27 May 2024: Dr. Kay was selected as 1 of 26 members in the DC area cohort to participate in the 2024 SBA T.H.R.I.V.E. Emerging Leaders Reimagined Program through December 2024. This intensive executive-level training series offers opportunities for small business owners to work with professional coaches and mentors, gain skills needed to grow, and develop connections with peers, local leaders, and the financial community.
- 10 April 2024: Dr. Kay attended the Joint UNC/NCSU Department of Biomedical Engineering’s Department Retreat (& 20th Birthday Celebration!). She also serves as an External Advisory Board Member, meeting during the event to interview students and provide feedback regarding the curriculum.
- 14 March 2024: Jericho Sciences was invited to participate in BIO’s Big Bold Idea Initiative 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Town Hall Roundtable discussion was hosted by the Bio Biotechnology Innovation Organization to provide feedback from the biotechnology ecosystem to support BIO’s Strategic Objectives.
- 12 March 2024: U.S. Patent No. 11926861 was awarded for Utilities of Stimulated Whole Blood Culture Systems.
- 15 February 2024: Jericho Sciences participated in the Joint UNC/NCSU Department of Biomedical Engineering Industry Networking Event, hosting hundreds of BME undergraduates seeking employment and internship opportunities.
- 1 February-23 May 2024: Dr. Kay participated together with Dr. Jeremy Saunders (Astrazeneca) as Mentors for the Nucleate RTP Program. AptaX is a UNC startup biotechnology company developing customized aptamers using a proprietary algorithm.
- 3-4 October 2023: Jericho Sciences attended North Carolina Life Sciences’ Annual Dinner and Meeting. NC Life Sciences enables its members to innovate and collaborate for success in a global marketplace.
- 19 September 2023: Jericho Sciences’ J-Test® Trademark (no. 7170009) is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
19-20 September 2023: Jericho Sciences attended the 9th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Conference in Rockville, Maryland. The BHCR encompasses Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC, with over 1800 life-sciences companies, 70 federal labs and numerous academic, medical and research institutions.
18 May 2023: Dr. Kay attended the Nucleate RTP 2023 Final Pitch Showcase at the NC Biotechnology Center. She and Anil Goyal, Ph.D., CEO of IMMvention Therapeutix, participated as Mentors for the Duke University start-up company, PD-QuIC, who presented their strategy for developing an early detection diagnostic assay for dementia and Parkinson’s Disease. PD-QuIC received the Audience Award.
29-30 March 2023: Jericho Sciences, LLC was selected by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) to pitch at the Venture Connect Summit and Celebration as one of 180 presenters. CED is a North Carolina non-profit organization dedicated to connecting regional entrepreneurs with the resources they need to build and launch a successful business. See the event at https://cednc.org/venture-connect/.
- 28 February 2023: US PCT App. No. PCT/US2023/014140 entitled METHODS FOR VIRAL INFECTIONS was filed by Jericho Sciences. This application will publish 18 months after the initial filing date.
August 2022 – March 2023: Dr. Kay was selected as 1 of 13 members for the Inaugural Cohort RTP 3.8 Initiative, Research Triangle Park, NC. The 3.8 Initiative is named for March 8 International Women’s Day. It seeks to increase start-up board leadership for women in the Research Triangle Park area’s life science and health tech innovation ecosystem. The program was sponsored by Women in BIO, Research Triangle Park and UNC KickStart Venture Services. See more at https://www.womeninbio.org/page/rtp38.
13-16 June 2022: Jericho Sciences, LLC was independently selected and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) program as 1 of the 28 NIH Innovation Showcase Companies at the BIO International Convention in San Diego, CA. This event included a pitch presentation, booth space and meetings with potential industry partners. Thank you, SEED!
23 May 2022: Dr. Heidi Kay of Jericho Sciences, LLC presented and met with Congressman David Price of North Carolina and SBA Regional Administrator Allen Thomas, together with First Flight Venture Center as one of five selected startup companies receiving Small Business Innovation Research Grants.
- 18 May 2022: Dr. Kay presented Jericho’s continuing work to reduce persistent sources of HIV virus at the Research Triangle Park ROTARY Club.
- 3 May 2022: Dr. Heidi Kay presented Jericho’s novel antiviral therapeutic development to the community at the Test Flight Pitch Practice at First Flight Venture Center.
- 21 April 2022: Dr. Kay was invited to speak at the 2022 Fast Boot Camp Program at First Flight Venture Center, a 2-day instructive program helping biotechnology small businesses learn about the Small Business Innovation Research programs.
- 3-6 March 2022: Dr. Heidi Kay attended and presented study results at The 2022 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS in Palm Springs, CA, entitled “Translational Safety and Efficacy Testing of FX101 in an SIV/NHP Model”; Heidi Kay (Jericho Sciences, LLC); Jay Rappaport, Robert Blair, Cecily Midkiff (TNPRC, Covington, LA); and Mark Lewis (Bioqual, Inc., Rockville, MD). The work was funded under SBIR Grant No. R44 MH096663.
- September 2021: Jericho Sciences, LLC was independently selected and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) program to attend the Life Science Nation: Redefining Early−Stage Investments (RESI) Conference (Virtual event).
- May 2021: Jericho Sciences relocated from the incubator laboratory spaces at First Flight Venture Center to a larger research and laboratory space in the heart of Research Triangle Park, NC at 76 TW Alexander Drive.
- 20 April 2021: Dr. Kay presented “The Next Evolution of Therapeutic Management for People Living with HIV (PLWH): Reducing Persistent Sources of Virus” at Itineraries, for members of the First Flight Venture Center community and the broader innovation ecosystem to learn about the work of early-stage science-focused companies, network and have some fun at the same time!
June-July 2020: Jericho Sciences works with four promising undergraduate students for 8 weeks through the UNC/NCSU Joint Biomedical Engineering Department Internship program. Stephen, Pradham and Matt have since graduated and continue to work in the sciences. Victoria (not pictured) continued working with Jericho for another year before starting graduate studies.
- 5-8 March 2020: Dr. Kay presented a poster at The 2020 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS: “New Horizons in AIDS Research” entitled, “The J-Test: What if Ten Milliliters of Blood was Enough?” by Heidi Kay (Jericho Sciences, RTP, NC) and Julie Nelson (UNC CFAR VIM, Chapel Hill, NC) in Palm Springs, CA.
- 4 February 2020: Utilities of Stimulated Whole Blood Culture Systems, U.S. Patent No. 10,550,419 was issued. The claims include a method to activate latently-infected cells from small volumes of whole blood, without the prior isolation of cells. It further incorporates immune clearance responses, which are required to clear infected cells.
June-July 2019: Jericho Sciences works with 3 promising undergraduate students for 8 weeks through the UNC/NCSU Joint Biomedical Engineering Department Internship program. Emma, Anting and Ryan worked with Jericho to support our research toward antiviral drugs and assays. Jason continued to work with Jericho after his 2018 internship.
- 10 June 2019: Dr. Kay presented Part II of Jericho’s work in HIV drug and assay development at the Research Triangle Park ROTARY Club.
- 7-10 March 2019: Dr. Kay attended and presented a poster at The 2019 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS: New Horizons in AIDS Research in Palm Springs, CA: The J-Test: Assessing Patient Responses to Anti-Latency Therapeutics; Heidi Kay, Ph.D. (Jericho Sciences, LLC) and Julie Nelson, Ph.D. (UNC CFAR VIM, Chapel Hill, NC). Funded under NIH/NIAID SBIR Grant Award R43AI120841.
- 14 January 2019: Dr. Kay presented Part I of Jericho’s work in HIV drug and assay development at the Research Triangle Park ROTARY Club.
June-July 2018: Jericho Sciences works with two promising undergraduate students for 10 weeks through the First Flight Venture Center & North Carolina Central University WINGS Internship Program to build a data analytical and graphing platform. Jason and Abasi presented their work to the NCCU community. Both continued to develop their skills and education in successful careers. Congratulations! It was such a pleasure to work with you both.
- 1-4 March 2018: Dr. Kay attended and presented a poster entitled, “Jericho’s Anti-Latency Assay: The J-Test” at The 2018 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS: “HIV Disease: New Insights into Pathogenesis, Prevention and Therapy” in Palm Springs, CA. Authors include Heidi Kay, Ph.D. (Jericho Sciences, LLC) and Julie Nelson, Ph.D. (UNC CFAR VIM, Chapel Hill, NC). This work was partially funded under NIH/NIAID SBIR Grant Award R43AI120841.
- October 2017 – March 2018: Dr. Kay was selected as an applicant awardee for the National Institutes of Health Commercialization Accelerator Program (CAP), a program sponsored through the NIH for Small Business SBIR/STTR Phase II awardees, to support participants toward commercialization goals (San Diego, CA and Washington, DC).
- May 2017: Jericho Sciences received a multi-year Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant Award from the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH to continue developing its antiviral small molecule lead candidate under award number R44 MH096663. The major goals of this project were to evaluate safety and efficacy of our lead candidate in combination with the standard of care antiviral therapy (cART) in a preclinical model of HIV-1 infection.
- August 2016: Jericho Sciences was awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases entitled “Standardizable Whole Blood Culture for Evaluating HIV Eradication Strategies” under award number NIH R43 AI120841. This project was designed to assess the feasibility of a whole blood culture diagnostic platform to provide patient-specific virologic, immunologic, safety and efficacy parameters directly from clinically accessible HIV-infected patient blood as an integrated component for clinical translation of therapeutic strategies toward the eradication of HIV.
- 5-7 March 2015: Dr. Kay attended The 2015 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS, “HIV Disease: From Cause to Cure” in Palm Springs, CA.
- 6-8 March 2014: Dr. Kay presented a poster, entitled “FX101 Provides Sustained Virus Suppression in the FIV/Cat Model” at The 2014 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS, “HIV Pathogenesis: Molecules to Man” in Palm Springs, CA. Authors include Lola Hudson, DVM, PhD; Rick Meeker, PhD; Brenda Colby, PhD and Heidi Kay, PhD.