Beyond Blood Banks: SymClot Aims to Revolutionize Bleeding Control

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – July 15, 2026 – In the intricate, high-stakes network of emergency medicine, the greatest vulnerabilities often lie in the supply chain. For decades, the ability to control catastrophic bleeding has been tethered to the fragile logistics of donated blood platelets—products with a shelf life measured in days, requiring refrigeration and precise blood-type matching. This dependency creates a critical gap in care, particularly in pre-hospital settings, on the battlefield, or during mass casualty events where time and resources are scarcest.

Now, a strategic partnership forged here in the heart of North Carolina’s biotech hub aims to sever that dependency. Persephoni BioSciences, a global venture creation platform, announced today its investment in SelSym Biotech, a preclinical-stage company developing a groundbreaking solution to hemorrhage. The partnership brings SelSym’s lead product, SymClot, into Persephoni’s “Clinical Impact Studio,” providing the capital and operational infrastructure to propel it from the lab toward the front lines of medical care. SymClot is not another blood product; it’s an injectable, blood-type-agnostic therapeutic designed to mimic the body's natural clotting process, promising a stable, off-the-shelf solution that could fundamentally re-architect how we respond to trauma.

The Bottleneck in the Golden Hour

Uncontrolled hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death in both civilian and military trauma. The concept of the “golden hour”—the critical window following a traumatic injury during which prompt medical intervention has the highest likelihood of preventing death—is defined by the race to stop bleeding. Within this window, the current gold standard, transfusion with natural platelets, is often an unavailable luxury.

Natural platelets are the body’s first responders to injury, but they are notoriously difficult to manage logistically. They must be stored at room temperature under constant agitation, expire in just five to seven days, and carry the risk of contamination and transfusion reactions. For first responders at a highway accident, medics in a combat zone, or doctors in a rural hospital, a ready supply of type-matched platelets is rarely on hand. This logistical bottleneck leaves them with limited options, such as topical agents for external wounds or drugs like tranexamic acid, which helps prevent clots from breaking down but does not actively form them.

“The challenge has always been getting the right tools to the point of injury, fast,” noted one emergency physician not affiliated with the companies. “We have advanced surgical techniques and transport systems, but the fundamental problem of stopping major internal bleeding before a patient reaches the hospital remains a massive hurdle. A shelf-stable, injectable agent that works for anyone would be a paradigm shift.”

This is the precise gap SelSym Biotech aims to fill. SymClot is designed to integrate into existing hospital protocols but, more importantly, to extend hemostatic care to the very settings where natural platelets cannot go.

Engineering a Solution: The Science of SymClot

SymClot's innovation lies in its biomimetic design—it is engineered to function like a platelet without being one. The technology, which originated in the Advanced Wound Healing Lab of Dr. Ashley Brown at North Carolina State University, is built on a platform of synthetic, platelet-like particles. These engineered hydrogel microparticles are designed to circulate inertly in the bloodstream until they encounter a site of vascular injury.

At the wound site, exposed collagen and other proteins trigger the particles to change their structure, selectively binding to the damaged tissue. Once localized, they act as a scaffold, recruiting the body’s own clotting factors and amplifying the natural coagulation cascade to form a stable clot. Because they are synthetic, they eliminate the need for blood typing and the risks associated with donor-derived products.

The science is not merely theoretical. The approach has been rigorously validated in both small and large animal trauma models, with findings published in top-tier scientific journals, including Science Translational Medicine and Nature Materials. This strong preclinical data, backed by non-dilutive grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DoD), laid the essential groundwork for the next crucial phase: commercial development and clinical trials.

“We've been intentional about who we partner with, and Persephoni's ethos aligned with our mission from the start: getting SymClot to the patients who need it, faster,” said Seema Nandi, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of SelSym Biotech. “This investment is our first equity funding, and it validates years of work getting SelSym to this point.”

The Venture Creation Engine: Persephoni's Strategic Play

SelSym’s transition from a grant-funded academic spinout to a clinical-stage company is being powered by a new breed of biotech investor. Persephoni Bio is not a traditional venture capital firm; it operates as a “venture creation platform.” This hands-on model goes beyond providing capital, embedding its portfolio companies within an ecosystem of shared infrastructure and deep operational expertise.

For an early-stage company like SelSym, this model is designed to de-risk and accelerate the notoriously long and expensive journey from lab to market. By co-locating with Persephoni’s team, SelSym gains direct access to seasoned experts in regulatory affairs, clinical trial design, and manufacturing scale-up—the very disciplines essential for navigating the complex path to FDA approval.

This investment is a hallmark of Persephoni’s strategy: identify world-class science and provide the industrial-strength backbone needed to build a successful company around it. As a woman-founded, operator-led platform, Persephoni represents a more integrated approach to building the next generation of life-saving technologies.

“We're proud to welcome SelSym into the Persephoni family. They've proven what disciplined science and capital efficiency can achieve, the same discipline that is foundational to our model,” said Hilary Schultz, CEO of Persephoni. “As lead investor and strategic partner, we will open all of Persephoni’s capabilities, infrastructure, platforms, and technologies, to enable SelSym to move more efficiently to inflection and patients.”

From Lab Bench to Patient: The Path Forward

The infusion of capital and strategic support marks a pivotal moment for SelSym. The immediate focus will be on completing the final preclinical studies required for an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA. This submission is the gateway to human trials, starting with Phase 1 studies to establish safety in healthy volunteers before moving into patient populations.

The regulatory pathway for a novel biomaterial like SymClot will be rigorous, likely falling under the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). However, given the significant unmet need in trauma care, the program could be a candidate for expedited review pathways designed to speed the availability of transformative therapies.

With the combined expertise of SelSym’s scientific founders and Persephoni’s operational team, the partnership is poised to navigate these hurdles. The journey from an idea in a university lab to a product in an emergency medic’s kit is fraught with challenges, but the collaboration between SelSym and Persephoni provides a robust framework for success. If realized, SymClot has the potential to become a standard component of emergency response, creating a more resilient and effective trauma care network that saves lives when every second counts.