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BOA Biomedical, Inc.: Breakthroughs in Infectious Disease

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Christopher Velis, Founder & Executive Chairman

In the war against infectious diseases like COVID-19, doctors are asking questions that often have no answers. Who is infected? What is the cause? Is the patient getting better? Will drugs work? Can we save their life? Doctors grapple with these questions at a time when antimicrobial resistance, death from infection, pandemics, and bio-threats rise to the top of the world’s biggest challenges. These are the problems that Miraki Innovation’s BOA Biomedical (BOA) has set out to solve.

Diagnosing and treating infections is a serious business. Death from major infections, called sepsis, increases by approximately 8% for every hour undiagnosed. The results are eight million deaths, 30 million patients affected globally every year, and $24 billion in U.S. healthcare expenditure for treatment. The sepsis patient toll exceeds the 1.8 million patients diagnosed and 18 million treated with cancer annually on a global basis.

To address the problem, Cambridge, Mass-based BOA Biomedical is developing a technology suite that holds the promise of reducing healthcare costs and saving lives. The company is the result of a decade of research by DARPA and Harvard University and is at the leading edge of tracking, diagnosing, and treating infections like SARS-CoV-2. The company is the brainchild of leading Harvard University researchers, Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. and Michael Super, Ph.D., and serial entrepreneur, Christopher Velis. Velis co-founded Auris Health, which sold to Johnson & Johnson for a total of $5.75 billion in April of last year.

“In our last venture, we tackled lung cancer.” Velis explained, “This time we are solving the crisis of infectious disease by bringing the world better devices when they are needed most. When it comes to infectious disease, being reactive is unacceptable. BOA is going put doctors ahead of the curve.”

Nisha Varma, Chief Operating Officer

To do this, BOA’s technology harnesses proteins that naturally occur in the body and puts million years of evolution to work in new and innovative ways, allowing near-instant diagnostics and tools to filter dangerous pathogens out of the blood of critically ill patients. The technology works by leveraging the natural immune response to infections such as HIV, Influenza, Zika, Ebola, and SARS. These pathogens are among over 100 already shown to stick to the technology as if it were a fly trap. The result enables diagnosis, tracking, and intervention that would otherwise be impossible.

Our investing approach allows us to develop and commercialize breakthrough technologies faster and more efficiently, helping patients – and investors

This “Velcro-like” capability allows the company’s blood filters to clear anything that looks like a pathogen from the patient’s blood, boosting the immune response and giving patients a fighting chance for more days with the ones they love.

BOA’s technologies are backed by human clinical data, and its filtration technology has FDA approval to begin human clinical studies that will include COVID-19 patients. The studies will play a crucial role in bringing the technology to patients and are set to begin by early next year at five leading medical centers.

Solving the problems of infectious diseases seems to be more than an investment for this team of scientists, physicians, and serial entrepreneurs. It’s a cause. Chief Operating Officer Nisha Varma explained, “BOA upholds the value of caring for patients in need, at times when they need it most. The COVID-19 pandemic allows us the opportunity to make a difference by bringing our investors, doctors, researchers and Miraki Innovation’s resources together to help those in need, and that feels pretty great.”

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Company
BOA Biomedical, Inc

Headquarters
Cambridge, MA

Management
Christopher Velis, Founder & Executive Chairman and Nisha Varma, Chief Operating Officer

Description
Cambridge, Mass.-based BOA Biomedical is developing a technology suite that holds the promise of reducing healthcare costs and saving lives. The company is the result of a decade of research by DARPA and Harvard University, and is at the leading edge of tracking, diagnosing and treating infections like SARS-CoV-2. The company is the brainchild of leading Harvard University researchers, Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. and Michael Super, Ph.D., and serial entrepreneur, Christopher Velis. Velis co-founded Auris Health, which sold to Johnson & Johnson for a total of $5.75 billion in April of last year