Michael CookInstead of sharks, it was gators in the tank as biotechnology companies with ties to the University of Florida touted their research.
Five biotechnology startups gave live elevator pitches in a make-or-break effort to win the March 5 GatorPitch competition in Jupiter, but only one came out on top.
In a riff on the television show “Shark Tank,” three venture capitalists had open ears to the fast-paced pitches from University of Florida-linked companies working to turn their research into products to advance drug discovery and the human health field.
The judges saw the strongest case in Jupiter-based Ribonaut Therapeutics, a company developing drugs to treat neurological diseases and movement disorders.
“This type of pitching event isn’t like you won an Oscar and you carry on. It’s a step in a journey, but it’s an exciting step,” said Nikolai Naryshkin, chief scientific officer at Ribonaut, who pitched on behalf of the company at the event.
Ribonaut Therapeutics’ lead focus in its work is Huntington’s disease, which Naryshkin described as a progressive loss of brain cells and their ability to function over time. There is no cure, but the small startup is seeking one.
The company is in the early stages of drug discovery, which Naryshkin called a “very long process.” They have to create a treatment from scratch using human-made molecules, which then go through multiple clinical trials.
One point in the process, Naryshkin said, is that the team will have to test their discovery on subject animals to verify safety before seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to industrialize the treatment for human use.
Matthew Disney, a professor at the Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, founded Ribonaut Therapeutics at the same campus where the event was held.
GatorPitch was presented by UF Innovate, the university’s program that helps students turn their research discoveries into active businesses with help from investors. This was the fourth edition of GatorPitch since its launch in 2024 in Miami and the first held in Jupiter, with a focus strictly on biotech research.
The finalists at GatorPitch Jupiter were:
- Gainesville-based Neuropacs Corp., which uses UF research to create clinical tools to help research neurological disorders.
- New York-based Sparian Biosciences, which creates therapies for pain or substance-use disorders and other conditions.
- Arizona- and Jupiter-based Aqualung Therapeutics Corp., which is working to find antibody-based treatments for inflammatory conditions and other diseases.
- Gainesville-based iOncologi, which is designing treatments that activate the immune system to fight hard-to-treat cancers.
The visibility of being named the GatorPitch’s Panelist Choice will help Ribonaut Therapeutics in the long run, Naryshkin said. By winning, the company will also advance as a finalist in the 2026 Biopitch competition at the BioFlorida Innovation Conference in October, a similar contest with a top prize of up to $60,000.
Industry experts served as judges. They were:
- Evan Rachlin, co-founder and managing partner of the biotech-focused venture capital firm Ascenta Capital.
- George Voren, vice president of strategy and operations at Curie.Bio, which helps launch therapeutic companies.
- Steve Tregay, managing general partner at Mission BioCapital, where he invests in therapeutics and technologies. He also serves as chairman of Ribonaut.
To Tregay, all the startups at GatorPitch have the potential to bring new scientific innovations in the industry. While the problems are challenging to solve and have a hefty price tag, he said the medicines created will serve the public good.
In fact, small biotech companies have led the development of 55% of FDA-approved drugs in the U.S. from 2011 to 2020, according to Vital Transformation statistics.
“It’s kind of a risk-reward, but the benefits survive forever,” Tregay added.
