditional currencies.

A 2023 study by energy research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie commissioned by The New York Times found that Texans’ electric bills had risen nearly 5%, or $1.8 billion per year, due to the increase in demand on the state power grid created by crypto mines.

Residents living near crypto mines have also complained that the amount of job creation promised by the facilities has not materialized and the noise of their operation is a nuisance.

“Texas should be reinvesting Texan’s tax money in things that truly bolster the economy long term, living wage, access to quality healthcare, world class public schools,” said state Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, who voted against the creation of the strategic fund. “Instead it feels like they’re almost gambling our money on something that is known to be really volatile and has not shown to be a tide that raises all boats.”

State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, who authored the bill that created the fund, said at the time it passed that it will allow Texas to “lead and compete in the digital economy.”

___

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Houston-based HPE wins $931M contract to upgrade military data centers

defense data centers

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), based in Spring, Texas, which provides AI, cloud, and networking products and services, has received a $931 million contract to modernize data centers run by the federal Defense Information Systems Agency.

HPE says it will supply distributed hybrid multicloud technology to the federal agency, which provides combat support for U.S. troops. The project will feature HPE’s Private Cloud Enterprise and GreenLake offerings. It will allow DISA to scale and accelerate communications, improve AI and data analytics, boost IT efficiencies, reduce costs and more, according to a news release from HPE.

The contract comes after the completion of HPE’s test of distributed hybrid multicloud technology at Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) data centers in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and Ogden, Utah. This technology is aimed at managing DISA’s IT infrastructure and resources across public and private clouds through one hybrid multicloud platform, according to Data Center Dynamics.

Fidelma Russo, executive vice president and general manager of hybrid cloud at HPE, said in a news release that the project will enable DISA to “deliver innovative, future-ready managed services to the agencies it supports that are operating across the globe.”

The platform being developed for DISA “is designed to mirror the look and feel of a public cloud, replicating many of the key features” offered by cloud computing businesses such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, according to The Register.

In the 1990s, DISA consolidated 194 data centers into 16. According to The Register, these are the U.S. military’s most sensitive data centers.

More recently, in 2024, the Fort Meade, Maryland-based agency laid out a five-year strategy to “simplify the network globally with large-scale adoption of command IT environments,” according to Data Center Dynamics.

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