Institut Pasteur de Montevideo presented the first four biotech startups of its company builder LAB+

The Institut Pasteur of Montevideo announced the launch of the first four startups of its company builder LAB+, which, in association with the Ficus Advisory fund, seeks to promote the creation of companies based on scientific-technological knowledge generated in Uruguay.

The associated fund recently closed the first round of capitalization through which the projects selected after an international call for proposals will be financed. Each will receive US$ 750,000 for a period of two years.

The objective of LAB+ is to support disruptive ideas in medicine, biology, and technology from the scientific community aimed at improving the welfare of humans, animals, and the environment so that they can be transformed into sustainable international companies.

This is a “virtuous partnership on an equal footing between academia and a private investment fund” to create 16 startups in four years, said Carlos Batthyány, director of the institute and head of LAB+, during the event.

“LAB+ aims to be a space for the transformation and valorization of scientific-technological knowledge that, emerging from science, allows the creation of world-class companies,” he said.

The CEO of Ficus Advisory, Paul Elbers, confirmed that the exact amount will be added next year to the recent capitalization of US$ 5 million. Then, US$ 15 million will be raised to complete the fund.

“I do not doubt that 50 years from now, we will remember this day as one of the most important in the continuous progress that the country is making through innovation and development based on science and knowledge,” he said.

He emphasized that Uruguay is increasingly moving forward, both in the public and private spheres, to create a scientific ecosystem of global quality. “I think no one should doubt that Uruguay can do it,” he said.

The startups funded with this first round of capitalization were Guska, created by Gonzalo Moratorio and Pilar Moreno; B4RNA, by Juan Pablo Tosar; Scaffold Biotech, by Agustín Correa and Matías Machado and LoCBio, by Felipe Trajtenberg.

• Guska works with oncolytic viruses to design treatments that can, more specifically, fight cancer cells without affecting healthy ones.
• B4RNA proposes to develop a new diagnostic methodology for the early detection of cancer through a new type of RNA molecule and the development of a method to detect them in biological fluids.
• Scaffold Biotech applies artificial intelligence to design new molecules to create more effective vaccines. The startup seeks solutions to high-impact problems for agriculture, such as ticks.
• LoCBio proposes reprograming cells to develop specific tasks and, for example, achieve biotherapeutic products to fight colorectal cancer.

“The institute's main founding mandate is to do science because of the need to understand the biological mechanisms behind the things that happen to us, and that will continue to be its number one goal, to do science of the best possible quality,” Batthyány explained.

The presentation event of these companies was attended by the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou; the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Elisa Facio; Rodrigo Arim Rector of the University of the Republic; representatives of Uruguay XXI, the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Uruguay Innovation Hub, the Office of Planning and Budget (OPP), and other authorities.