NetScientific invests in Breakout Labs’ portfolio

NetScientific plc

(‘NetScientific’ or ‘the Group’)

NetScientific invests in Breakout Labs’ portfolio company EpiBone

8 December 2014: NetScientific (AIM:NSCI), the global biomedical and healthcare technology group, today announced it has made an investment in EpiBone, a revolutionary bone reconstruction company that allows patients to “grow their own bone”. It is the Group’s fourth investment in a Breakout Labs portfolio company since announcing its partnership with Peter Thiel’s revolving philanthropic fund in March 2014.

EpiBone’s pioneering technology uses a scan of the patient’s bone defect and the patient’s own stem cells to construct and cultivate a bone graft with the precise anatomical fit to the defect being treated. EpiBone will offer surgeons simplified procedures and patients improved bone formation and regeneration, with shorter recovery times, without the complications of synthetic implants. 

Based on 15 years of NIH-funded bone tissue engineering research, EpiBone’s technology was developed by Columbia Professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic. The company is led by CEO, Nina Tandon, a former post-doctoral fellow in the Vunjak-Novakoic laboratory and Senior TED Fellow.

Farad Azima, CEO, NetScientific, commented: “EpiBone is another excellent example of the revolutionary new technologies in which Breakout Labs is identifying and investing. We look forward to continuing to work with Breakout Lab’s exciting new companies, supporting a new wave of scientific innovation which could transform many areas of healthcare.”

Nina Tandon, CEO of EpiBone added: “We are very excited about the support we’ve received from NetScientific at this key juncture in our development program. We plan to utilize the funds to perform key experiments that will pave the way towards clinical trials, and eventually towards the clinic, where we hope our technology will be able to truly transform patient lives.”

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About NetScientific

NetScientific is a global biomedical and healthcare technology group that funds and develops technologies that offer transformative benefits to people’s lives and society through improved diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. For more information, please visit the website at www.NetScientific.net 

About Breakout Labs

Breakout Labs, a program of the Thiel Foundation, is reshaping the way early-stage science and technology companies are funded. Breakout Labs supports 19 companies in areas ranging from food science and biomedicine to clean energy. Breakout Labs provides up to $350,000 for companies to achieve specific milestones that are critical to their development. The program provides support in the form of key introductions to potential follow-on funders, refinement of business plans and presentations, an annual demo day with potential investors, and resources that facilitate the process of building their companies. Successful companies will return a capped royalty stream and a small percentage of equity to Breakout Labs and, thereby, contribute to the next generation of scientific innovation. For more information, www.BreakoutLabs.org

About EpiBone

EpiBone is a Columbia University spin-out focused on producing fully functional, patient specific, living bone and osteochondral tissues for anatomically challenging defects that severely debilitate the patient and limit quality of life. These defects, whether rendered by trauma, congenital abnormalities, or cancer, require precise, functional, patient specific substitute tissues. EpiBone employs revolutionary, proprietary technology, protected by a suite of patent applications and substantial technical know-how of a world-class scientific hailing from Columbia and MIT.  For more information, please visit http://epibone.com/ 

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