DEFTA Partners

Group Chairman & CEO,

Yoshiko Takaike - Kumachi

George Hara is an archaeologist and successful entrepreneur While he was a graduate student at Stanford University in 1981, George founded a successful startup developing fiber optics display systems He then established DEFTA Partners, under which he has funded and led many early-stage technology companies in the US, Europe and Israel to success, including the first gene therapy company Viagene, the first antisense therapy company Isis Pharmaceuticals, and the first bioinformatics company Arris Pharmaceuticals He has recently launched DEFTA Healthcare Technologies to fund and grow technology companies that are enabling every person to lead a healthy life until his/her final moment In the Japanese government, George has held roles of Senior Advisor to the Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2009, Deputy Chairman of the Expert Panel of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, the Prime Minister’s Special Commissioner on the Government Tax Panel, a Member of the Industrial Structure Council of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and a Member of the ICT council of the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Under his vision of Public Interest Capitalism and through these roles, George works to build a framework to commercialize and industrialize new technologies and to rebuild the country’s fiscal health while reducing the tax rates and increasing tax revenues at the same time

DEFTA portfolio Aegle Therapeutics Announces Award of Grant by U S Department of Defense's ("DoD") Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs ("CDMRP") for Development of AGLE-102 Aegle Therapeutics Corporation, a first-in-class biotechnology company developing extracellular vesicles as therapy, today announced that the Company has been awarded a grant by the U S DoD's CDMRP to fund the continued development of the Company's product candidate AGLE-102™ The grant will support clinical manufacturing and the completion of a phase 1 clinical study in burn patients

"The awarding of this grant is an important step in advancing Aegle's AGLE-102 as a potential therapy to treat severe burns," commented Evangelos Badiavas, Aegle's Chief Scientific Officer "AGLE-102's unique properties and mechanism of action make it a potentially promising choice for clinical evaluation in this area of high unmet medical need " "We are honored to be selected for this award from the U S DoD," said Shelley Hartman, Aegle's Chief Executive Officer "This grant will enable us to advance the clinical development of AGLE-102 as a potential treatment for both military and civilian burn patients alike " Minnesota Cup winner Abilitech rolls out key product, sets investment goal Abilitech Medical Inc , the Minneapolis medical-device startup that won the Minnesota Cup last year, on Tuesday said it launched Abilitech Assist, a cornerstone product in its plans for wearable tech that helps people with limited movement in their arms

“This has been my dream for over four years,” Angie Zavoral Conley, the company’s founder and chief executive, said in an interview

“Our device allows the arm and shoulder to move effortlessly, much like in a swimming pool,” she said “We work with [patients], clinicians and caregivers This includes input from an engineer on our team who lives with a spinal cord injury ” The Assist supports the shoulder and elbow, and software customizes a “spring tension” to lift light objects such as a fork, phone or water bottle

The Food and Drug Administration classified the Assist as a wearable product, which allowed Abilitech to commercialize it at the same time it continues clinical trials at the University of Minnesota and Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare Other collaborates include HealthPartners and Allina Health’s Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute ” QuantuMDx and Ontera collaborate to advance sepsis diagnosis QuantuMDx and Ontera, have announced a collaboration to create a next-generation solution for blood stream infection and drug resistance detection The technology will be based on our rapid cell/sample preparation technology, Capture-XT® and Ontera’s powerful nanopore biosensor, currently utilized in their SAM and DUO Nano platforms

The combined technologies should enable clinicians to quickly interrogate blood specimens of those presenting with sepsis signs and symptoms, allowing guided ‘right first time’ care management, at the bedside

Sepsis affects more than 30 million people worldwide every year leading to an estimated 6 million deaths If it’s not recognized early and managed promptly with targeted antibiotics, sepsis can lead to septic shock, multiple organ failure and death

QuantuMDx’s revolutionary Capture-XT® technology captures, concentrates and enriches targeted pathogens from a large sample volume, quickly enabling visual diagnosis and downstream utilization, such as drug-susceptibility analysis, PCR, NGS and now nanopore detection, with this collaboration

Ontera’s single pore platform provides fast amplification of multiple bacterial targets, differentiation between antibiotic resistant and susceptible strains The company uses silicon nanopore for in-minutes quantitative measurement of nucleic acids, proteins and small molecules, avoiding time-consuming laboratory procedures that can delay lifesaving, fast and precise treatment

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