August 2023

Boston-based Galecto announced this morning that it will discontinue efforts to develop an inhaled treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, citing the drug candidate’s poor performance during phase 2 clinical trials.

As reported by Fierce Biotech, the company will now turn its focus toward developing a treatment for liver cirrhosis. Whereas other promising treatments act as an early-stage inhibitor to the disease's development, Galecto's candidate intends to treat cirrhosis later in the disease progression. A placebo-controlled phase 2 trial is set to begin in early 2024.

Solu Therapeutics, a precision-medicine company developing therapeutics to eliminate disease-driving cells, is the company to join the Cummings life sciences campus at Boston Avenue in Medford. Founded by Longwood Fund, the company recently debuted with $31 million in seed funding. The proceeds will be used to leverage and develop the proprietary CyTaC (Cytotoxicity Targeting Chimera) platform and drug candidates, which the company in-licensed from GSK. 

David Donabedian, Ph.D., executive partner at Longwood Fund, is Solu Therapeutics' co-founder and startup CEO.

Cummings Center was bustling on July 20 when North Shore Technology Council hosted an informative panel discussion and festive beer garden. The panel, moderated by Robin Dorogusker of Venture Forward Lab Partners (second from right) focused on "Growing out of an Incubator" and offered perspective from three experts (left to right): Jim Trudeau, chief design officer for Cummings Properties, Chris Ilsley, president and CEO of InnoVenture Labs, and Roger Nassar, founder and CEO of RAN Biotechnologies. Following the event, attendees and the Cummings client community enjoyed food from Flip the Bird and brews from Essex County Brewing Company and Ipswich Ale Brewery.

Look for Comera Life Sciences at the 15th annual Bioprocessing Summit in Boston this week. Members of the company's research team, including COO Neal Muni, M.D., CSO Robert Mahoney, Ph.D., and Director of Formulation Yuhong Zeng, Ph.D. will discuss how Comera is overcoming challenges in protein engineering to enable subcutaneous drug development.

Congratulations to Curiox Biosystems (400 West Cummings Park, Woburn), which announced last week it has gone public in the Korean market. Curiox brings together decades of scientific and engineering expertise in surface chemistry and life sciencesinstrumentation with the goal of overcoming critical challenges that slow the pace of life sciences research. By focusing on common assay steps where miniaturization and automation are currently underutilized, the company has developed innovative technologies that simultaneously improve both productivity and data quality.

Cummings was pleased to welcome Massachusetts Undersecretary of Economic Strategies Sarah Stanton and Undersecretary of Economic Foundations Ashley Stolba to our Cabot Road campus in Woburn last week for tours with two innovative cleantech companies.

ZwitterCo (12 Cabot Road, Woburn) is a leader in clean water technologies, providing breakthrough advancements in filtration to make it practical for industries to recycle water and enhance product recovery. SES (35 Cabot Road) is a global leader in the development and production of high-performance Li-metal rechargeable batteries for EVs and other applications.

(left to right) Bryan Siegal, vice president operations for ZwitterCo, expains the company's filtration technology to Undersecretaries Stanton and Stolba, and Cummings Properties president Eric Anderson.

SES CEO Qichao Hu offers a look at SES battery technology during a tour of the company .

MetroWest lab alert! Cummings is pleased to offer a 21,900 SF lab suite coming this fall at 142 North Road in Sudbury. Located in a rural setting adjacent to Frost Farm walking trails, the property offers a tranquil alternative to the busy commuter hubs of Waltham and Framingham/Natick.

Contact a Cummings lab specialist at sales@cummings.com or 781-983-7039 for details.

Key features include:

• Four fume hoods
• Ample casework
• Walk-in cooler
• Electrical drops

• Modular lab tables available
• Emergency shower/eyewash station
• Abundant natural light

TradeCenter 128 in Woburn welcomed a new anchor restaurant last week with the opening of Teresa's Ristorante, the newest Italian concept from Teresa's Hospitality Group. Teresa's is open for lunch and dinner, and is the perfect spot to grab dinner or a drink after work or to host a corporate event. Feedback from the restaurant's early patrons is unanimous: delizioso!

The next virtual BioXchange will be held Wednesday, August 23 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. This free forum provides an opportunity to interact with individuals throughout the life sciences industry from all over the world. Register.

On Thursday, August 24, MassBio will host a members-only Seaport Regional Mixer. Grow your network and meet other life sciences professionals in a fun, casual environment at the Innovation and Design Building in the Seaport. Appetizers and drinks will be served. 5:00 - 7:00 PM, 17 Drydock Avenue in Boston. Register.

Save the date! Our friends at FORGE (a 2023 Cummings Foundation grant recipient) are among the organizers of the Massachusetts Manufacturing Mash-Up, to be held September 19 at Polar Park in Worcester. Presented by Massachusetts Center for Advanced Manufacturing at the MassTech Collaborative, the Mash-Up is not your typical conference - it's a premier event that brings together the most innovative people from around the state to network, collaborate, and conquer industry challenges.

Are you looking to make your lab more sustainable?

The Lab Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to support and facilitate laboratory sustainability. The organization works with labs in the New England area that have a desire for their operations to be sustainable, but aren’t sure of how to begin. The Lab Project offers pro bono services to startups, prioritized towards small biotech and biopharma labs that are women-, BIPOC-, and/or minority-led, and/or located in historically under-resourced communities.

Steven Miller is is the organization's executive director.