The Italy-America Chamber of Commerce of Texas in partnership with Toscana Promozione, (the Tuscany
Region International Development Agency), are honored to present the first project regarding the best
Tuscany has to offer in the field of life science, bio and nanotechnology in Texas.
The project matches together Tuscan and Texan companies, working in the field of Bio-Technologies, willing to explore the possibility of establishing long-lasting relationships with each other or to provide funding to spur breakthrough ideas.

At the end of June, with the support of Toscana Promozione and the Tuscany Region Governor's Office, the
first phase of the event took place. A Committee of 3 scientists from the Medical Center, the Houston
Technology Center, and one of the biggest venture capital in Texas met more than 25 previously selected
Start-up companies located in the innovation clusters of Pontedera (PI), Florence and Siena to assess their
innovative projects. The Committee selected and invited the best 5 to Houston to introduce themselves and meet potential Business Angels, Investor and Research Center managers in order to concretely finance and ramp up their business.

The "Chosen" 5 are:
- Brain Control (the product is a Brain-computer interface that allows people suffering from various kinds of muscular dystrophies, to overcome severe physical and communicative disabilities);
- Emergency Solutions (Mobile medical solutions including a mobile operating room);
- Exosomics (Early stage detection of cancer cells via unique biomarkers detected with a "liquid biopsy" from a blood draw by checking for tumor exomes);
- Galileo research (Allogenic cell therapy for ovarian and prostate cancer);
- Win Medical (Modular wearable medical diagnostic monitor).

This second phase is going to take place on October 27th-30th, 2014 in Texas, between Houston and Austin areas. The 5 Companies, accompanied by the Executive Director of " Toscana Promozione", visit Houston, San Marcos, and Austin, where the Italy -America Chamber of Commerce has arranged meetings and events with the Texas Community.
They will be visiting and meet the scientists from the BioScience Research Collaborative, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Houston Methodist Research Institute, The Houston
Technology Center, The Science Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Park – Texas State University, and the IC2 – Innovation Creativity Capital Incubator – Austin.

A b2b partnering event will take place on the 28th at the Cooley Center and the same day, a Reception, offered by the Greater Houston Partnership, will be held in the amazing hall of the Texas Heart Institute.
And that is not all. A third step will follow in January 2015 when a significant group of Texans investors will go to Tuscany, hosted by the Governor of the Region, and will be looking for the best investments in the life science/bioengineering field. For the terrific support offered we must thank:
Deborah Mansfield, Life Sciences Acceleration Houston Technology Center
Stacey Kalovidouris, Institute of Biosciences & Bioengineering Rice University
Jeffrey Blair, Greater Houston Partnership
John Kajander, Strategic Consultant-Life Sciences Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau
Jeff Sheldon, General Partner & Managing Director of CitareTx Investment Partners
Stephen Frayser, Executive Director of Star Park, Texas State University
George Robinson, Global Commercialization Group, IC2 Institute, University of Texas

For more information please contact:
The Italy America Chamber of Commerce
1800 West Loop South, Ste. 1120
Houston, TX 77027