Category: PRESS RELEASES

Investors Back Groundbreaking AgTech Startup that Programs Plants with Light

NEW YORK, June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BioLumic Inc. (“BioLumic”) today announced the closing of a $13.5-million Series B funding round that will be used to accelerate commercial growth for its cutting-edge, patented agricultural technology that harnesses the power of ultraviolet light to improve plant productivity.

The funding round is led by OurCrowd and is joined by Finistere Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, Rabo Ventures, Entourage Effect Capital, Arcview Ventures Seed Fund, Flatiron Venture Partners, RIV Capital, Virtu Capital, Bravos Capital, Privthi, NZ Booster Fund, Norwind Capital, MIG Nominee No 1 Limited, Aspire NZ Seed Fund and others.

“OurCrowd is proud to be leading this important investment round for BioLumic,” says OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved. “Now, just when a hungry world is perched on the edge of a food crisis, BioLumic is bringing the photonics revolution to agriculture with its stunning signaling platform which literally programs plants with light. This is a company whose time has come.”

BioLumic’s Light Signal Recipe™ platform uses proprietary knowledge of how UV light influences plant biology and genetics, data science, and patented treatment technology. Without adding chemicals or genetic engineering, the BioLumic platform empowers agricultural, horticultural and cannabis growers to improve overall plant health, quality and yield.

“BioLumic is applying light in an entirely new way to meet the challenge of improving crop growth, plant yield and quality without increasing energy consumption,” says BioLumic CEO Steve Sibulkin. “Light Signal Recipes are clean, scalable and available at a fraction of the time, risk and cost of traditional solutions. Moving forward with this great group of savvy investors speeds our ability to bring these important outcomes to customers.”

BioLumic will use the funds from this latest financing round to market its technology, focusing specifically on cannabis, soybean, corn, canola and strawberry. With cannabis, BioLumic plans to deepen relationships with cultivation leaders and technology partners, while adding to a growing library of Light Signal Recipes that have already triggered large, combined gains in dry flower yield, THC concentration, minor cannabinoids and terpenes. Funding will also be used to advance a new generation of Light Signal Recipes focused on photosynthetic and nutrient use efficiency.

About BioLumic — BioLumic is an agricultural technology company founded in 2013. The company’s Light Signal Platform and proprietary UV treatment systems improve the performance of key plant traits using short-duration UV treatments for both seedlings and seeds. These treatments provide the plants with several important and long-term benefits, including improved crop consistency, increased yield and stronger disease resistance. BioLumic has offices in the United States and New Zealand. To learn more, visit www.biolumic.com.

Contact – Steve Sibulkin, CEO, +1 917 502 4400

Australian biotech Skin2Neuron Pty Ltd. (S2N) has what no one has to date – reversal of a dementia-like syndrome in a natural animal form of Alzheimer’s disease.

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SYDNEY, June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — With the once dominant amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease suffering yet another crushing blow this week, the field is desperate for a ray of hope. Enter S2N, a new Australian biotech pioneering an all-new neurorestorative approach, aiming to rebuild and replace the lost brain cells in Alzheimer’s that underlies clinical symptoms.

In a world first, a veterinary trial led by S2N suggests the audacious concept may work. S2N’s new form of cell therapy reversed the dementia-like syndrome that strikes down many older pet dogs with Alzheimer’s.

Co-founder Professor Michael Valenzuela explains, “Because of deep parallels between the canine brain and human brain, and canine Alzheimer’s and human Alzheimer’s, I started this trial 10 years ago with the assumption that if it’s going to work in humans, then it needs to work in dogs first. And the results exceeded my wildest expectations.”

Dementia was reversed in more than half of the canine patients, with a clinically meaningful improvement in 80%. For many of the carers, it was a life-changing turnaround, some at the point of considering euthanasia before treatment.

Fiona Gibbs, carer of Leo, a 12-yo Pomeranian in the trial, describes the impact: “Before treatment, Leo was really bad, forgetting who we were, getting lost, and having these unpredictable episodes where he would growl and snap – it was really scary and we just couldn’t go on. A few months after treatment, he started getting better, and then he was back to his normal self, and we look back at the movies and think, ‘Wow, was he really that bad?’”

Leo’s life-changing improvement lasted almost two years, typical of clinical recovery in the trial.

And when Valenzuela looked in the brain, the findings were remarkable, “The hippocampus, the memory centre of the brain, was packed with baby neurons and new synapses, precisely where we delivered the cells. Compared to untreated dogs, it was like night and day”.

Importantly, microscopic analysis confirmed the dogs had classic Alzheimer pathology. In other words, the cell therapy worked in the setting of natural disease, a first of its kind.

“Given our doggie patients also had many of the same health issues that older people face, it gives me even greater confidence,” says Valenzuela.

Stem cell pioneer Professor Brent Reynolds of the University of Florida, not connected to the study, considers it a landmark in the quest to treat brain degeneration. “Alzheimer’s is an area of medicine that needs new thinking. What stands out are clinically meaningful outcomes in a natural canine model of this devastating disease. Also, the company’s approach to generating cells from the same patient could solve many of the problems facing cell therapies.”

The study helps pave the way for S2N to launch a world-first human trial in 2024.

Contact

Professor Michael Valenzuela

Co-founder & CEO, Skin2Neuron Pty Ltd.

mvalenzuela@skin2neuron.org

+61 413 603 784 (AEST)

Related Images

Image 1: Figure 1/2

Hippocampus (memory centre) of an older dog with dementia-like syndrome successfully treated with S2N’s cells. It is packed with green cells that are new neurons (brain cells) and yellow dots, new synapses (connections between brain cells).

Image 2: Figure 2/2

Same brain area in an aged untreated dog. There are no new neurons (no green cells), a few red dots (old synapses), but no new synapses (no yellow dots).

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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• Figure 1/2

June 21, 2022

• Prestigious title awarded for the team’s multi-disciplinary and human-centered approach to designing solutions that improve people’s lives
• Celebratory event accompanied by presentation of awards for Philips’ three Red Dot Design ‘Best of the Best’ product ratings

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced that the company’s Experience Design Team has been awarded the honorary title of ‘Red Dot: Design Team of the Year 2022’. The Red Dot design organization awarded the title in recognition of the Philips Experience Design Team’s multidisciplinary approach to creating integrated solutions that address major challenges in healthcare, such as ageing populations, the increase in chronic illnesses, the COVID-19 pandemic, and escalating healthcare costs, together with its strong focus on the user and patient experience.

On behalf of the team, Philips’ Chief Design Officer Sean Carney was presented the award during the Red Dot award ceremony that took place on the evening of Monday, June 20 in Essen, Germany. It is the first time in the history of the Red Dot Design Award (1988) that this award has been bestowed on a design team for the second time.

Philips’ Experience Design Team comprises a multidisciplinary team of designers operating out of 13 design centers across North and South America, Europe and Asia. Applying deep human insights and cutting-edge technologies, the team helps to create healthcare products and services that truly improve lives, making it a key part of Philips’ mission to improve the lives of 2.5 billion people a year by 2030, including 400 million in underserved communities.

“Philips’ design team has achieved what many wish for, but few manage – holistic solutions that require the interplay of technology and design to make a lasting positive impact on the progress of their own company and the transformation of healthcare,” said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of Red Dot. “The multidisciplinary Philips Experience Design Team has been proving for years that it is a leader in the field of healthcare technology. The Red Dot: Design Team of the Year 2022 award is a well-deserved recognition of their work.”

“For more than a decade we’ve recognized that integrated systems combining smart devices, systems, software, and services with real-time data and patient histories are the only way to deliver on the quadruple aim of better patient outcomes, enhanced patient and staff experiences, and lower cost of care, and do it across the entire patient journey,” said Sean Carney, Chief Design Officer at Philips. “I am immensely proud that my team has been awarded the prestigious title of Red Dot: Design Team of the Year in recognition of the outstanding healthcare solutions they are helping deliver.”

In April, Philips received three Red Dot Design ‘Best of the Best’ awards for ground-breaking design excellence, bringing the company’s cumulative ‘Best of the Best’ total over the years to 27, next to more than 460 Red Dot awards in total.

Selected independently
Red Dot design awards are awarded for submitted products that are judged by the Red Dot jury to be outstanding in terms of their aesthetic appeal, functionality, smartness or innovation. The Red Dot: Design Team of the Year is selected independently from design teams with a consistent track record of innovative, top-class design achievements.

Learn from Philips Experience Design team member Hyelin Lee what it means to put human-centered and sustainable circular-ready design front-and-center in the end-to-end design process.

For further information, please contact:

Joost Maltha
Philips Global Press Office
Tel: +31 6 10 55 8116
Email: joost.maltha@philips.com

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2021 sales of EUR 17.2 billion and employs approximately 78,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

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• Philips Ingenia MR
• Philips Lumify portable ultrasound
• Philips Chief Design Officer Sean Carney receives the Red Dot Design Team of the Year 2022 award

This is the new fantasy creature from the Phantasticals campaign that Ferrer has relaunched, coinciding with Global Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Awareness Day, on June 21. The aim is to raise public awareness of this rare, neurodegenerative, progressive disease that affects the motor neurons in the brain. Ferrer is leading the ADORE Phase III clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational drug FNP122 in the treatment of ALS.

Phantasticals awareness campaign

Phantasticals awareness campaign

BARCELONA, Spain, June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On Global Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Motor Neuron Disease (ALS/MND) Awareness Day on June 21, the Phantasticals campaign, run by Ferrer, the pharmaceutical company, has added a new fantasy creature, with the aim of raising awareness of ALS, a rare, neurodegenerative, progressive disease that affects the motor neurons in the brain.

The new character, a dragon called ALSton, joins the first creatures that Ferrer unveiled for World Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) Day on May 5: the mermaids PHoebe, PAHola and PHILipa, three mythological beings that help to explain Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) and two of its subtypes: Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Pulmonary Hypertension due to Interstitial Lung Disease (PAH and PH-ILD).

In this campaign, the Phantasticals are rare fantasy creatures that are extraordinary, unique and, of course, fantastic. Along with the characteristics that make them so special, they all have something in common: they are strong, resilient, and often go unnoticed. Just like people who live with rare, serious and debilitating diseases, such as pulmonary hypertension and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

As Oscar Pérez, Ferrer’s Chief Marketing, Market Access and Business Development Officer, points out, “the Phantasticals campaign is aligned with Ferrer’s purpose of making a positive impact in society, giving visibility to a series of pathologies about which there is a great deal of ignorance and little public awareness of its effects. After raising awareness about pulmonary hypertension and offering our support to people living with the disease, we are now focusing on ALS, a disease in which we are also working to provide solutions through pharmaceutical research.”

At www.phantasticals.com, the Phantasticals explain the main aspects of the different pathologies, emphasizing their low prevalence, symptoms, diagnosis and possible treatments.
Engagement Beyond Awareness: ADORE Clinical Trial

Yet another example of Ferrer’s commitment to people living with ALS is the ADORE Phase III clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational drug, FNP122, in the treatment of ELA.

The study, which is currently in the recruitment phase, is an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive FNP122 or a placebo in a 2:1 ratio. FNP122 is an oral formulation of edaravone, a compound that can prevent oxidative stress at the cellular level.

For more information: https://www.ferrer.com/en/adore-clinical-trial
Press contact details:

gortizdez@ferrer.com
+34 936 003 779

Related Images

Image 1: Phantasticals awareness campaign

The new phase of the Phantasticals campaign introduces ALSton the dragon to raise awareness on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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• Phantasticals awareness campaign

Kunming Dounan flower market

KUNMING, China, June 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Kunming, the capital city of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, saw a booming trade in its flower markets in 2021 and tops the country’s trade of fresh-cut flowers, according to the Kunming Municipal Government.

A total of 10.26 billion stems of fresh-cut flowers were sold in the Dounan flower market in 2021, an increase of 25 percent from that of the previous year. As a barometer of China’s flower market, Kunming also witnessed its 2021 trade volume hit 11.2 billion yuan (about 1.8 billion US dollars), up 38 percent year on year.

Standing as China’s largest fresh-cut flower market in terms of both trade volume and export value for 23 consecutive years, Dounan has become the largest fresh-cut flower trading market in Asia, with a product portfolio of fresh-cut flowers, bonsai, green seedlings, and gardening materials.

Trade can be conducted both onsite and via electronic auction services. Currently, 40,000 of the 70,000 permanent residents in Dounan are engaged in the flower industry.

The average annual temperature in Kunming is around 15 degrees Celsius, the average yearly precipitation is about 1,000 mm, and the average yearly sunshine time is about 2,200 hours. Kunming, dubbed “spring city” and “flower city”, is an ideal place for leisure, tourism, vacation, and residence.

At present, in Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center, more than 1,500 varieties of fresh-cut flowers from more than 40 categories, such as rose, Barberton daisy, carnation, and Hydrangea, were traded in over 50 countries and regions including Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Russia, and Australia through auction transactions.

Flower farmers and florists pack fresh-cut flowers and transport them to Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center every morning. Trolleys line up in the waiting area, and brokers hold flashlights to check the quality of the flowers. Every bouquet must undergo strict inspection and get a rating before the auction. There are six grades in the rating system: AA, A, B, C, D, and E. The better the quality, the higher the grade and the information will also be recorded on the receipt to form a detailed “ID card”.

To improve the flower trading efficiency, Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center has constantly enhanced trading modes, and the center also took the initiative and introduced a number of e-commerce live broadcast platforms to boost flower sales and income for flower merchants and farmers.

Dounan, Kunming, has also gradually built a one-stop logistics station for collection, cargo allocation, security inspection, and delivery at the leading regional airports in Yunnan Province, to build a terminal logistics and distribution system. Fresh-cut flowers can arrive at the terminal market between 24 to 48 hours after they are picked.

After years of development, Dounan owns two well-known trademarks of the Chinese flower industry, “Dounan” and “KIFA”. Dounan is more than a flower planting land but a complex platform for auctions, logistics, R&D, agricultural resources, tourism, etc., and has attracted over 4,000 related enterprises. The solid domestic and foreign markets have jointly infused Dounan’s flower industry with great potential.

Contact: 
Sasa Guan
Email: tongguan@xinhuanetus.com

Related Images

Image 1: Kunming Dounan flower market

Photographer: Wu Xin Location: Kunming Dounan Flower Market Event: Buyers of Fresh-cut flowers came in endless streams

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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• Kunming Dounan flower market