Global University Venturing

University of Wyoming has spun out Wyomics to commercialise an ionic liquid product for extracting valuable materials including rare earth elements from coal and fly ash resources.

Regenerative medicine spinout LifeSprout is advancing JHU research into a nanofibre-fortified gel that can be injected to repair soft tissue.

OUP and Sofinnova Partners invested in 28-7 Therapeutics to take its series A round to $82.8m, enabling the Harvard spinout to pursue accelerated development of its cancer drug pipeline.

GV led a $58.5m round for the heart disease drug developer, which is advancing research conducted at Harvard University and Broad Institute and has a partnership in place with Harvard spinout Beam Therapeutics.

UMC Utrecht molecular diagnostics spinout Genome Diagnostics has won funding from Ampersand Capital Partners and will work with the private equity firm to spur business growth through activities including M&A.

Osage University Partners has invested in LunaPBC, the public benefit corporation responsible for operating the community-owned LunaDNA genetic and health data collection platform.

Bill Brizzard will end his tenure as executive director of Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office to be replaced by Karen White on a temporary basis.

UCLA spinout Neural Analytics increased its total funding to $66m as it prepares for further testing of its robotically-assisted brain health monitoring platform.

MIT-run social enterprise incubator MIT Solve is to gain an impact investment fund with a $30m target size to back participants in its annual Global Challenges innovation contest.

Pfizer will pay $340m upfront and up to an additional $470m in milestone payments to purchase its portfolio company Therachon, providing an exit to Inserm Transfert Initiative.

FAW Group will reportedly provide $100m for TUS Holdings-backed Byton for a $500m round likely to value the electric SUV developer at more than $2.5bn.