LabReady

Houston medical device startup enters clinical trials

LabReady ensures samples make it from the patient to the lab without compromising the quality of the sample. Photo via vaximmune.com

Houston-based Vax-Immune Diagnostics has commenced on a new multicenter clinical trial to roll out a specific lab test as a part of its LabReady product.

The 12-week study will analyze results from Group B Streptococcus lab tests in expecting mothers. Currently, 16 to 20 percent of pregnant women are affected by GBS, according to a news release, which will then infect their newborn through the childbirth process.

Vax-Immune's product, LabReady, enhances the transportation process of lab samples and aims to improve the quality of results in patients. The company is expected to report data from the trial this summer.

"Currently samples are not regulated through transport from the patient to the lab often causing inaccurate test results. And inaccurate test results can cause significant problems since medical decisions are based on these results," Dr. Leonard E. Weisman, president and chief technology officer at Vax-Immune Diagnostics, says in the release.

"Our device, LabReady collects, protects, processes, and prepares the sample from the patient through transport, so when it arrives at the laboratory, infection can easily and accurately be diagnosed."

This study is planned to randomize approximately 300 patients from 35 to 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to the release. GBS is the most common cause of infections such as sepsis, meningitis, and pneumonia among newborns. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other organizations, have launched efforts for screenings and tests to reduce cases of neonatal GBS disease.

Vax-Immune was a member of the Texas Medical Center's 2018 TMCx Medical Device cohort and pitched at the 7th TMCx Demo Day. The company is a JLABS @ TMC resident.

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The biggest obstacle is a lack of open-mindedness and an unwillingness of people across the industry and across generations to work together. Photo via Getty Images

What’s the biggest obstacle between us and net-zero? Is it policy? Technology? Financing? All of these are important, yes, but none of them is what is really holding us back from our energy transition goals.

The biggest obstacle is a lack of open-mindedness and an unwillingness of people across the industry and across generations to work together.

In October of 2022, I was invited to speak at Energy Dialogues’s North American Gas Forum, a conference that brings together executives from across the energy industry. Over the two days of the conference, I was amazed by the forward-thinking conversations we were having on decarbonization, the future of clean energy, emissions reduction, and much more. I returned back to campus at Duke University, energized by these conversations and excited to share them. But rather than seeing the same sense of excitement, I was met with doubt, disbelief, even scorn.

There’s a fundamental distrust between generations in this industry, and it goes both ways. Experienced energy professionals often see the younger generation as irrational idealists who are too politicized to be pragmatic, while the younger generation often paints the older generation as uncaring climate denialists who want nothing to do with clean energy. Neither is true.

Over the past two years since founding Energy Terminal, I’ve met hundreds (maybe thousands) of people all across the energy industry, from CEOs of major energy companies to students just getting started on their career journey. Despite being so different on the surface, their goals are strikingly similar. Almost all can agree on three things: we want to reduce emissions, we want to expand energy access, and we want to do so while encouraging economic prosperity. The perceived barrier between generations in the energy industry is exponentially larger than the actual barrier.

For experienced professionals — take a chance to engage in conversations with young energy leaders. Understand their priorities, listen to their concerns, and find the middle ground. We are a generation passionate about impact and growth, and enabled with the right resources, we can do incredible things. The changing energy world presents unbelievable opportunities for both progress and profit, but without the next generation on board, it will never be sustainable.

For the young energy leaders of the future–listen to the experiences of the leaders that have come before us. Understand the balance between energy that is clean with energy that is secure, reliable, and affordable. We have brilliant ideas and an insatiable appetite for progress, but we won’t do it alone. Every person and every company has a valuable role to play in the energy transition, so consider how we can amplify our strengths rather than attack each other’s weaknesses.

If my co-founder, a climate activist from New York, and myself, the son of an oil and gas family from south Texas, can do it, so can you. This is a call to find the middle ground, to open up your mind to new possibilities, and to make real progress by working with each other rather than against each other.

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Michael Wood III is co-founder of Energy Terminal, a platform that aims to build the next generation of energy leaders and to bridge the gap between youth and the energy industry.

This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

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