Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition.
Here is the full list of the biotech and pharma Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition.
What it does: CasNx has invented a new kind of antivirus treatment for organs from organ donors.
Why it’s noteworthy: The startup has invented a gene-editing CRISPR kit that eliminates viruses and installs “universal donor” markers while the organ is being preserved outside the body.
What it does: Chipiron is building a light and inexpensive, open full-body MRI machine intended to make MRI cancer diagnostics more widely available.
Why it’s noteworthy: The medical MRI machine is being built using a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), a highly sensitive magnetometer that can measure extremely weak magnetic fields, more commonly used in array antennas.
What it does: Exactics is building a platform that creates rapid diagnostic tests.
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Why it’s noteworthy: Exactics is attempting to make consumer diagnostic kits more widely available, beginning with at-home screening of Lyme disease, with kits for other illnesses on the roadmap.
What it does: Lumos has created a consumer high-frequency electromagnetic device named Avara, targeted at red blood cells.
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