b'Think Bioscience spun out of CU Boulder with support from Venture Partners at CU Boulder.The company closed a $17 million seed round in August 2022. [Top to bottom] Jerome Fox, Ph.D., CEO; Matt Traylor, Ph.D., CSO; Philip Jeng, M.B.A, COOdBMEDx(Littleton)Think Bioscience Founded in 2010, dBMEDx qualified forThe dBMEDx team now includes 12 people. The Advanced Industries Tax Credit drove additional investment(Boulder)the Advanced Industries Income Tax Creditin the company.Program in 2014. This program, administered by OEDIT, became a powerful way to raiseThink Bioscience is reimagining syntheticopportunities in protein motion, where hidden funds at a critical time in the life cycle of hisbiologythanksinparttoa$250,000binding sites can be revealed, allowing small company, says Co-Founder & CEO Dave Shine. Advanced Industries Early-Stage Capital andmolecules to control protein function. Retention Grant awarded by OEDIT in 2020.Thinks platform is a form of biological compu-The financial infusion was needed to support development of the BBS Revolution, a unique,That initial award set the stage for a cascadetation. The company applies synthetic biology fully automated and easy-to-use 3D bladderof funding.A grant from the National Sciencetechniques to encode drug targets into cel-scanner. At the time, dBMEDx was new toFoundationandfundingfromVenturelular systems that better encapsulate the bio-market and continuing to refine its product.Partners at CU Boulder arrived in late 2020.chemical context of signaling pathways. The The incentives from the state came at anMomentumwasbuilding,andpre-seedidea for this technology had been churning opportune time.funding of an additional $1.9 million in ventureby the time Fox, who has a Ph.D. in Chemical capital was completed by May 2021. In AugustEngineering, landed at CU Boulder in 2016 as With the tax credits, some investors decided2022, the company announced the completionan Assistant Professor in the Chemical and to double the amount of their investment,of a $17 million seed funding round.Biological Engineering Department, where he which was huge, Shine says, noting in totalstill teaches. about $200,000 was claimed by multipleThat OEDIT grant was so impactful because dBMEDx investors in 2014. One of smartestit helped attract the first outside money,With support from Venture Partners at CU things about it is that the state is allowingsays Jerome Fox, Co-Founder & CEO of ThinkBoulder and Innosphere Ventures, Think others to do the intense due diligence onBioscience. It was an important signal thatBioscience spun out of the university, and investment opportunities in awarding these,our technology was promising, and withFox hired his first employees in 2021. Since and follows the lead of investors who want toand dramatically reducing the time to disin- non-dilutive grant funding in hand, additionalthen, the infusion of capital has enabled Think put their money where their mouth is. Its anfect the device after a scan.investments could go further, allowing theBioscience to amass a team of 10, and they are incredibly smart and creative tool to deploycompany to really get to work. still growing in Boulder. The team is charged and help small companies grow.Thanks to recent legislation, even greaterThink Bioscience is developing proprietarywith expanding the drug discovery platform amounts of this type of capital will be avail- technologythatuseslivingsystemstoand moving forward with the development of dBMEDx has experienced that growth first- able to other innovative companies. In June,a portfolio of therapeutic candidates. While hand, as it now employs 12 people, and hasGovernor Jared Polis signed the Advanceddevelop small-molecule therapeutics. With this approach, the company is zeroing in onthis focus can have a far-reaching impact, distributed about 2,000 scanners worldwide.Industries Tax Credit, House Bill 1149, intoColorado is still front of mind.The scanners are uniquely equipped withlaw. This reauthorization and expansion ofdifficult-to-drug targets. eight individual transducers as opposed tothe program is substantial, increasing avail- Fox says these challenging targets account forWe are incredibly grateful for the amazing a single transducer used in other scanners.able funds from $750,000 to $4 million. a large fraction of proteins in the human pro- pharmaceutical and synthetic biology exper-This provides a detailed 180-degree view thatteome. This means entire classes of importanttise in Colorado, Fox says. It has been key automatically locates the bladder, making itThe amount does matter, Shine says. Forproteins lack targeted therapeutics. A wayto propelling our growth.easier and faster for the nurse to measurecompanies early on, its a fine line some- to attack these elusive targets is to exploit the bladder while increasing patient comfort.times between making it and not. To have that level of support to build your company, The 3D technology and rapid simple mea- its a vital advantage. We are incredibly grateful for surement helps avoid unnecessary catheter-izations, which can be painful and increasesthe amazing pharmaceutical and the risk of hospital acquired infections. [Tax credits are] an incredibly smartsynthetic biology expertise in The BBS Revolution has a wireless probe, withand creative tool to deploy and help a communication range of more than 30 feet.Colorado, Fox says. It has been This means that the display console and cartsmall companies grow.can remain outside a room if a patient is in DAVE SHINE, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, DBMEDX key to propelling our growth.isolation, mitigating the risk of contamination 22 BIOSCIENCECOLORADO 2022-2023 2022-2023 BIOSCIENCECOLORADO 23'