The partnership unites Auxilium’s resources and new Downtown Worcester startup space with MBI’s connections to Worcester’s dense life sciences talent pool and mentor community to support founders.
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CPR Therapeutics: Making CPR modern
Modern cardiopulmonary resuscitation was discovered almost 70 years ago, finally giving physicians a chance of restoring blood flow to the brain and heart. But even with CPR, sudden cardiac arrest kills between 300,000 to 400,000 people a year in the United States, said Dr. Norman Paradis, CEO and chief medical officer at CPR Therapeutics. Outside a hospital setting, survival of cardiac arrest is below 10%. An emergency physician and emeritus professor at Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine, Paradis said improving cardiac arrest survival has been his lifelong pursuit. Even a small percentage gain in survival rates could save tens of thousands of lives a year. “It's such a big problem, and there's been so little progress in it,” Paradis said. “It's not rocket science. We're just going to put more force in, we're going to do it in a way that doesn't break ribs.” CPR Therapeutics' device is akin to an oversized blood pressure cuff that wraps around a patient's torso. It applies pressure around the entire torso, drastically increasing blood flow while reducing injury. The automated device can include defibrillator paddles, with AI technology monitoring a patient's response and automatically adjusting in real time. Paradis is based in rural Vermont, where resources for startups are limited. He said Worcester's relative proximity and solid base of engineering talent made Auxilium a good fit.Microvitality: Unpacking digestive mysteries
Microvitality is a pre-seed-stage medical device startup spun out of Tufts University in Medford. Its ingestible capsule, developed by Co-Founder Zoe Watson, hopes to revolutionize how conditions like irritable bowel syndrome and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth are diagnosed. Current diagnostic tools like breath and stool samples cannot directly access the small intestine, leading to conditions like IBS and SIBO being misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, Watson said. Microvitality's device allows a sample to be collected directly from the small intestine, potentially cutting short the diagnostic delays common in an IBS diagnosis. “This is a way to more accurately diagnose and then inform targeted treatment for the patients,” Watson said. Watson grew up in Sturbridge before receiving her biomedical engineering degree from Union College in New York. After interning at Empatica, a Cambridge-based medical device firm spun off from MIT, she met Microvitality co-founder Sofia Paschenti while enrolled in an innovation management graduate program at the Tufts’ Gordon Institute. The technology was developed in collaboration with Tufts for about two years before being spun off, Watson said. Watson said emerging research on the gut-brain connection could expand the technology's applications beyond IBS and SIBO. Microvitality is currently operating out of a lab in Cambridge, but Watson said the company is exploring a deeper presence in Worcester, drawn by lower costs and access to the region's hospitals and universities. Already a graduate of MBI's Spark mentorship program, Watson spoke highly of the city’s ecosystem. “It's much cheaper than Boston and makes a lot of sense for startups,” she said.Predictive Healthcare: Third bite at the apple
Predictive Healthcare CEO and Founder Talal Ali Ahmad already has a track record of founding startups, with this being his third endeavor. Originally a telecom engineer, he founded vCentrix, an infrastructure solutions firm, before spending a year volunteering with a nonprofit performing cleft palate surgeries in Latin America and Africa, an experience that sparked his interest in medical devices. After co-founding Proximie, a company focused on creating software for intelligent operating rooms, he launched Predictive Healthcare in 2021. Predictive addresses post-surgical care, a topic that came up repeatedly in conversations with physicians about gaps in patient treatment, Ali Ahmad said. Using vital signs and photos of a wound uploaded by patients to an app, Predictive closely monitors surgical wounds for warning signs of infection. Open incision surgeries have about a 19% infection rate, Ali Ahmad said, leading to a 25% readmission rate. “When the patient is discharged from surgery, we still give them instructions on paper saying if you see something, follow the instructions and call us,” he said. “That's why we built this solution.” Predictive uses an AI algorithm to examine wound images and alerts clinicians when intervention may be needed before a complication requires readmission. Ali Ahmad said readmissions cost the U.S. healthcare system $4 billion every year. Ali Ahmad said Predictive is commercial-ready, with ongoing pilots at Mass General Hospital and Tufts Medical Center. Already familiar with Worcester through his son’s time at Clark University, Ali Ahmad said he chose Auxilium for its comprehensive support approach.SilkMed: Treating battlefield burns
David Kaplan at Tufts University has been researching silk as a biomaterial for medical applications for roughly 30 years. His lab has spun out multiple startups, the latest being SilkMed, co-founded by Sebastian Useche and Zachary DiMuccio. Useche, who has a background in mechanical engineering, was born in Ecuador; DiMuccio is from Seekonk and studied biomedical engineering. SilkMed works by mimicking the spinning mechanics of a silkworm. The silk protein is taken from a disordered state. Through controlled pressure and force, it is converted into a structured gel that forms a protective, moisture-balanced layer over an acute burn when sprayed. Beyond acting as a protective barrier, the spray can deliver treatments directly to a wound site; the current focus is burns, though DiMuccio said it could have wider applications.
