John Chi, Synova Life Sciences - Spotlight Interview | LSI USA ‘23

Transcription

Nick Talamantes  0:14  
John, thank you so much for joining me at LSI.

John Chi  0:17  
Thank you, Nick.

Nick Talamantes  0:18  
Tell me a little bit about what you're doing at Synova Life Sciences.

John Chi  0:21  
So at Synova, our mission is really to help people live longer and healthier lives. And what we're doing is removing the bottlenecks for people to be able to get their own stem cells. 

Nick Talamantes  0:33  
So how are you doing that?

John Chi  0:34  
We make a device that gets stem cells out of fat. And it's 50 times faster than what the current gold standard is, which is using enzymes. And that's a slow, complicated process, it risks contamination, damaging the cells. And so it's, it's an it takes several hours to do, what we've done is our device is 50 times faster. And it it processes fat and gets the stem cells out in three minutes. And then it also gets twice as many cells.

Nick Talamantes  1:05  
That's impressive. So walk me through the process, then I come in, I'm a potential patient who has knee pain, let's say, how do you go about taking the fat from my body, I guess, and then converting it into a cellular formation that can then be injected in how does it all work?

John Chi  1:27  
So orthopedists are part of the one of the groups of medical providers that we're working with. And so what the patient would do, they walk into the doctor's office, and sort of what the doctor would do is harvest a little bit of fat from the patient, usually around the abdomen, because a lot of people have extra fat. And so yeah, you got lots of stem cells in there. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah, you actually have 500 to 2500 times more stem cells in your fat than anywhere else in your body. And these are the kinds of stem cells that can turn into different types of tissue and also help regenerate a lot of the parts that are in your body, they send signals to regenerate things. So the doctor would then numb you up, and then do a mini liposuction. So take a small amount of fat, usually about one and a half ounces. And so for the metric people about 50 cc's, and then load that into a disposable cartridge. So our system uses a device and then a disposable cartridge that sterile. So it's kind of like a Keurig for stem cells, they would load that into the cartridge with a little saline, put that in the device, push a button, and then three minutes later, the fat is broken up and the stem cells have been released. And they, the doc would be able to withdraw that and then do an injection into a joint like if we're talking about like your knee pain. Interesting.

Nick Talamantes  2:54  
So is that typical, then first stem cell therapies? Are you normally doing it on site? The doctor? Is the one overseeing it? Or is it usually sent off somewhere else for processing? And then sent back? Could you could you enlighten me a little bit about that process?

John Chi  3:11  
Yeah, that's one of the issues that has existed before. They used to get stem cells out of bone marrow, but the stem cells that actually do that kind of regeneration, the mesenchymal stem cells, there's very few of those in bone marrow. And the number of those stem cells in bone marrow declines a lot as someone ages. And so this doesn't happen so much in fat, and fat is really rich in those mesenchymal stem cells. So it what they had to do before was take those cells and then grow them out. So that they could get enough, what we're able to do is we're able to get a much higher yield. So there's in there's many more cells in it, like 500 to 2500 times more. And so the quantity of cells would actually be able to have a therapeutic effect. And, and so that has been a problem to making it be a point of care kind of procedure. 

Nick Talamantes  4:10  
Certainly, it's my understanding then that stem cell therapy, if I'm interested in it's one, it's typically out of pocket for me, it's not a inexpensive, typically covered by insurance, but it's also an extremely expensive procedure to have done for those who are able to afford it. Is this technology then going to be able to kind of lower the barriers to entry and expand access to cellular therapies to patients?

John Chi  4:39  
Yes, that's part of why we're doing what we're doing is to be able to make it so that everybody can get access. And one of the things that we do is cut down the time. Like right now if a doctor was trying to get stem cells. So let's say there's all these regulatory issues around it. First, and Then second, it would take a long time using enzymes, they would have to have a setup in their clinic, and then it would take several hours. And that's one of the problems that that they have is how long it takes. And being able to do it in just a few minutes. That would make it so that people could have much broader access, they can see a lot more patients that we could ultimately lower the cost, and then also get it reimbursed. So then now everybody would be able to get it because it's something that's really easy to do, and something that's very accessible.

Nick Talamantes  5:33  
It's my understanding that you typically have to have multiple procedures in order to have a therapeutic effect is that just due to how sparse and how difficult it is currently to obtain a viable quantity of stem cells? 

John Chi  5:50  
Yeah, I think another thing is that there's another procedure called PRP. And that's platelet rich plasma. And some people call it stem cell therapy, but it's not. It's just it is a biologic therapy, because they're taking blood and concentrating these growth factors. And, and that takes multiple treatments to have any effect because they'll inject those and then it'll do a little bit, but then it disperses very quickly. And so that's, that's different from the cells because when you have cells in there, they can continue to have an effect. And so with with actual stem cells in there, and inside a fat, there's also a number of other regenerative cells. And so it's not just the stem cells that are activating the regeneration. There's also other types of cells that promote regeneration in there and combine that with the quantity of cells. They'll secrete things that that kickstart the the healing process. And then some of them some of the stem cells can engraft and continue to secrete these things. And some of them will actually differentiate into the let's say it's cartilage, some of them will differentiate into Kandra sites which make cartilage. Yeah.

Nick Talamantes  7:08  
Where are you guys focusing your efforts? Are you reaching out to a specific discipline or specialty in medicine?

John Chi  7:14  
Our first target is actually in cosmetics. Yeah, so one of the things with dermal fillers and Botox and those things are the side effects. Sometimes the like the dermal fillers can move around, they can block the lymph system and then Botox, the muscles will degenerate, and so the skin atrophies as well. And with the with stem cells, if you put that higher concentration into a fat graft, so right now with that graphs, they they're very inconsistent. Don't know if the body is going to reabsorb it, how many of the fat cells died and those kinds of things. When there's a higher concentration of stem cells in there, the fat graft will actually grow new blood vessels, and so it can become a permanent living filler for people. And the stem cells also secrete things to help reduce the elastosis they can make the skin more elastic and then reduce wrinkles as well. When When fat grafts are loaded with extra stem cells and other regenerative cells beyond

Nick Talamantes  8:22  
Beyond aesthetics then where are you guys may be thinking about taking your technology next, where are you? What are some of the next applications that you guys have your eyes on?

John Chi  8:32  
We have so cosmetics and orthopedics we're kind of developing in parallel. The orthopedics is a bit of a little bit of a longer path. So aesthetics first orthopedic second. And we also are working with tissue engineering companies. And so they're taking the cells and differentiating them into different types of organs or tissues. We have pilots with some companies that are doing with making liver cells, other companies that are doing things, putting them into a scaffold, and using that for wound healing another pilot with a company that's doing treating lymphedema, we did a pilot with a company that's treating heart damage and to regenerate damage from heart attacks. And so, tissue engineering is a big area with stem cell banking is also they, they need high volume processing of adipose or fat and to be able to bank that and that's something that's been a roadblock so far is to be able to do that quickly in bank in high volumes to do stem cell banking there. And then also, we have some pilots in the veterinary space because a lot of the regenerative medicine that happens in people also works in pets. And then and then in the clean meat space as well with lab grown meats they'll take the stem cells and and differentiate those into the different components that make up the meat. 

Nick Talamantes  10:06  
Really incredible stuff. It sounds like you're involved in so much work right now it's almost, it's making my head spin a little bit, quite frankly, you mentioned the long past. So are you guys doing regulatory work on your own? Are you kind of licensing your technology out to all your different partners that you're working with, and all these different potential avenues of using stem cells to create therapies for patients?

John Chi  10:30  
Initially, right now, we're doing all the regulatory in house. So we have a 510K path in the fat grafting space to go into cosmetics right away. And then on the orthopedic side, we have some partners that are lined up. Those include, like McMaster University Northwell Health, that some large players in the orthopedic space to be able to run the clinical trials and get that through everything so that we can really hit the orthopedic space.

Nick Talamantes  11:03  
Are you guys seeking fundraising right now? And if so, what are you guys hoping to achieve with that funding? Is it going to drive a lot of your clinical activities? 

John Chi  11:13  
Yeah, so we are fundraising. Everybody's always fundraising. Right?

Nick Talamantes  11:19  
We do have a couple of people that are here looking to make deals and exits. So I'm just curious what you guys are working on in terms of driving your initiatives forward?

John Chi  11:30  
Yeah. So it's a series a fundraiser that we're working on, and we're about to kick that off. And what that gets us through is hitting being able to hit the cosmetic space really hard. And that's so massive scaling, we have 12 million in LOI's that are there, they're ready to fulfill these people are ready to buy. And we need to get through our regulatory, which is the 510 K submission. So that's next on our radar. And so the funding will really allow us to scale massively, and then start those clinical programs in orthopedics. And think, you know, with the revenue that we generate in the cosmetic space, then this round of funding could potentially be all that we need to get us to our exit.

Nick Talamantes  12:21  
That's incredible, who are the major strategics, then that would look at working and acquiring Synova.

John Chi  12:29  
So there's some that could be like a Stryker, or Medtronic, maybe someone like an Allergan in the cosmetic side. And so we have a lot of different players. And let's just on the cosmetic and the orthopedic side, when we start getting into the more, I think longer plays would be like the tissue engineering, that's a lot further down, because the research is a lot earlier, in terms of commercialization of those kinds of products. 

Nick Talamantes  12:59  
You mentioned, you have several 12 million and LOIs is in the cosmetic space, it's ready to go, you're just waiting to get the regulatory clearance to start selling.

John Chi  13:08  
We've actually done 60 pilots, and that's what led to the 12 million in LOI and that that represents over 130 clinics now that are ready to buy.

Nick Talamantes  13:20  
John, what is the origin of Synova.

John Chi  13:24  
So I was working with stem cells in a graduate program and just saw the potential of what they could do and how much they could heal people. And that just grabbed me and, and so I had to do it. And, you know, one of the things in particular, my parents were experiencing some pain at the time, and I really wanted to be able to help them and seeing what stem cells could do. I knew that that was something that would be able to help them. And so that was something that really drove me and then on my journey, you know, seeing my friends, some of them have injuries and joint injuries and just wanting them to be able to be healthy and wanting everybody to be able to be around. And so I wanted to enjoy life, and my friends and family to be able to enjoy their lives and live pain free. And also to live for a really long time so that we could all be together longer. 

Nick Talamantes  14:25  
That's such a thoughtful and heartwarming origin to what you're doing today. Thank you for sharing that with us. You know, what brings you to LSI this year?

John Chi  14:37  
This year, I think it's mainly looking for the right investors and getting that fundraising and getting the right people on board with us to get us through our journey.

Nick Talamantes  14:50  
Well, John, thank you so much for stopping by and telling me about the exciting work you're doing at Synova. It's been a pleasure.

John Chi  14:55  
Thanks so much, Nick.