SYRACUSE — A startup company based at Upstate Medical University won the top prize at the Biotech Innovation Pitch competition held Oct. 27 at the CNY Biotech Accelerator in Syracuse. DUB Therapeutics won the $10,000 Alan W. Rothschild Innovation Award. The business works at creating a siRNA therapeutic that aims to prevent corneal scarring and […]
SYRACUSE — A startup company based at Upstate Medical University won the top prize at the Biotech Innovation Pitch competition held Oct. 27 at the CNY Biotech Accelerator in Syracuse. DUB Therapeutics won the $10,000 Alan W. Rothschild Innovation Award. The business works at creating a siRNA therapeutic that aims to prevent corneal scarring and inflammation and promote regenerative healing, according to an Upstate Medical announcement. The Alan W. Rothschild Innovation Award honors Rothschild’s life, which was “one of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit” and provides support to individuals and startups who demonstrate excellence in innovation, Upstate said. Its purpose is to further the development and advancement of emerging science and new technologies. DUB Therapeutic co-founders — CSO Audrey Bernstein, Ph.D., and CEO Tere Williams — are hoping to change how corneal injuries and scarring that can lead to vision loss are treated. As inflammation is a major part of the scarring response, a mix of antibiotics and corticosteroids are often currently prescribed, Upstate said. Steroids produce “inconsistent results and well-established adverse events” that include cataracts and glaucoma. The available treatments are also time-consuming; the current dosage for some prescriptions can be required as frequently as four times per day for over a month. DUB Tx’s therapeutic is made of a self-delivering siRNA (sdRNA) that can penetrate cells without additional reagents. One dose of sdRNA lasts two to three months to prevent scarring and promote wound closure in the eye, Upstate said. A panel of five judges selected DUB Therapeutics after listening to brief pitches from the five competitors at the Biotech Innovation Pitch competition. The additional finalists at the Biotech Innovation Pitch event were all awarded $2,500 each. They included Pretip; BiRed Imaging; Azimuth Biologics; and Triton Bio. The finalists are all clients of the CNY Biotech Accelerator. The Rothschild Award is one of several honors DUB Therapeutics has collected in recent years, Upstate said. In 2023, the company was awarded the $50,000 top prize at the SUNY Start Up Summer School (S4) Demo Day. Two months later, it won a $50,000 grant at FuzeHub’s commercialization competition. Judges for the competition included Ann and David Rothschild, sponsors of Alan W. Rothschild Innovation Award; Vicki Quigley; Eileen Pezzi, Upstate VP for development and executive director of the Upstate Foundation; Winthrop Thurlow, executive director of LifeSciencesNY and Michael Hausladen, general manager of LOTTE Biologics in Syracuse.