Twenty-four startups competed in the Forsyth dentech 2022 Startup Competition. One presentation after another excited the audience with innovative technologies and ideas. Yet, in the end there could only be two winners. We would like to formally congratulate Keystone Bio and UptimeHealth for winning the startup competition! These two companies shined the brightest among a tightly competitive cohort.
We asked what it meant to them to present at Forsyth dentech and win the competition. Here’s what they had to say.
Keystone Bio – An interview with CSO, Peter Nara
Can you tell us a little bit about your company?
Keystone Bio is excited to bring biotech, dentistry, and medicine together to treat, modify and prevent inflammation driven diseases including dementias and Alzheimer’s. Keystone’s leadership team and Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) collectively include experts in inflammation, Alzheimer’s Disease, cardio-metabolic diseases, infectious diseases, and dentistry. Keystone Bio brings a wealth of perspectives and experience to our unique approach for early intervention in devastating inflammatory diseases.
Identifying the source for the causative driver of systemic inflammation is one of medicines most important unmet needs today. Coupling our Companion Diagnostic (CDx) with a safe and effective specific precision biological intervention for the largest and most costly disease processes in the US and world by early diagnosing and treating the root cause of chronic diseases-would address one of the if not the largest and growing market (combined markets estimated to be $100B by 2027).
We all know the mouth plays a key role in our overall health.
We have developed a novel bio-therapeutic that shuts down a key bacterial toxin Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) driven form of chronic systemic inflammation, the root cause of many vascular-based and end organ diseases including neuro-inflammation/neurodegenerative and affecting hundreds of millions of people. In fact, an early human trial of our lead monoclonal antibody has been shown to eradicate 100% of Pg.
What does winning this competition mean to you and your company?
Keystone Bio was honored and excited to participate in Forsyth dentech and thrilled to have been chosen out of so many excellent and innovative companies who presented in the oral health space.
The chance to highlight Keystone Bio’s advances through a platform like Forsyth dentech is an important corporate milestone for both the company and the now expanding oral systemic health space.
At Keystone Bio, we believe in the power of bringing biotech, medicine, and dentistry together to eliminate diseases in ways that were not fully appreciated nor attainable in the past. We also believe this recognition will bring welcome attention to Keystone’s approach and our efforts to pioneer new changes in health that strive to solve medicine’s unmet needs.
Why do you feel Forsyth dentech is important for the future of oral health?
The Forsyth Institute’s mission from the beginning has been to advance oral health and it has played an important role in advancing this mission over the last century, always leading the path forward.
Oral health’s impact on overall health has mostly been overlooked in the past. Now, Forsyth Dentech is a leader driving innovation in oral systemic health.
Forsyth dentech’s work fulfills an important, often overlooked but critical area of the larger biotech community. We are very excited to be recognized by Forsyth, for helping to shape and impact the dental oral health care space. Keystone Bio’s groundbreaking medical science has highlighted the mouth as a source of systemic inflammation that is driving a vast amount of conditions impacting the health of our communities.
Together, Keystone Bio and Forsyth dentech represent the future of a transformative oral-systemic healthcare revolution.
UptimeHealth – an Interview with Co-Founder and CEO, Jinesh Patel
Can you tell us a little bit about your company?
UptimeHealth, founded in 2018, provides a software platform for dental and medical facilities managers to help them automate and simplify medical equipment purchase, service, and compliance events. The software standardizes and monitors how team members manage their daily, weekly, and monthly tasks related to their medical equipment, as well as allows users to dispatch service technicians when there is an issue. Owners use the failure and cost analytics stored within the platform to identify problematic devices and forecast future cap-ex purchases. To date, UptimeHealth has users that span several verticals including dental, urgent care, veterinary, and optometry.
How was your experience presenting at Forsyth dentech this year?
The Forsyth dentech conference was great! I was able to listen to great panels hosted by industry leaders as well as meet with fellow like-minded innovators. Hearing about industry trends and what other startups were doing to push dental into the future with technology was amazing. Also, you can’t beat being in Boston this time of year.
How do you think winning the presentation competition will impact your journey as a startup?
The exposure has been great! We received emails and text messages from existing investors, clients, and supporters congratulating us immediately after the announcement. We also plan on raising another round of funding in the coming weeks and being able to meet with and set up meetings with new potential investors focused on the dental tech space will help us tremendously with that effort.
Although we already know the industry needs a solution like UptimeHealth, winning this award and honor further validates our mission to prospective investors and new hires that are taking the risk to join a startup!
