Prize4Life

Prize4Life is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 in Cambridge, MA focused on accelerating therapy development for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's disease). Prize4Life uses incentive prizes to attract new minds and drive innovation in ALS drug development. The organization is running the $1M Avi Kremer ALS Treatment Prize4Life challenge for preclinical validation of a novel ALS therapeutic in an ALS mouse model, and submissions to this prize will be accepted until June 6th 2015. In addition to prizes, Prize4Life also runs infrastructure programs to support the ALS research community, such as the ALS FORUM, an online portal of cutting edge research and drug development news in ALS (www.researchals.org).

Sara Shnider
Executive Director 

SENS Research Foundation, Inc. United States

SENS Research Foundation is based in Mountain View, CA. The foundation provides grants for research into rejuvenation biotechnologies that prevent or reverse age-related tissue damage. Historically grants have ranged from $40,000 to $200,000 although this range may change in the future. Grants are available to researchers worldwide. SENS requests that grants not be used to cover overhead/facilities costs. At present, 15 projects are being supported.

Mike Kope
CEO and President 
Ms Jerri Barrett
VP of Outreach 

Sound Affects

Sound Affects is a philanthropic organization based in Westport CT. Sound Affects is a nonprofit crowdfunding platform that will provide non-dilutive research grants to for-profit life science companies developing products in the oncology sector. Sound Affects? grant sizes are variable depending on project needs with current projects seeking to raise between $5 and $5, the amount of funding sought should be sufficient to reach the next product development milestone. Sound Affects is potentially open to funding about 4 further projects and is best placed to work with entrepreneurs based in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region of the USA but is also open to proposals from outside this region. In addition to direct crowdfunding Sound Affects will in the future provide additional resources via a matching fund.
Mona Jhaveri
Executive Director 

Syncona Partners United Kingdom

Syncona Partners, founded in 2012, is an evergreen investment firm based in London, UK. The firm is an independent subsidiary of the Wellcome Trust who invested the initial £200m capitalization. The firm is mandated to invest in companies with the potential to make major breakthroughs in healthcare. The investment size will usually range from £1M – £20M per company. The firm seeks to create sustainable, profitable businesses, to support them with capital over the long term, for the benefit of patients, and to hold an ownership position to create value for the Wellcome Trust. The firm is actively screening new investment opportunities.

Year Founded
2012
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Chris Hollowood
Partner