The Center for Advancing Innovation: Brain Race Startups to Pitch Innovations to Defeat Brain Tumors in Wilson Sonsini-Sponsored Virtual Investor Forum

Industry: Business

Bethesda, MD (PRUnderground) May 27th, 2020

The non-profit Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) will be hosting a virtual Investor Forum for start-up winners of the Brain Race to pitch for seed and early-stage funding. The Brain Race is an open innovation contest to advance high-impact inventions and solutions to defeat brain tumors. The Brain Race Investor Forum will be held from noon to 1:30pm Eastern on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020 using video conferencing. Investors may register for the forum at the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brain-race-investor-forum-tickets-104800071836

Funding for CAI’s orchestration of the Brain Race was provided by The Brain Tumour Charity and Resonance Philanthropies of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The Brain Race Investor Forum is made possible by a sponsorship from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, LLP (Wilson Sonsini).

Dr. Charles Andres, Associate at Wilson Sonsini in the Washington, DC office, said, “The Center for Advancing Innovation’s work is vitally important and is reversing the decline in American entrepreneurship. Wilson Sonsini is proud to sponsor the Brain Race Investor Forum and to support CAI’s entrepreneurial community, as it continues to innovate with both local and national implications.”

Rosemarie Truman, Founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Innovation, added, “CAI is grateful to Wilson Sonsini for making CAI’s first virtual Investor Forum possible. Wilson Sonsini’s impact on innovation is extraordinary, having launched companies — like Apple, Google, and Genentech — for sixty years in Silicon Valley. Wilson Sonsini’s exceptional legal services will best-position Brain Race spin-out companies to defeat brain tumors.”

To date, Brain Race winners have secured ~$3,500,000 in seed funding. They will use additional funds, raised from the forum, to accelerate commercialization of their novel solutions. Raising additional funds will also address The Brain Tumour Charity’s strategy, A Cure Can’t Wait, to double survival within ten years and halve the harm that brain tumours have on quality of life within five years. Brain Race winners to pitch at the forum include the following:

HIGHLIGHTED BRAIN RACE WINNERS

712 NORTH:

Developing modulators of the dynamic mitochondrial network for patients with glioblastoma and other diseases

ARJUNA THERAPEUTICS:

Developing silver-based “Therapeutic Molecular Clusters” as catalysts to increase protein oxidation and trigger specific death of brain tumor cells

ENTERTROY BIO:

Developing a blood-brain barrier permeability kit to improve drug delivery

KAIGENIX:

Developing proprietary, AI-based software that uses big data from patients’ genomics, imaging, pathology, and treatments to predict and suggest better treatment options for cancer patients

NEURXSTEM:

Developing a novel Neural Organoid Platform that mimics the human brain and allows for better brain tumor research

PLAYWELL:

Developing a gamification-based platform to facilitate efficient behavior change for patients and survivors of brain tumors

SONALASENSE:

Offers a new, non-invasive drug-device combination — a proprietary formulation of 5-ALA with sonodynamic therapy (SDT) — for recurrent glioblastoma

THNA BIOSCIENCES:

Developing a target discovery platform to identify proteins regulated by small RNAs, such as those dysregulated in brain tumors

BRAIN RACE KEY PARTNERS

ABOUT THE BRAIN TUMOUR CHARITY:

The Brain Tumour Charity is the world’s leading brain tumor charity and the largest dedicated funder of research into brain tumors globally. Committed to saving and improving lives, we’re moving further, faster to help every single person affected by a brain tumor. We’re set on finding new treatments, offering the highest level of support and driving urgent change. And we’re doing it right now. Because we understand that when you, or someone you love, is diagnosed with a brain tumor – a cure really can’t wait. For more information about The Brain Tumour Charity, please visit https://www.thebraintumourcharity.org/.

ABOUT RESONANCE PHILANTHROPIES:

​Resonance Philanthropies is a donor advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation with the primary funding interests in Children’s Health and Plastic Pollution. The Fund supports the interests of its co-founders, Sheri Sobrato and Eric Brisson. Resonance Philanthropies founded the Digging Deep Project, which supports the emotional health of adolescents globally, through Shadow’s Edge, the first-ever free mobile game designed to build resilience in teen and young adult patients and those facing adverse life circumstances or difficulties of all kinds. https://www.shadowsedge.com

ABOUT WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI, LLP:

Wilson Sonsini represents clients in a broad range of legal disciplines that address the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. Known worldwide for its representation of technology and life sciences clients, Wilson Sonsini is a leading corporate law firm, representing clients in capital markets, M&A, private equity, venture finance, and technology transactions. The firm’s recognized litigation and trial practice represents clients in antitrust, class action, commercial, governance, IP, privacy, securities, and other types of contested matters. Wilson Sonsini also has a substantial and growing regulatory and compliance practice, advising clients as to antitrust, consumer products, CFIUS and FCPA, FDA, international trade, privacy, and other matters. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, DE. For more information, visit www.wsgr.com.

About The Center for Advancing Innovation

The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) is a global public-private partnership, non-profit focused on creating a virtuous circle of innovation and driving growth breakthroughs through novel, creative paradigms and models. CAI’s mission is to accelerate and increase the volume of technology commercialization to ignite entrepreneurship, bolster the global economy, and maximize the potential of promising inventions. CAI’s award-winning challenge-based accelerator, rigorous evidence-based due diligence, and capital-efficient lean management models serve to hyper-accelerate “gazelle” high-performing startups for outsized investor returns. For additional information about CAI, please visit https://www.thecenterforadvancinginnovation.org.

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