TheraCea Presents at San Francisco Biotech Showcase

TheraCea played a prominent role at the esteemed 2022 Biotech Showcase, a premier platform that unites influential industry stakeholders, investors, and innovators. The showcase provided TheraCea with an unparalleled opportunity to showcase its groundbreaking advances in radiopharmaceutical tracers, highlighting its commitment to transforming healthcare through cutting-edge science and technology.

During the presentation, TheraCea's esteemed Chief Executive Officer and accomplished research team elucidated the company's overarching vision and mission. Emphasizing a dedication to advancing precision medicine, they underscored the transformative potential of TheraCea's radiopharmaceutical tracers across various diagnostic domains, including neurology and immunology.

TheraCea Receives American Chemical Society's Partners for Progress and Prosperity (P3) Award

TheraCea is thrilled to have received the prestigious American Chemical Society's Partners for Progress and Prosperity Award, a testament to our outstanding collaborative efforts. This accolade, established with the aim of acknowledging impactful partnerships across various sectors, highlights our successful collaboration with industry, academia, and other organizations. The ACS Regional Meeting award includes a distinguished Partners for Progress and Prosperity silver/gold medallion, a framed certificate of recognition for each partner entity, and a grant of up to $1,000, equally distributed among partners to further the initiatives that led to the award. TheraCea's achievement in securing this award showcases our commitment to fostering partnerships that advance STEM education, entrepreneurship, and advocacy in the chemistry enterprise. This recognition also aligns with our dedication to improving public perception and appreciation for chemistry, while underscoring our dedication to collaborative progress and prosperity within the scientific community.

TheraCea Pharma Awarded Competitive Grant from the National Science Foundation

Small Business Innovation Research Program Provides Seed Funding for R&D

Tucson, AZ, September 1st, 2021 – TheraCea Pharma has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $256,000 to conduct research and development (R&D) work on development of new Positron Emission Tomography (PET) radiotracers for early detection of disease (ie. cancer, neurological disorders, and infectious diseases), staging, and evaluation of response-to-therapy. 

PET, a noninvasive diagnostic tool for disease detection in real time, is an exquisitely sensitive and quantitative imaging modality with numerous applications in oncology, neurology, cardiology, and infectious disease. Early detection is the key to patient survival because it guides treatment decisions and allows for earlier treatment, target specific treatment, treatment response assessment, and recurrence monitoring.

“Fluorine-18 is the most popular radioisotope for PET imaging due to its advantageous physical, chemical, commercial and image quality characteristics. However, due to very challenging chemistry, radiopharmaceuticals best suited for early detection, such as 18F-biomolecules, are lacking despite the critical clinical need. TheraCea’s technology recognizes this need and provides a solution to fulfill it. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Arizona and with the support from NSF, TheraCea is commercializing its novel labeling technology”said Dr. Iman Daryaei, Co-Founer and CEO of TheraCea Pharma

“NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering,” said Andrea Belz, Division Director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. “With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.” 

Once a small business is awarded a Phase I SBIR/STTR grant (up to $256,000), it becomes eligible to apply for a Phase II (up to $1,000,000). Small businesses with Phase II funding are eligible to receive up to $500,000 in additional matching funds with qualifying third-party investment or sales. 

Startups or entrepreneurs who submit a three-page Project Pitch will know within one month if they meet the program’s objectives to support innovative technologies that show promise of commercial and/or societal impact and involve a level of technical risk. Small businesses with innovative science and technology solutions, and commercial potential are encouraged to apply. All proposals submitted to the NSF SBIR/STTR program, also known as America’s Seed Fund, powered by NSF, undergo a rigorous merit-based review process. To learn more about America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, visit: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/

About TheraCea Pharma: TheraCea is a biotechnology startup company located in Tucson, AZ. TheraCea’s is developing new chemical processes for the preparation of a new generation of radiotracers for PET imaging. TheraCea’s mission is to introduce 18F-labeled radiotracer kits with applications early detection diseases and assessment of response to therapy. 

About the National Science Foundation's Small Business Programs: America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $2 million to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.5 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

Disclaimer: Research reported in this press release is supported by the National Science Foundation under the award number 2124459. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation

Disclaimer: Certain statements in this press release may contain “forward-looking statements.” Press Release Distribution Terms of Use or Results may differ substantially because of risks and uncertainties we face. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations at the time they were made. We make no commitment to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. 

TheraCea Pharma Selected to Participate in the Concept to Clinic: Commercializing Innovation Program

“The C3i Program is designed to provide medical device innovators with the specialized business frameworks and essential tools for successful translation of biomedical technologies from the lab (concept) to the market (clinic). Through this program, the NIH fosters the development and commercialization of early-stage biomedical technologies by engaging investigators who are interested in better understanding the value of their innovation in addressing an unmet market need. The curriculum and customized mentoring provided by the C3i Program are intended to guide investigators as they assess the commercial viability and potential business opportunity for their innovation.

The C3i Program is based on the Coulter Commercialization Process, an approach to biomedical research translation developed and continuously refined by the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation in collaboration with its academic partners across the country. Since 2001, the Foundation has supported more than 700 interdisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers, to bring the latest biomedical innovations to market for the benefit of human health and society at-large. To date 186 projects have raised more than $5.3 billion in venture capital and more than 500 Thousand in SBIR funding, 61 projects has been licensed to industry partners, and dozens more have received SBIR support. Most importantly, these efforts have given risen to more than 52 products with more than 50 advancing through the various FDA pathways. The key features and elements which define the Coulter Commercialization Process have been captured and condensed into an intensive, fast-paced training course, the C3i Program.

In 2014, the NIBIB and the Coulter Foundation established a public-private partnership to offer the C3i curriculum to NIH-supported investigators. Over the past five years, five courses have been offered, providing mentored business training to 70 participating teams. Cumulatively, these teams have received over $24M in NIH SBIR/STTR grant funding and have raised over $94M in private capital financing, and two products have been cleared for marketing by the FDA.” - NIH

TheraCea Receives NSF's National I-CORPs Award

TheraCea has proudly secured the esteemed NSF National Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Award, a recognition that underscores our commitment to bridging the gap between laboratory innovation and real-world market implementation. I-Corps is dedicated to minimizing the risks inherent in technology translation, fostering experiential learning to accelerate the journey from research breakthroughs to practical applications. With an impressive track record, over 2,500 teams, including TheraCea, have engaged with I-Corps since its inception in 2012. Remarkably, nearly 1,400 of these teams have successfully launched startups, collectively raising an impressive $3.16 billion in subsequent funding. TheraCea's receipt of the NSF National I-Corps Award attests to our dedication to transformative innovation and our readiness to navigate the intricate pathway from laboratory discovery to substantial market impact.