State awards $1.5M to 7 life sciences companies

Seven life sciences companies received up to $200,000 each from the state government through the state’s BioMaryland Center.
Here are the seven grant recipients and their respective projects, from the press release:

• AsclepiX Therapeutics, LLC (Baltimore): a long-lasting drug which would reduce the number of eye injections for macular degeneration and improve patient vision.
• Brain Sentry, Inc. (Bethesda): helmet mounted sensors which detect and count possible concussive injury hits for youth engaged in sports.
• Clear Guide Medical (Baltimore): ultrasound guided technology to make needle biopsy more accurate, faster, and safer.
• Cordex Systems, Inc. (Annapolis): an enhanced blood pressure cuff to measure endothelial dysfunction, the earliest indicator of atherosclerosis.
• Harpoon Medical Inc. (Stevensville): a surgical tool which will enable surgeons to reliably repair the mitral valve using a minimally invasive beating-heart approach.
• Otomagnetics (College Park): a magnetic particle drug delivery system for treatment of sudden hearing loss and eventually common ear infections.
• Vasoptic Medical Inc. (Columbia): a low-cost portable retinal imaging instrument for early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy affecting 1 in 3 diabetics.
• Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore): a system which assists with securing the puncture site during cardiac ablation therapy to compensate for the beating heart.