BioMEMS Diagnostics, a Michigan-based diagnostics developer, has opened an assay development/optimization laboratory on the Gunnison, Colorado campus of Western Colorado University. The laboratory will create high-performance assay chemistry and optimized antibodies for the company’s electrochemical assays. The assays are integrated with BioMEMS’s proprietary microelectromechanical sensor arrays, housed within a single-use test cartridge which captures and processes biofluid samples.

Zane Baird PhD has also joined the company as director of the assay development lab and moved to Gunnison. Baird has worked with BioMEMS for the past few months, and this new full-time position will help accelerate the product development effort across the board.

As part of the move, the company has expanded the diagnostics product pipeline to include a chronic inflammation test panel. There’s also work underway to demonstrate the feasibility of a saliva-based test for Vitamin B1, B6 and B12 deficiency. Previously, BioMEMS had conducted a small feasibility study for
Dutch personalized nutrition pioneer DSM to determine if BioMEMS technology could detect and quantify incremental changes in levels of oxidative stress biomarkers in urine of test subjects consuming DSM products.

For more information, click here or contact CEO Andrew Dahl at:
[email protected].

Behavioral health business Neuroflow has launched a referral network with a group of initial behavioral health service providers, teletherapy companies, and telepsychiatry organizations to expand access to care across the healthcare industry. The growing demand for behavioral health support has put a spotlight on the challenges of accessing proper levels of care. This new partnership introduces a new standard for navigating the ecosystem.

Among the four organizations joining the referral network are:

• LifeStance Health:  one of the nation’s largest providers of virtual and in-person outpatient mental healthcare
• Array Behavioral Care: a clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice
• Brightside Health: an organization that delivers virtual mental health care across the complexity, acuity, and severity spectrum
• Marvin:  a mental health platform made for physicians, nurses, and other professionals working within a healthcare setting

To read more, click here.

Notorious pharma bro Martin Shkrelli has co-founded Druglike, a drug discovery platform. It is building a decentralized computing network which provides resources for anyone looking to start or contribute to early-stage drug discovery projects. The company uses a novel blockchain mechanism to secure the integrity of shared research, according to a press release.

Shkrelli was recently released after serving most of a seven-year sentence after he was convicted of lying to hedge fund investors and cheating investors in a drug company in 2017.

For more information, click here.

Rhinostics, a spin-out from Harvard University and Wyss Institute, has launched a product as part of its automated sample collection technologies. The VERIstic collection device is geared to small volume blood collection in the home or in clinical settings.

It can be used for protein detection, diagnosing sexually transmitted infections, genetic testing, clinical trials, and other applications enabled by a finger prick collection.

The company debuted the device at the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo this week in Chicago.

To learn more, click here.

Health Note, a pre-clinical visit automated intake platform using digital patient intake to prepare clinical notes for providers ahead of patient visits, has closed a $17 million Series A funding round. SignalFire led the round with participation from UnityPoint Health, Northwell Holdings, the for-profit arm of Northwell Health, and  and Cedars Sinai Health Ventures.

Health Note will use the funds to accelerate market expansion, expand EHR integrations and invest in further R&D to build additional offerings for clinical support, according to a press release.

To read more, click here.

Picture: akindo, Getty Images