Avery Therapeutics Inc. is one of six Arizona startup firms selected by the Flinn Foundation to participate in its 2018 Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program. Each firm receives $30,000 in funding support and program services administered through a nonprofit partner.
Avery Therapeutics principals (right) have UA roots through the Sarver Heart Center. From left: Jordan Lancaster, PhD, Jen Watson Koevary, PhD, and Steve Goldman, MD.
Avery, the only Tucson-based startup selected, has its roots in a University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center lab. Steve Goldman, MD, professor of medicine in the University of Arizona Division of Cardiology and a UA Sarver Heart Center research scientist, collaborated with Jordan Lancaster, PhD, an assistant research scientist at the Sarver Heart Center who obtained his doctoral degree from the UA College of Medicine Tucson Department of Physiology. They co-founded Avery.
Dedicated to advancing tissue-engineered therapeutics to treat diseases and injuries to human muscle, Avery’s lead product, MyCardia, is a tissue-engineered heart graft developed to treat heart failure. It is in the pre-clinical development phase. MyCardia is positioned to be the world’s first off-the-shelf product for treating heart failure, said Goldman, Avery’s chief medical officer. Jen Watson Koevary, PhD, Avery’s chief operating officer, earned her doctoral degree from UA Biomedical Engineering.
Avery has received support and assistance along its path from Tech Launch Arizona, the UA’s commercialization arm, helping transform UA innovations and discoveries into intellectual property, inventions and technology through licensing agreements with private industry.
The Flinn Foundation is a privately endowed, philanthropic grantmaking organization established in 1965 by Dr. Robert S. and Irene P. Flinn to improve the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations. In addition to advancing the biosciences, the foundation supports the Flinn Scholars Program, a merit-based college scholarship program; arts and culture; and the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership.
The application for the 2019 Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program will be available later this year. To learn more about the program and past winners, visit http://www.flinn.org/entrepreneur
—David Mogollón
ALSO SEE:
"Avery Therapeutics Selected for Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program" | UA Health Sciences Office of Public Affairs, Posted Feb. 23, 2017
“BizTucson, Tucson Lifestyle Pay Tribute to UA Health Sciences, DOM Docs in 2017” | Posted Dec. 13, 2017
“BIO5 to Host Tech Launch Arizona Research Luncheon on Stem Cell Heart Graft” | Posted Sept. 18, 2017
“UA to Take Home Big Share of 2017 AZBio Awards” | Posted Sept. 7, 2017
“Tech Launch Arizona Assists in Commercializing Beating Heart Graft Invented at University of Arizona” | Posted April 10, 2017