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Eight New Mexico high-growth-potential companies were awarded Science AND Technology Business Start Up Grants at $25,000 each for a total of $200,000 through the N.M. Economic Development Department.
Those grants are available to New Mexico-based for-profit science and technology companies with fewer than 50 employees. Eligible businesses must work in one of the following fields: aerospace, biosciences, cyber security, intelligent manufacturing and sustainable and green energy.
The grant specifically targets high-growth potential companies that provide a unique product or service, have a clear and compelling business proposition, demonstrate a scalable product and business model, have the potential to create jobs in New Mexico and/or garner private investment, and can provide economic benefit to the state greater than the award amount.
 The eight companies receiving science and technology grants were:
- T-Neuro Pharma in Albuquerque was formed to develop a novel companion biomarker/therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease by taking a new approach to diagnosis and treatment. They have identified an abnormal population of T-cells that enters the brain, attacks the neurons, and causes Alzheimer’s disease. These cells can be detected in a blood sample, which is the basis of their T-Track Diagnostic tool. The T-Track Therapeutic can block these cells from entering the brain.
- K&K Skin Products in Albuquerque K&K is a consumer company with a biotech twist. It is disrupting the skin care industry with a breakthrough patent-pending BioVer-Xï¸ Serum that reduces the appearance of wrinkles, acne scars, and stretch marks.   Â
- STEM Boomerang in Albuquerque is a workforce recruitment platform that provides a handshake between employers and the New Mexico graduates looking for career opportunities in the state. Their goal is to reverse New Mexico’s brain drain by employing advanced technology alongside personal engagement for recruitment, retention, and repatriation of our state’s best and brightest STEM professionals.
- Nob Hill Therapeutics, Inc. in Albuquerque is commercializing a technology from UNM, an inhaled dry powder drug delivery device, in order to create effective inhalation therapies to address lower respiratory tract infections, the fifth leading overall cause of death worldwide, and other deadly lung diseases
- Molten Salt Solutions in Santa Fe is developing technology that will be needed by the next generation of nuclear reactors, including isotope separation methods and salt synthesis methods, with grant funding and in collaborations with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- Neurinsight LLC in Albuquerque was established in 2012 to improve patient healthcare outcomes by providing individualized, highly specific, and sensitive point-of-care clinical neuroimaging solutions to guide brain surgery at an affordable cost. The company has completed an NIH Phase I STTR grant to develop a real-time resting-state functional MRI (rt-rsfMRI) software tool based on its proprietary TurboFIRE technology to map eloquent cortex in patients with brain tumors.
- AllerPops Corp. in Los Alamos is dedicated to relieving allergies for longer periods of time, removing the need for daily shots or pills, by treating the root cause of airborne allergies. AllerPops lollipops provide allergy relief lasting for months to years instead of mere hours by feeding good oral bacteria through their proprietary probiotic and prebiotic formula/foundation and all-natural ingredients.
- Orch Tech LLC in Ohkay Owingeh is advancing the wireless industry through a portable, lightweight device to boost incoming signals and improve local connections for cell phones, laptops, satellite, and Wi-Fi internet receivers without the need for power plugs, cables, or batteries. The company has licensed this technology from NASA Johnson Space Center and is working to keep manufacturing and development in New Mexico.