When it comes to biohealth innovation, COVID-19 treatments dominated the conversation for the last 15 months. While Maryland bio businesses responded impressively to the pandemic, Maryland’s bio innovation story extends well beyond COVID-19. Local biohealth companies are innovating to treat and prevent health issues for a variety of illnesses and threats. Below, meet four of these companies, all of which were recently designated Maryland Future 20 companies.

See the full Future 20 list

Theradaptive Increases Positive Outcomes for Tissue Regeneration Patients

Theradaptive develops regenerative therapeutics through a platform technology that converts powerful regenerative proteins into material-binding variants. These variants can bind in a paint-like manner to medical devices and implants, enabling precise, targeted tissue regeneration. Theradaptive’s lead therapeutics address orthopedic trauma, spinal conditions and cartilage injury, and additional areas of application include: soft tissue repair, nerve repair and localized oncotherapy. Compared to similar coated implants or injected liquids, Theradaptive’s material-binding therapeutics are safer, easier for surgeons and patients, and increase positive outcomes.

Pathotrak Improves Food Safety with Food Pathogen Testing Kit

Pathotrak, the brainchild of National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland scientists, makes food-safety testing kits that bring faster food testing to fruition. The company is revolutionizing the logistics and safety of food by providing technology that reduces the detection of pathogens in food from 24 hours to 6 hours. This time savings dramatically reduces holding costs for food manufacturers, enabling them to deliver fresher food to consumers. The company’s innovation has the potential to save billions of dollars in recalls, reduce costs of food production, and even reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Vita Therapeutics Works Toward Life-Changing Treatments for Rare Orphan Disease

Vita Therapeutics uses stem cell technology to engineer specific cell types designed to replace those that are defective in patients of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), a rare orphan disease that results in loss of ambulation and reduced quality of life. Pre-clinically, its cell therapy has shown the ability to repair and replace muscle tissue. In addition to delivering life-changing treatments to LGMD patients, the team at Vita Therapeutics also believes there are wide-ranging applications for its innovation as a therapy for other diseases affecting muscle regeneration.

Clene Nanomedicine Explores Revolutionary Treatment for MS, Parkinson’s and ALS

Clene Nanomedicine is launching a revolutionary shift in the pharmacological treatment of disease by introducing a new class of neuro-therapeutics termed nanocatalysts. These nanocatalysts work in multiple cell types to improve multiple bioenergetic processes that may effectively treat many different diseases, including ALS, Parkinson’s and MS. The company is seeing reduced neurodegeneration in animal models, showing huge therapeutic potential. No other therapies have been shown to slow disease progression across ALS, Parkinson’s and MS.

See the full Future 20 list