Meet the Founders : Michele Garufi and Gabriele Grecchi
During Sprint 3 held December 13-16, 2022 at our ecosystem partner OpenZone, Zambon's science campus, our Alumni had the opportunity to meet two innovative companies Nicox and KLISBIO in a special "Meet the Founders" sessions organized in collaboration with our Innovation Partner Zcube - Zambon Research Venture.
Nicox is an international ophthalmology company and was introduced by its Co-Founder Michele Garufi. Garufi has always worked in the pharmaceutical industry and in a turning point of his life he decided to invest his savings in an innovative idea, thus, founding his own company. Today, Nicox is an international ophthalmology company that develops innovative solutions to help maintain vision and improve ocular health. The company specializes in glaucoma, an increasingly common disease, and for which it is developing a new molecule (NCX470) conceived precisely at the OpenZone facility.
Michele Garufi then explained his journey as an entrepreneur and innovator and the challenges of building a successful pharmaceutical company like Nicox. Garufi also pointed out that in order to grow any company, it is necessary to focus on a few key factors such as the team, vision and creating an innovative solution that meets unmet market needs.
KLISBIO, a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company, was introduced by CEO and Co-Founder Gabriele Grecchi. Grecchi shared his varied entrepreneurial path ranging from macroeconomics to the world of video games to the life science sector. In fact, in 2014, Grecchi founded KLISBIO, a medtech scaleup that makes implantable micro- and nano-structured medical devices made of ultra-pure silk fibroin that can restore tissues that have been subjected to trauma.
Our Alumni then had the opportunity to take a tour of the company's laboratories to learn more about the research, development and manufacturing processes of KLISbio's products, in particular SilkBridge, a tissue engineered technology based on pure silk fibroin designed for the surgical repair of peripheral nerve discontinuities and to support regeneration across the defect.
