Houston XR training company lands $5.8M contract with Air Force

taking flight

HTX Labs has been awarded a contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop a virtual AI-powered classroom for workers who maintain the Boeing KC-135’s F108 engine. Photo via Getty Images.

The U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX innovation arm has picked Houston-based HTX Labs to provide AI-enabled immersive training for workers who maintain Boeing KC-135 refueling tankers.

HTX Labs, an extended reality (XR) company and provider of immersive training programs for U.S. armed forces, will receive as much as $5.8 million in military funding for this project.

The new initiative comes on the heels of HTX Labs completing the second phase of a virtual KC-135 maintenance training program in partnership with Mildenhall, a Royal Air Force station in England. HTX Labs received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding for the second-phase project.

Under the new initiative, part of its EMPACT training platform, HTX Labs will develop a virtual AI-powered classroom for workers who maintain the KC-135’s F108 engine. In conjunction with this project, HTX Labs will collaborate with the Maine Air National Guard’s 101st Air Refueling Wing Maintenance Squadron on improving EMPACT.

Major Ryan Wing of the Maine Air National Guard says KC-135 maintenance workers “have limited opportunities to perform some of the more complex aircraft and engine repairs in a training environment. Providing immersive training to our warfighters is essential to ensuring mission readiness.”

In January, HTX Labs tapped Brian Reece as vice president of strategic accounts for the Air Force. In this role, he oversees HTX Labs’ relationship with this military branch. Reece is a retired Air Force colonel.

In 2022, Dallas-based Cypress Growth Capital invested $3.2 million in HTX Labs, which was founded in 2017.

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Khaliah Guillory, founder of Nap Bar, says she hopes to expand to 30 locations in three years. Photo courtesy Khaliah Guillory

Houston startup Nap Bar pivots with VR and big plans for growth

power nap

Houston’s Khaliah Guillory takes a 30-minute nap every day. She says this is how she’s so productive.

The habit also led to the founding of her white-glove, eco-friendly rest sanctuary business, Nap Bar.

Guillory launched the luxury sleep suites company back in 2019 to offer a unique rest experience with artificial intelligence integration for working professionals, entrepreneurs and travelers who needed a place to rest, recharge and rejuvenate. The company was named a Houston Innovation Awards finalist last year.

She says naps are backed by science. And by her professional network, too.

“Once I polled and surveyed my friends, most of them said that they also took naps during their lunch break, whether it be in their office or in their car,” says Guillory, former vice president of marketing strategy at Wells Fargo. “Once they overwhelmingly agreed that they would absolutely use a dedicated place for them to take naps if I created it, I got to work, and Nap Bar was born.”

Simply put, Guillory has effectively made it acceptable and, yes, even cool for working adults to take naps.

“I played D1 basketball at the University of Central Florida and that’s really where I learned the art of a power nap and the benefits of it,” Guillory says. “And I just continued to nap throughout my corporate career. So, in November of 2018, I retired from corporate America … I just knew I had a higher calling to do something else.”

Guillory first opened up shop in Rice Village as a beta test for her novel nap idea and it took off. She soon forged strategic partnerships with organizations like UT Health, where Nap Bar provided much-needed naps to postpartum mothers.

“Nap Bar showed what the benefits of a good nap was, specifically to postpartum moms in terms of mental stressors, productivity, and things of that nature,” Guillory says.

In November 2019, Guillory moved Nap Bar to The Galleria and says the business produced revenue from day one. However, in March 2020, she was forced to shut us down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I promised myself that I was not going back to corporate America, so I pivoted. I moved forward by creating a better sleep box, with a vegan pillow mist and soy-based candle. I also became a certified sleep coach. And I just kept pivoting from there, reinventing Nap Bar as a company,” she says.

One pivot included adding a virtual reality sleep experience, MetaSnooze.

“MetaSnooze is a really cool technology that offers sleep therapy and relaxation that I curated myself,” Guillory says. “Basically, the user puts on the VR headset, and it escapes them. They're transported to places all over the country. For example, they're sitting in serene environments all the while listening to these rhythmic beats that are designed to help them release and relax. Visualizations have been scientifically proven to improve one’s mental health and mental stressors.”

Guillory initially rolled out MetaSnooze in 2020 at events like South by Southwest and kept improving the experience and building her business. By February 2024, she was curating a wellness experience at The Grammy Awards.

“That was huge for us,” Guillory says. “Being able to get feedback from the celebrities, with a handful of them even inquiring where they could purchase the headset. They were excited about the future of Nap Bar, so that was really, really cool.”

The widespread interest in Nap Bar has Guillory thinking big. She aims to expand to 30 locations in three years.

“When I say that, it sounds ambitious,” says Guillory. “It is, but I come from the school of thought that if you shoot for 30 and you get 25, no one's going to shake their finger at you for doing that, right? It's really aiming towards this big, hairy, audacious goal. I learned that in corporate America. So, what we're looking to do now is raise money like crazy.”

Guillory says she’s now looking to scale the business by partnering with like-minded investors with experience in the wellness space.

She envisions locations at national and international airports, which she says offer ripe scenarios for patrons needing to recharge. Additionally, Guillory wants to build on her initial partnership with UT Health by going onsite to curate rest experiences for patients, caregivers, faculty, staff, nurses and doctors. Colleges also offer an opportunity for growth.

“We’ve done some really cool pop-ups with the University of Houston, where we brought the rest experience on campus,” Guillory says. “That means we bring a portable, full-size, organic mattress with disposable sheets, as well as our virtual reality experience.”

Nap Bar will also serve companies, office buildings, and even sports venues, according to Guillory.

“We can literally go any and everywhere,” she says. “Our collected data suggests that we’ve just got to go where sleepy people are so that they can get restorative sleep.”

From a pricing standpoint, Nap Bar’s model is a dollar a minute. Depending on where the client is, the pop-up experience is based on a day rate or a half-day rate, starting at $4,000.

Add-ons include a full-size organic mattress or hosting a masseuse or massage therapist onsite.

With the Grammys already under her belt, Guillory would like to see Nap Bar utilized at the 2028 Olympics and build partnerships with other virtual reality companies to bring its licensed MetaSnooze software to the masses.

She also sees opportunities in athletic treatment, sleep apnea, and insomnia.

“We have done several studies with proven results that MetaSnooze has reduced mental stressors and anxiety,” Guillory says. “I'm excited about what the future holds for MetaSnooze. It definitely is a game-changer … We will continue to innovate sleep or provide sleep resources and tools in a very innovative way.”

A Houston expert shares reasons to swap screen time for extended reality. Photo via Getty Images

Extended reality will have a big impact on business, this Houston expert says

guest column

What does your reality look like? Look around you. What do you see? It would be safe to say (almost guarantee) that you are looking at a screen right now, correct? We are consumers of information and use screens to access, view, and create information.

But why are we spending so much of our time looking at screens?

One poll stated that the average adult will spend 34 years of their lives looking at screens. It almost feels that screens (TV, laptop, or phone) have become so ubiquitous in everyday life that they have blended into our reality and are just ‘there’. Do you think the inventor of the TV, John Logie Baird, ever fully grasped how much the fabric of society would revolve around his invention? Time and time again, incredible disruptions have always come from breaking the ‘norm’ and given the vast level of integration of screens into our everyday reality, this ‘norm’ feels long overdue for innovation. This is where the world of augmented reality and spatial computing comes into play.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw an unprecedented shift to even more screen time and interactions using remote video communication platforms. It was also around this time that wireless virtual reality headsets were, for the first time ever, economically accessible to the consumer due to the large push of one multinational corporation. Fast forward to 2023, there are even more companies beginning to enter the market with new extended reality (XR) headsets (i.e. virtual, mixed, and augmented reality) that offer spatial computing – the ability for computers to blend into the physical worlds (amongst other things).

Some of our innovation engineering activities at the Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Education (MITIE) have focused on specific use cases of XR in surgical education and training. One of our projects, the MITIEverse, is a VR-based platform focused on creating the first-ever metaverse for medical innovation. It is a fully immersive VR environment that allows the user to view 3D-rendered patient anatomies whilst watching the actual patient procedure, even offering the ability to meet the surgeon who performed the operation. It also affords the ability to give a ‘Grand Rounds’ style presentation to an audience of 50 participants.

We have looked at using augmented reality to control robotic-assisted surgery platforms. In our proof-of-concept prototype, we successfully demonstrated the manipulation of guide wires and catheters using nothing more than an augmented reality headset, illustrating the possibility of surgeons performing surgery at a distance. Houston Methodist is dedicated to transforming healthcare using the latest innovative technology including XR. The question we now need to ask – is society ready and willing to replace screens with XR headsets?

To learn more about our XR initiatives and other Houston’s cross-industry innovation collaborations, attend Pumps & Pipes Annual Event 2023, Problem Xchange: Where Solutions Converge next month at The Ion.

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Stuart Corr is the director of Innovation Systems Engineering at Houston Methodist and executive director of Pumps & Pipes.

"We are no longer limited by the laws of physics." Photo via Getty Images

Houston expert: How extended reality and the metaverse can disrupt the business world

guest column

The year is 2012. It’s your first day of a new job. You wake up extra early to get ready and drive to the office – which takes you another half hour with Houston traffic. Once you arrive, you wait in the lobby for someone to help you with badging, sit in the same room for hours while numerous facilitators click through slides, and find out your laptop won’t be available for another week or two. Not the warmest welcome or greatest impression, right?

Fast-forward to year 2022. It’s a week before you’re set to start a new job. You receive an exciting package in the mail and unbox your new joiner start kit, complete with a virtual reality headset and other company swag. You onboard completely in the metaverse, meeting and collaborating with teammates from around the world – all from the comfort of… wherever.

Especially in a time where being physically together may not be an option, extended reality has made people feel closer than ever before.

To level set, XR is the umbrella term encompassing any immersive technology that blends digital content with the real world. It covers the full spectrum of experiences ranging from augmented reality, where digital content is superimposed and simple instructions appear directly on your phone or smart glasses, to an entirely virtual world where people, places and things co-exist and interact with one another in new, computer-generated environments – also known as the metaverse.

Although XR has been around for decades, the lack of devices and standard software platforms made implementation a challenge. Now that both are widely available and affordable, the doors for innovation have been thrown wide open.

There’s been plenty of key drivers that led to XR being a hot topic right now, including:

  • The need for digitization of our lives, accelerated by the global pandemic.
  • The recent global focus on sustainability and responsible business.
  • The cross-industry commitment to customer journey, optimized employee performance, and creating new content and services.
  • The convergence of powerful advancements in technology, such as 5G, cloud, AI and blockchain.
  • The recent investment in the metaverse by companies like Microsoft and Meta, formerly known as Facebook.

Now is the time for XR.

Every industry can benefit from using immersive technology to enhance both the enterprise and consumer experience, from retail, finance and automotive to tourism, entertainment, and real estate. XR has a proven track record of increasing revenue, collaboration, and productivity and decreasing costs, safety incidents, and our carbon footprint.

By 2027 the VR gaming market size alone is projected to reach $92.31 billion, and we’re now starting to really blur the lines between gaming and training. Compared to in-person training, VR results in a 96 percent reduction in training time, 76 percent increase in learning effectiveness, 70 percent increase in productivity, and 30 to 70 percent decrease in costs.

Engineers can leverage digital twins of manufacturing facilities for product development, performance improvement and predictive maintenance.

Science classes can teleport to outer space and use haptics to feel the ice and rock that make up the rings of Saturn.

Surgeons and patients can take a three-dimensional tour of the brain before surgery, leading to better preparation, decreased operative time and reduced risk of complications.

Those suffering from dementia can recover certain motor skills or tap into old memories to trigger positive mental stimulation, aiding in both assessment and rehabilitation.

As the new fabric of life is unfolding, the metaverse is showing promise beyond its gaming roots to offer people and brands a new place to interact, create, consume and earn.

Despite spending an average of $1,300 per employee annually on training, research proves that learners forget 70 percent of the content within 24 hours and nearly 90 percent in a month. By extending reality, we engage learners with interactive, hands-on, experiences that transform one-way training into deeper learning with heightened retention.

When high-fidelity design is mixed with low latency technology enablers, XR environments intuitively engage our senses, capturing the experience as an actual memory in our brain versus something we simply read or watched.

The future is immersive technology – not only for how we work and learn but also how we exercise and have fun. XR will touch all aspects of our lives. That’s why at Accenture, we have launched a grand experiment to make enterprise virtual reality a… well, a reality. We’re currently amid the world’s largest VR deployment in history. We are deploying over 60,000 VR headsets to our people to experiment, innovate, and learn with VR.

We as a company have over 650,000 employees and have over 200,000 new joiners annually. About one third of those people joined the company during the pandemic – over 50,000 this past quarter alone. That means a good portion of our people have never set foot in our offices, let alone met any of their teammates in person.

Through the power of VR, we now have a consistent and scalable new joiner experience that inspires our people, aligns with our purpose, and equips them to learn, live and love Accenture from day one. VR gives us the opportunity to make meaningful connections and share a sense of belonging. Our people can now head to the “Nth Floor” to meet new people from all over the world and have those natural water cooler moments – even while working remotely.

In a time where live events are facing a standstill, platforms like AltspaceVR are hosting live events for everything from Burning Man and Diplo concerts to church and AA meetings. The spatial recognition offered by VR makes it a great medium to have one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many interactions.

Accessibility is key too. That’s why many applications offer experiences in both VR headset and 2D on PCs.

We are no longer limited by the laws of physics.

Extended reality creates a powerful sense of presence that we as a collective society have been missing these past two years. If we’ve learned anything from this pandemic, it’s that human connection is key to mental wellness and innovation.

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Krista L. Taylor is the immersive learning lead at Accenture.

"The Infinite" lands in Houston for the first U.S. show. Image courtesy of Infinity Productions

High-tech virtual reality experience blasts into the Space City

to infinity and beyond

From the earliest days of our circling the planet in a tiny NASA capsule — to Elon Musk's SpaceX current commercial journeys — Houston and space travel will be forever and inexorably linked.

Fitting, then, that an unprecedented new immersive experience centered on the International Space Station (ISS) is making its U.S. debut here in Space City. "The Infinite"— a multi-sensory, interactive virtual reality experience — will zoom into Sawyer Yards on December 20 for a special, and limited, run, organizers announced.

This sprawling, 12,500-square-foot exhibition shuttles viewers into a never-before-seen perspective of life on the ISS, bringing an almost-too-real feeling of being in outer space.

Tickets are on sale now for a soft open preview period beginning on December 20; admission is $29. Tickets then jump to $36 for the full-scale limited engagement beginning on January 13, 2022.

Boasting footage shot over a period of nearly three years that created some 200 hours of high-end virtual reality scenes, the four-part immersive series documents the life of eight international astronauts inside — and outside — the International Space Station. (The outside experience promises to be an especially wild ride.) The show comes to Houston off a wildly popular Canadian run in Montreal.

Specific to this Houston launch, the show boasts new footage from the first-ever cinematic spacewalk captured in 3D — 360-degree virtual reality shot outside the International Space Station on September 12, 2021 — while offering visitors a self-directed experience aboard the ISS itself, according to a press release.

Throughout the 60-minute journey, per press materials, viewers will engage with physical objects, virtual reality, multimedia art, soundscapes, light design, and even the subtle scents of a forest, meant to evoke memories of stargazing while lying on the grass.

"The Infinite" is the brainchild of Montreal-based Infinity Experiences, a joint venture of PHI Studio and Felix & Paul Studios, and is an extension of the recent Primetime Emmy Award-winning immersive series, "Space Explorers: The ISS Experience," the largest production ever filmed in space, produced by Felix & Paul Studios in association with Time Studios.

That this show will run next year is also especially timely for Houston's space saga. Next year marks the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's famous moon-shot speech given at Rice University on September 12, 1962. That speech, with its now-legendary "we choose to go to the moon" line, galvanized the nation and propelled the U.S. into a space race that found Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin on the moon only seven years later.

"The exploration of space and the unknown is an endless source of fascination to us," said Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder of Felix & Paul Studios and creative director of The Infinite, in a statement.

"We are thrilled to bring The Infinite to Houston — the global epicenter of human space exploration — to share this massive, fully immersive exhibition, and we look forward to virtually transporting thousands of people off the Earth to enjoy the joy and wonder of space with audiences in the U.S. This unprecedented project is made possible thanks to our partners at NASA, the ISS National Lab, international space agencies and the incredible power of virtual reality."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Virtual reality is a buzzword, but used correctly it can also be a pivotal business tool for external and internal uses. Photo via Getty Images

Houston expert: Is virtual reality just trendy tech or a viable business solution?

guest column

Due to the pandemic, various technologies have accelerated into the spotlight – one of which being virtual reality. As many begin to decipher the unique ways to connect with audiences, the question becomes: is virtual reality just a shiny toy to have, or is it a practical business opportunity?

The VR experience

Virtual Reality (VR), which most confuse with augmented reality (AR), is a digital, immersive environment a user can place themselves into as opposed to a digital reality that is based on a real-world environment. VR requires a wearable headset to immerse the user in a 3-D environment.

True VR is built digitally and to room scale. The environments people are placed in are constructed entirely in 3-D and are then brought into a program application. Once everything is entered into the system, the technology begins "talking to" the headset and sensors. These devices track where users are in relation to the environment – and allow them to interact with their digital surroundings. This VR programming "tells" the headset what it needs to show in order to trick the eyes and brain into believing a user is "there".

The role VR plays

Often times, my company, VISION Production Group, receives requests and interest from businesses inquiring about a VR project. These conversations involve a deeper dive into understanding the purpose behind the want for the technology, the target audience and the intended deployment strategy. People commonly mistake VR for other technologies or simply are interested in it for its curb appeal.

Yes, virtual reality is a buzzword, but used correctly it can also be a pivotal business tool for external and internal uses.

External facing VR not only allows companies to take advantage of VR's charm, but also creates a one of kind experience for customers. VISION was tasked by an offshore oil and gas company to create a VR experience that lives at the bottom of the sea floor. This would allow the oil and gas company's customer to see a part of the process that would otherwise be extremely difficult to facilitate. The experience took users into a guided submarine tour where they were accompanied by others using the headsets. The environment not only showcased a faraway destination but also incorporated important details such as textures of the submarine that allows it to feel like they are truly there.

In addition to the promising use of VR externally, VR can also be used as training tools internally. Many scenario-based onboarding tasks can be difficult to facilitate such as: active shooter trainings, offshore emergency drills, and other safety simulations. Many corporate companies are turning to VR to allow for safe, cost effective and transportable safety trainings. This is an excellent application that allows companies to create situations that would otherwise be difficult to arrange.

Understanding VR's value proposition

VR is different than most technologies. It's not something that can be shared on the web or can be downloaded on an app – it requires deployment and gear. That said, VR is a commonly misunderstood tactic that without the proper strategic thinking can be a limited investment. However, those who are able to take advantage of the distinctive characteristics of VR and apply them correctly are in an ideal position to succeed. Not only can VR create a special experience it can also be a fiscally savvy option for those not looking to take submarine trips every day to the bottom of the sea or facilitate a dangerous training scenario.

The future of VR

As mentioned, most technology has accelerated due to the pandemic, but VR has actually been limited due to the idea of sharing a headset and gathering people together for an experience. Although, the pandemic has suppressed VR's uses, the technology advancements continue to grow rapidly.

Those who can comprehend VR for what it is and see it as more than just a buzzword will have the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of a new reality.

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Dan Pratt is the creative director at Houston-based Vision Production Group.

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Greentown Labs names Lawson Gow as its new Houston leader

head of hou

Greentown Labs has named Lawson Gow as its Head of Houston.

Gow is the founder of The Cannon, a coworking space with seven locations in the Houston area, with additional partner spaces. He also recently served as managing partner at Houston-based investment and advisory firm Helium Capital. Gow is the son of David Gow, founder of Energy Capital's parent company, Gow Media.

According to Greentown, Gow will "enhance the founder experience, cultivate strategic partnerships, and accelerate climatetech solutions" in his new role.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join Greentown at this critical moment for the energy transition,” Gow said in a news release. “Greentown has a fantastic track record of supporting entrepreneurs in Houston, Boston, and beyond, and I am eager to keep advancing our mission in the energy transition capital of the world.”

Gow has also held analyst, strategy and advising roles since graduating from Rice University.

“We are thrilled to welcome Lawson to our leadership team,” Georgina Campbell Flatter, CEO of Greentown Labs, added in the release. “Lawson has spent his career building community and championing entrepreneurs, and we look forward to him deepening Greentown’s support of climate and energy startups as our Head of Houston.”

Gow is the latest addition to a series of new hires at Greentown Labs following a leadership shakeup.

Flatter was named as the organization's new CEO in February, replacing Kevin Dutt, Greentown’s interim CEO, who replaced Kevin Knobloch after he announced that he would step down in July 2024 after less than a year in the role.

Greentown also named Naheed Malik its new CFO in January.

Timmeko Moore Love was named the first Houston general manager and senior vice president of Greentown Labs. According to LinkedIn, she left the role in January.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Houston foundation grants $27M to support Texas chemistry research

fresh funding

Houston-based The Welch Foundation has doled out $27 million in its latest round of grants for chemical research, equipment and postdoctoral fellowships.

According to a June announcement, $25.5 million was allocated for the foundation's longstanding research grants, which provide $100,000 per year in funding for three years to full-time, regular tenure or tenure-track faculty members in Texas. The foundation made 85 grants to faculty at 16 Texas institutions for 2025, including:

  • Michael I. Jacobs, assistant professor in the chemistry and biochemistry department at Texas State University, who is investigating the structure and thermodynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins, which could "reveal clues about how life began," according to the foundation.
  • Kendra K. Frederick, assistant professor in the biophysics department at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who is studying a protein linked to Parkinson’s disease.
  • Jennifer S. Brodbelt, professor in chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin, who is testing a theory called full replica symmetry breaking (fullRSB) on glass-like materials, which has implications for complex systems in physics, chemistry and biology.

Additional funding will be allocated to the Welch Postdoctoral Fellows of the Life Sciences Research Foundation. The program provides three-year fellowships to recent PhD graduates to support clinical research careers in Texas. Two fellows from Rice University and Baylor University will receive $100,000 annually for three years.

The Welch Foundation also issued $975,000 through its equipment grant program to 13 institutions to help them develop "richer laboratory experience(s)." The universities matched funds of $352,346.

Since 1954, the Welch Foundation has contributed over $1.1 billion for Texas-nurtured advancements in chemistry through research grants, endowed chairs and other chemistry-related ventures. Last year, the foundation granted more than $40.5 million in academic research grants, equipment grants and fellowships.

“Through funding basic chemical research, we are actively investing in the future of humankind,” Adam Kuspa, president of The Welch Foundation, said the news release. “We are proud to support so many talented researchers across Texas and continue to be inspired by the important work they complete every day.”

New Houston biotech co. developing capsules for hard-to-treat tumors

biotech breakthroughs

Houston company Sentinel BioTherapeutics has made promising headway in cancer immunotherapy for patients who don’t respond positively to more traditional treatments. New biotech venture creation studio RBL LLC (pronounced “rebel”) recently debuted the company at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Rima Chakrabarti is a neurologist by training. Though she says she’s “passionate about treating the brain,” her greatest fervor currently lies in leading Sentinel as its CEO. Sentinel is RBL’s first clinical venture, and Chakrabarti also serves as cofounder and managing partner of the venture studio.

The team sees an opportunity to use cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2) capsules to fight many solid tumors for which immunotherapy hasn't been effective in the past. “We plan to develop a pipeline of drugs that way,” Chakrabarti says.

This may all sound brand-new, but Sentinel’s research goes back years to the work of Omid Veiseh, director of the Rice Biotechnology Launch Pad (RBLP). Through another, now-defunct company called Avenge Bio, Veiseh and Paul Wotton — also with RBLP and now RBL’s CEO and chairman of Sentinel — invested close to $45 million in capital toward their promising discovery.

From preclinical data on studies in mice, Avenge was able to manufacture its platform focused on ovarian cancer treatments and test it on 14 human patients. “That's essentially opened the door to understanding the clinical efficacy of this drug as well as it's brought this to the attention of the FDA, such that now we're able to continue that conversation,” says Chakrabarti. She emphasizes the point that Avenge’s demise was not due to the science, but to the company's unsuccessful outsourcing to a Massachusetts management team.

“They hadn't analyzed a lot of the data that we got access to upon the acquisition,” explains Chakrabarti. “When we analyzed the data, we saw this dose-dependent immune activation, very specific upregulation of checkpoints on T cells. We came to understand how effective this agent could be as an immune priming agent in a way that Avenge Bio hadn't been developing this drug.”

Chakrabarti says that Sentinel’s phase II trials are coming soon. They’ll continue their previous work with ovarian cancer, but Chakrabarti says that she also believes that the IL-2 capsules will be effective in the treatment of endometrial cancer. There’s also potential for people with other cancers located in the peritoneal cavity, such as colorectal cancer, gastrointestinal cancer and even primary peritoneal carcinomatosis.

“We're delivering these capsules into the peritoneal cavity and seeing both the safety as well as the immune activation,” Chakrabarti says. “We're seeing that up-regulation of the checkpoint that I mentioned. We're seeing a strong safety signal. This drug was very well-tolerated by patients where IL-2 has always had a challenge in being a well-tolerated drug.”

When phase II will take place is up to the success of Sentinel’s fundraising push. What we do know is that it will be led by Amir Jazaeri at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Part of the goal this summer is also to create an automated cell manufacturing process and prove that Sentinel can store its product long-term.

“This isn’t just another cell therapy,” Chakrabarti says.

"Sentinel's cytokine factory platform is the breakthrough technology that we believe has the potential to define the next era of cancer treatment," adds Wotton.

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