MaineHealth Innovation is investing $100,000 from its Bonfire Funding Program in a company co-founded by a MaineHealth care team member to help patients overcome cancer. Cryptomedix Inc., co-founded by MaineHealth Institute for Research Faculty Scientist Peter Brooks, is pioneering a new approach to delivering anti-cancer drugs that could lead to improved patient outcomes.

Bonfire Funding was created by MaineHealth in 2021 as part of its not-for-profit mission of researching new ways to provide care. The funding helps care team members foster and accelerate innovations to the point where additional external funding can be secured. Recipients are companies founded by MaineHealth care team members and are evaluated by a multi-disciplinary group of reviewers from across MaineHealth and its intellectual property and business development committee members. Innovations are measured on whether they provide a novel solution to unmet care needs that can be scaled to benefit the larger community.

“Bonfire Funding is not only a financial investment in our innovators,” said MaineHealth Vice President of Innovation, Susan Ahern. “It creates opportunities for care team members to problem-solve and collaborate with MaineHealth’s strategic and industry partners with an eye toward improving patient care and reducing overall costs for patients.”

CryptoMedix has been developing a novel approach for the selective delivery of potent anti-cancer drugs to particularly difficult-to-treat cancers including ovarian cancer. A more precise treatment has the potential to provide better patient outcomes. The company will be using Bonfire Funding to advance preclinical studies.

“The funding that we received from MaineHealth will have a significant impact on our ability to move our research forward,” said CryptoMedix CEO Dr. Bernd Seizinger. “This delivery system has the potential of eventually benefitting a large number of cancer patients suffering from a variety of hard-to treat cancer types which are not effectively responding to the currently available anti-cancer therapies.”

Cryptomedix previously received $20,000 through MaineHealth’s Ignite Funding that allowed the company to acquire materials for its experiments and secure patents. Bonfire funding will support further experiments as the company looks to attract strategic partners and develop further.

Last week, MaineHealth also announced Satya Diagnostics, Inc. would be receiving $100,000 in Bonfire Funding so that it could expand clinical testing of its patented breast cancer biomarker, aimed at improving early detection, treatment response monitoring and long-term surveillance. MaineHealth plans to continue its Innovation Funding investments with another round of applications in 2025.

MaineHealth is a not-for-profit, integrated health system whose vision is, “Working together so our communities are the healthiest in America,” and is committed to a mission of providing high-quality affordable care, educating tomorrow's caregivers and researching better ways to provide care. MaineHealth includes a Level 1 trauma medical center, eight additional licensed hospitals, comprehensive pediatric care services, an extensive behavioral health care network, diagnostic services as well as home health, hospice and senior care services. With more than 2,000 employed providers and approximately 23,000 care team members, MaineHealth provides preventive care, diagnosis and treatment to 1.1 million residents in Maine and New Hampshire. MaineHealth hospitals include MaineHealth Behavioral Health at Spring Harbor in Westbrook, MaineHealth Franklin Hospital in Farmington, MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta, MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland, Biddeford and Sanford, MaineHealth Memorial Hospital in North Conway, N.H., MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport, MaineHealth Stephens Hospital in Norway and MaineHealth Waldo Hospital in Belfast. MaineHealth also includes the MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland, MaineHealth Behavioral Health in Westbrook, MaineHealth Home Health and Hospice in Saco, the MaineHealth Institute for Research in Scarborough, the MaineHealth Medical Group and MaineHealth NorDx in Scarborough. MaineHealth affiliates include MaineGeneral Health in Augusta and Waterville and St. Mary's Health System in Lewiston. It is also a significant stakeholder in the MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization in Portland and a joint venture partner in the New England Rehabilitation Hospital in Portland.