Yale-CURE BioHaven Entrepreneurship Series Presents Humacyte: "Creating Scaffolds for Building Human Tissues"

The Yale-CURE BioHaven Entrepreneurship Series opens its fall schedule with a program on Humacyte, Inc. on Thursday, October 16, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Anlyan Center Auditorium, 300 Cedar Street. The series is organized by the Yale Office of Cooperative Research and Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE).

The featured speakers will be Geoffrey Erickson, Humacyte president and CEO, and Laura Niklason, M.D., associate professor of anesthesia and biomedical engineering at Yale University, who is the company’s founder.

Humacyte is a development-stage company focused on the creation and commercialization of engineered human products for several applications. The company’s core technology is a proprietary process that produces human-based tissue scaffolds. These scaffolds can be shaped into tubes, sheets, or particulate conformations that can be used as an off-the-shelf product for many specialized applications in any patient.

According to the founders, Humacyte is developing this technology in multiple products for markets that include cardiovascular, cosmetic, and soft tissue reconstruction.

The company is focusing on development of its injectable products as dermal fillers in the cosmetics market and as a bulking agent for treatment of incontinence in the urological market. In its tubular conformation, the product can be used in general peripheral vascular replacement and in dialysis graft placement for kidney failure patients requiring dialysis machine access. A future market for the Humacyte scaffolding is in coronary artery bypass treatment.

Refreshments and networking will follow the seminar from 5 to 6 p.m. Registration is free, but advanced registration is required. To register, RSVP to biohaven@yale.edu or call the Yale Office of Cooperative Research at 203-785-6209. Directions to the event are available online at http://info.med.yale.edu/maps/cab.html

The Yale BioHaven Entrepreneurship Series features educational panels designed to showcase regionally developed life science technologies that have progressed along the path to commercialization. Speakers at the BioHaven events represent both the scientific and business side of the enterprises. The programs focus on key success factors of each company, scientific or technological advantage, business model and lessons learned in starting and developing the business. The series also serve as social networking opportunities for scientists/researchers in the Yale community.

Yale BioHaven Entrepreneurship Series is sponsored by the Yale Office of Cooperative Research, Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE), Wiggin and Dana, LLP, Price Waterhouse Coopers, PC and Elm Street Ventures, with support from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute and the Yale Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Society. For further information on the seminar, please contact Tracy Huang at 203-436-8096 or tracy.huang@yale.edu.