Columbia University has granted a new licence to its cardiovascular research platform spinout Tara Biosystems, which markets services powered by is "heart-on-a-chip" tissue modelling system.
Columbia University on Tuesday awarded an additional licence to US-based Tara Biosystems, a cardiovascular research spinout of the institution, to advance intellectual property related to engineered human heart tissues.
Founded in 2014, Tara Biosystems provides research services and assays for drug programs targeting heart conditions. The services rely on a “heart-on-a-chip” tissue modelling technology, marketed as Biowire II, that is able to produce engineered heart tissues for uses including drug discovery and cardiac risk profiling.
The latest licence will extend research conducted by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, the Mikati Foundation professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Vunjak-Novakovic is credited as a scientific co-founder of Tara Biosystems, as is her former trainee Milica Radisic, the Canada Research chair for functional cardiovascular tissue engineering at University of Toronto, whose work underpinned development of the Biowire II platform.
Tara Biosystems received around $300,000 of seed capital in 2014 from venture firm 180 Degree Capital, then trading as Harris and Harris.
The spinout added $2.3m in another seed round led by 180 Degree two years later that was backed by venture fund Partnership for New York City and Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic investment arm of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
VC firm Trancos Ventures and investment firm Morgan Nobile co-led a $9m series A round for Tara Biosystems closed in 2017, with contributions from Alexandria Real Estate Equities, 180 Degree, Partnership Fund for New York City and government-sponsored VC vehicle Innovate NY Fund.
