LambdaVision Strengthens Its Board of Directors Following Series A Investment from Connecticut Innovations
FARMINGTON, Conn. (PRWEB) June 21, 2018 -- LambdaVision Incorporated, a biotech company specializing in developing a treatment for patients blinded by retinal degenerative diseases, today announced the addition of Pauline Murphy of Connecticut Innovations and Kirk Dornbush, JD, of Coagulant Therapeutics Inc. to the company’s board of directors. The new board members enhance the current team of directors and bring a rich set of expertise in fundraising and in the development of ophthalmic therapies.
“LambdaVision is incredibly fortunate to add these two talented and experienced executives and entrepreneurs to our board of directors,” said Nicole Wagner, PhD, LambdaVision’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Pauline Murphy has been an engaging supporter throughout the early development of our retinal implant technology, and we look forward to expanding our relationship with Connecticut Innovations through the next stages of our commercialization efforts. Kirk Dornbush brings over 15 years of experience in developing therapies for ophthalmology. Our mission of treating blindness due to macular degeneration and inherited retinal disorders will be further strengthened by the input from these leaders and innovators.”
Led by Wagner, LambdaVision is developing a retinal implant to cure vision impairment and blindness for more than 30 million people worldwide. Using a protein grown in the laboratory and implanted behind the retina, this promising new procedure offers hope for patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other retinal diseases. The protein is in pre-clinical trials across the country to determine the stability and efficacy of the implant. The company is currently a part of the UConn Technology Incubation Program (TIP) in Farmington, CT.
The expansion of the board closely follows the closing of a $500,000 Series A investment from Connecticut Innovations, which marks a significant milestone for the company as the leadership team continues to make strides toward first-in-human trials.
As Senior Managing Director, Investments, at Connecticut Innovations, Murphy has led investments in Bioarray Genetics, Environmental Energy Services, eTouches, Premise Corporation (acquired by Eclipsys Corporation), Cadenza Innovation, Fitscript, LambdaVision and Summit Street Medical. She serves on the boards of Environmental Energy Services, Bioarray Genetics, Fitscript and Summit Street Medical. She also managed CI’s investment in CGI (acquired by Gilead) and CiDRA Corporation.
Dornbush is COO and Co-Founder of Coagulant Therapeutics Inc. and has a biotechnology career spanning 15 years. In March 2003, he co-founded Iconic Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of a new drug candidate licensed from Yale University, called ICON-1, a FVIIa-based recombinant protein that targets tissue factor for the treatment of a variety of diseases, including wet AMD and cancer. From Iconic’s inception through 2016, Dornbush raised approximately $110 million in individual and venture financing for Iconic. He retired from the company at the end of 2016 and remains on the board of directors. In September 2017, Dornbush joined Coagulant Therapeutics Inc. as Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder.
About LambdaVision:
LambdaVision Incorporated is developing a high-resolution, protein-based artificial retina to restore vision to the millions of patients blinded by retinal degenerative diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. Because there is no cure for these diseases and treatments only slow the progression, there is a significant unmet need for the development of a retinal prosthesis that restores meaningful vision to those affected. The patent-protected artificial retina technology developed by LambdaVision uses the light-activated protein bacteriorhodopsin to replace the function of the damaged photoreceptor cells. The flexible, subretinal implant is powered by incident light and does not require any external power supplies or bulky hardware on or outside the eye, and offers the potential for far greater resolution than competing electrode-based technologies.
Nicole L. Wagner, Ph.D., LambdaVision Incorporated, http://www.lambdavision.com, 860-679-2558, [email protected]
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