A highly unique bar of soap, the Rewild Body Block is a product of the earth-positive apparel and lifestyle brand Pangaia. It was created in 2023 in collaboration with the New York City-based sustainable consumer product ingredient developer C16 Biosciences and the British skincare and fragrance brand Haeckels.
Like most solid and liquid body soaps, the Rewild Body Block claims to nourish and moisturize skin while it cleans. It has a scent that its creators call “woodsy” and recalls the smell of a rainforest on fire. The natural oils that produce the smell of the Rewild Body Block reflect and draw attention to the larger environmental advantages of the product. Surrounded by green packaging made from bamboo and cotton, this is the first soap bar manufactured with Palmless brand-name torula oil. A replacement for ecologically damaging palm oil, Palmless is the result of the natural fermentation of torula yeast. In addition to its sustainability benefits, this palm oil substitute is also rich in healthy antioxidants and sterols.
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Regenerative medicine is revolutionizing healthcare, offering new hope for conditions once deemed incurable. At the forefront of this shift, HepaTx is developing cell-based therapies designed to transform liver disease treatment.
Millions are affected by liver disease, yet organ transplants remain in short supply. HepaTx is tackling this issue with regenerative solutions that utilize advanced stem cell technology to restore liver function. By converting accessible cells into functional liver cells, these therapies could reduce reliance on transplants and expand treatment options for those with chronic liver conditions. Beyond addressing organ shortages, HepaTx’s approach could significantly reduce healthcare costs tied to long-term liver disease management. When treatments are more effective and accessible, patients can avoid costly surgeries, healthcare systems face less strain, and people can lead healthier, better lives. By offering a sustainable alternative, regenerative medicine has the potential to shift the entire landscape of liver disease treatment, benefiting both individuals and healthcare systems globally. With regenerative medicine gaining traction, HepaTx is leading toward more sustainable and effective treatments. As clinical advancements continue, these innovations could set a new standard in liver care, providing new possibilities for patients and medical professionals. Continued research and investment in this field will be crucial in bringing these groundbreaking treatments to more people, ultimately transforming the future of healthcare. Stem cell therapy for liver damage is an emerging field in regenerative medicine, with treatments facing varied legal statuses due to differing regulations and ethical concerns. HepaTx, supported by SP Investment Fund LLC, is advancing the development of off-the-shelf stem cell therapeutics for liver disease and related disorders requiring regenerative treatment.
Late-stage liver disease treatment often struggles with organ shortages, high costs, and the risk of tissue rejection. HepaTx, backed by the SP Investment Fund, signed a license agreement with the Mayo Clinic to use stem cell technologies in clinical trials to address these issues. This partnership aims to advance liver disease treatments by focusing initially on alcohol-related hepatitis, a prevalent health issue. Under the agreement, HepaTx will leverage Mayo Clinic's clinical research expertise to transition its technology from preclinical stages to human trials. HepaTx's approach uses stem cells derived from adipose tissue to target acute and chronic liver diseases. This collaboration aims to accelerate the introduction of HepaTx's cell therapy into clinical trials, fostering innovative solutions that could improve patient outcomes and potentially transform liver disease treatment. With Mayo Clinic's expertise in liver disease and regenerative medicine, HepaTx CEO Eric Schuur emphasized the team's commitment to working with Mayo Clinic's experienced researchers to deliver these therapies to patients. In many cases, investments help secure a prosperous future for current and future generations. The process begins with making informed decisions, such as exploring diversification, which requires research and a thoughtful approach.
Several investors have benefited from diversifying their investments across various assets, such as stocks and real estate. This approach helps spread risk and minimize the impact of potential losses. Index funds track specific market indexes, like the S&P 500, providing broad market exposure. Index funds have benefitted some investors. They have lower management fees as investors manage them passively and require fewer resources, making them cost-effective. Additionally, harnessing the power of compound interest by starting investments early can lead to significant long-term benefits. The earlier one invests, the more time their money has to grow. Lastly, staying disciplined and focused on investment decisions serves as a smart financial strategy. Both help investors protect and grow wealth for current and future generations. Investment is more than just a way to earn money; it is a driver of transformation. Directing investments toward sustainability, innovation, and social justice can simultaneously produce positive change and financial returns.
Impact investing represents an effective approach to change. In this model, investors allocate capital to initiatives addressing global challenges like renewable energy, affordable housing, and healthcare access. This approach involves investors contributing to resilient communities and tackling urgent issues. For instance, capital may flow toward companies prioritizing sustainable economic growth and actively pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. Companies committed to ESG principles can outperform their peers, showing that responsible business practices are often financially beneficial. Driving change through investment also requires a focus on the long term. Investors must look beyond short-term results and consider transformative ventures, such as reducing ecological impact, fostering innovation, and promoting social justice. Every dollar invested holds the potential to influence outcomes. By supporting socially responsible innovation and development, investors can create positive social change that exceeds financial returns. Based in Palo Alto, California, HepaTx is a biotech company specializing in developing liver disease treatments. In 2022, DotCom Magazine awarded HepaTx its Impact Company of the Year award for its innovative approach.
DotCom Magazine publishes articles and interviews about entrepreneurs, leaders, and newsmakers. The Impact Company of the Year Award recognizes privately owned companies, CEOs, founders, and staff making a positive impact and doing so through their inventive creations. The award recognizes that when businesses, their leadership, and employees positively impact their clients, this positive impact extends to the larger community. HepaTx’s work is in regenerative medicine. The company devises new stem cell-based treatments for patients with late-stage liver disease. The company’s licensed process involves taking fat cells (adipose stromal cells), repurposing them into functional liver cells (hepatocytes), and injecting them into the liver to repair its function. Andy Jacob, CEO of DotCom Magazine, stated that the award recognizes entrepreneurs and leaders' dedication to their companies. Furthermore, Impact Company of the Year Award winners have the courage and passion to contribute to society in many ways. For more information on the HepaTx win, please visit the company site at Hepatx.com. One unique aspect of the Indian fintech unicorn Razorpay is its ability to implement AI into its merchant transactional solutions rapidly. The company enables secure, hassle-free point-of-sale transactions on the device, with foreign currencies readily accepted. Developers integrated the DataRobot AI Platform within Amazon Web Services (AWS), which drives developer productivity, as it speeds up building and evaluating app-driven models by up to 10 times.
AI safeguards Razorpay’s ability to protect merchants against undeliverable or fraudulent orders without incurring major losses. Before the DataRobot AI solution, such orders ran rampant, with unfulfilled order costs rapidly escalating. Razorpay data scientists convened and, within 12 hours, applied AI to understand the scope of the problem and patterns involved in fraudulent orders. They created a robust model, rolled it out the next day, and effectively blocked malicious orders. The rollout did not impact a single legitimate order, restoring functionality to the system with no downtime. It helped avoid the possible erosion of convenience and trust. This DataRobot AI model remains in place and is highly effective in order monitoring and drift detection or in-production machine learning model performance degrading over time. The model also helps ensure regulatory compliance by operating with built-in fairness and bias mitigation capacities. Late-stage liver disease treatment often faces hurdles like organ shortages, high costs, and the risk of tissue rejection. Addressing these issues, biotechnology firm HepaTx, supported by SP Investment Fund, has signed a license agreement with Mayo Clinic to push its stem cell technology into clinical trials.
This partnership targets advancing therapies for liver diseases, beginning with alcohol-related hepatitis, a widespread health issue. Under the agreement, HepaTx will leverage Mayo Clinic’s clinical research expertise to move its proprietary technology from preclinical stages to human trials. HepaTx’s approach involves using stem cells from adipose tissue to address acute and chronic liver conditions. The collaboration aims to accelerate the transition of HepaTx’s cell therapy into clinical testing, potentially transforming liver disease treatment by advancing innovative therapies with better patient outcomes. HepaTx CEO Eric Schuur stated his team is committed to working with Mayo Clinic’s experienced researchers to bring these therapies to patients, while Mayo Clinic contributes its specialized expertise in liver disease and regenerative medicine. Stem cell therapy for liver damage is an emerging area in regenerative medicine, with the legal status of treatments varying across countries due to regulations and ethical considerations. HepaTx, with support from SP Investment Fund LLC, is one company at the forefront of developing off-the-shelf stem cell therapies for liver disease and related conditions requiring regenerative intervention.
In the United States, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has approved specific stem cell therapies. While 30 million Americans suffer from liver disease and over 1 million are at risk of developing end-stage liver failure over five years, current treatments for liver damage are limited. Organ transplants remain the primary solution for late-stage liver failure, though a donor match is often unlikely for many patients. The Cayman Islands has more significant restrictions such that stem cell therapies are only available in clinical trials. It’s prohibited to apply them in general for-profit use. The implication is that stem-cell-based liver damage treatments in the Cayman Islands are part of regulated studies, with ongoing assessments of effectiveness and safety. In other countries, such as Germany and Japan, stem cell therapies are more widely available for certain conditions, whereas Canada maintains stricter regulatory oversight. As HepaTx continues to develop its regenerative medicine solutions, it is expected that these therapies will eventually become mainstream, providing support to patients globally, especially in regions where organ transplants are difficult to secure. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles determine a company's impact on the environment, its relationships with stakeholders, and its internal management practices. They frame its long-term sustainability and ethical considerations. Ideally, following ESG principles doesn’t interfere with a VC firm’s bottom line. Instead, the firm alters existing procedures or creates new ones so investors can earn returns while also affecting positive change.
Venture capitalists can apply several ESG principles to guide their investment decisions. Prioritizing companies with sustainable methods and commitments to reducing their environmental impact aligns investments with the common good. Evaluating a company's social impact, including how it treats its employees, contributes to its community, and promotes diversity and inclusion both internally and externally, ensures investments support beneficial social change. Because ESG measures skew investors’ decision making such that it tends to favor long-term growth, it can help them mitigate risk. It correlates somewhat with traditional portfolio diversification, where an investor purchases assets that combined perform well over either the short or long-term. However, prioritizing firms that implement ESG principles has been seen to shield investors from adverse economic, political, and ecological conditions more than traditional portfolio diversification. |
AuthorSP Investment Fund LLC and its affiliates have invested in over 100 multifamily communities involving over 10,000 units all across the United States. Archives
May 2022
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