Nura Health, with Consortium Partners Lasa Health and Dama Health, Selected to Receive $3 Million Award from ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health
LOS ANGELES, October 23, 2024 - Nura Health, with consortium partners Lasa Health and Dama Health, has been selected by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as an awardee of the Sprint for Women’s Health, to address critical unmet challenges in women’s health, champion transformative innovations, and tackle health conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women. Nura Health and its consortium partners will receive $3 million in funding over two years through the Sprint for Women’s Health spark track for early-stage research efforts.
The consortium of Nura Health, Lasa Health, and Dama Health aims to develop a comprehensive precision medicine platform that accelerates the early diagnosis and personalized treatment of endometriosis. By combining non-invasive diagnostic tools, advanced patient phenotyping, and personalized pharmacogenetics, the platform seeks to transform how endometriosis is diagnosed and treated, significantly reducing the time to diagnosis and providing effective, individualized treatment plans.
"This project is deeply personal because endometriosis affects millions of women, yet so many face years of pain and uncertainty before receiving a diagnosis,” said Dr. Varun Kapoor, MD, cofounder and CEO of Nura Health. “By accelerating early detection and tailoring treatment to each individual’s needs, we hope to fundamentally change the standard of care and improve lives."
ARPA-H sought solutions within six topics of interest in women’s health, and received an unprecedented response of submissions. ARPA-H launched the Sprint for Women’s Health in February, with First Lady Jill Biden announcing the funding as the first major deliverable from the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
The ARPA-H Sprint for Women’s Health is conducted in collaboration with the Investor Catalyst Hub of ARPANET-H, the agency’s nationwide health innovation network that connects people, innovators, and institutions to accelerate better health outcomes for everyone. Nura Health and its consortium partners Lasa Health and Dama Health will work with an ARPA-H Program Manager and the Investor Catalyst Hub over two years to develop their proposed solution, receiving milestone-based payments aligned to research activities and performance objectives.
About Nura Health
Nura Health is a boutique molecular diagnostics company in Southern California with a mission to improve quality of life, reproductive health, and longevity in women. Nura Health is accelerating the deployment of accurate and reliable non-invasive diagnostic tests for complex medical conditions such as endometriosis, infertility disorders, and genetic conditions impacting women. Co-Founded by physician Dr. Varun Kapoor, Nura Health is led and supported by nationally recognized healthcare leaders, and its research and development is led by Dr. Idhaliz Flores, Chief Scientific Officer of Nura Health and renowned endometriosis biologist, authoring 60+ high impact scientific papers in the field of women’s health over the past 20 years. For more information, visit www.getnura.com.
About Lasa Health
Lasa Health is an NSF-backed healthtech company using AI and machine learning to transform the diagnosis and management of chronic pelvic pain. In collaboration with the Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate, Lasa Health’s clinical decision support platform enables providers to screen for difficult-to-diagnose conditions like endometriosis and deliver personalized care. Founded by Margaret Melville in 2022, Lasa Health is committed to reducing diagnostic delays and improving outcomes in health through cutting-edge technology and partnerships with leading medical institutions. For more information, visit www.lasahealth.com.
About Dama Health
Dama Health is an Illumina-backed health tech company dedicated to advancing precision medicine for hormone therapies. By leveraging phenotypic and genetic datasets, Dama’s platform offers personalized treatment plans for women’s reproductive health, including contraception, hormone therapy for menopause, and treatments for conditions like endometriosis. Founded by Elena Rueda, Dr. Paulina Cecula, and Dr. Aaron Lazorwitz, Dama Health empowers women and clinicians to make safer, more efficient, and personalized care decisions.
Investor relations contact:
Elena Rueda, CEO & Cofounder