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Companies that commercialize Texas A&M technology earn first and second place in InnoSTARS competition

Two companies that are commercializing technology developed at Texas A&M University placed first and second in China’s 2017 InnoSTARS life science competition, Texas A&M Technology Commercialization announced today. The companies are among 300 that competed across several industry sectors for the opportunity to take part in business-to-business matchmaking with partners and investors in China.

First place went to Stream Biomedical, Inc., a biotech company founded in 2016 to address unmet therapeutic needs for individuals suffering from neurologic trauma or degeneration. The award recognizes Stream’s efforts to commercialize Perlecan Domain V, a recombinant protein licensed exclusively from Texas A&M, as a new therapeutic to facilitate recovery from the effects of stroke, brain injury or spinal cord injury. Dr. Gregory Bix, formerly a professor in the Texas A&M College of Medicine, developed the technology.

Second place went to CorInnova, Inc., a medical device company in Houston that commercializes technology developed by Dr. John C. Criscione, a Professor in the Texas A&M College of Engineering. The award honors a technology called EpicHeart,™ which is a cardiac compression device that can be delivered and secured to the heart in a minimally invasive manner for patients suffering from congestive heart failure. Due to their highly invasive nature and high rates of complications, current device technologies treat less than 2 percent of the 1 million end-stage patients in need of therapy. CorInnova technology could potentially treat up to 28 percent or 280,000 of these patients annually due to its less invasive nature and lack of blood contact.

The InnoSTARS competition is hosted by the U.S. China Innovation Alliance, the China Science and Technology Exchange Center and the China Association for International Science and Technology Cooperation, and is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, People’s Republic of China. The event gives U.S.-based innovators and companies a better understanding of how to conduct business in China and opens the door for the winners to network directly with highly qualified partners and investors in China.