Mayo Clinic and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Chemical Defense will use a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to research treatments for soldiers and veterans exposed to “airborne hazards in war zones.”
The three-year grant, announced this week, will finance re-clinical laboratory research about using Rion’s exosome technology platform to treat Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and other pulmonary conditions.
Rion, which was founded in 2017 by Mayo Clinic Drs. Andre Terzic and Atta Behfar with Scott Rosenow, currently occupies two downtown Rochester spaces.
Rion’s main facility is on the fourth floor of One Discovery Square at 202 Fourth St. SW. with another space on the first floor of the Minnesota BioBusiness Center at 221 First Ave. SW.
The company focuses on developing regenerative uses for its exosome technology platform. Exosomes are small vesicles released by human cells that can be used to spur growth and healing. In recent years, exosomes have become the focus of many medical companies working on new therapies.
While Rion’s research has centered around healing soft tissue wounds with a sideline making anti-aging skin serum for spas, this research takes its exosome technology in a new direction.
“We think our exosome platform has a variety of applications. We definitely wanted to help our military service men and women. We established a military medicine division,” explained Rosenow of how the grant originated. “We had some preliminary preclinical data in the pulmonary space that looked very promising. We applied for a Toxic Exposure Research Project grant and got it.”
Rion with Mayo Clinic and the Institute for Chemical Defense are researching using nebulized exosomes to help heal lungs damaged by breathing sulfur dioxide and chronic damage from smoking.
“Our first preclinical study was promising,” said Rosenow.
This is the latest milestone for Rion, which launched under Mayo Clinic’s Employee Entrepreneurship Program. It has grown from six employees in 2020 to now employing 40 people.
___
(c) 2023 the Post-Bulletin
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
