Los Angeles, CA — Larta Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit advancing science- and technology-driven innovation from discovery to community deployment, today announced its 2026 Heal.LA cohort. Now entering its sixth year, Heal.LA serves as a regional implementation platform helping bioscience and healthcare solutions move beyond clinical validation into real-world use across Los Angeles County.
The 2026 cohort features 30 companies from across the country developing deployable solutions in bioscience, pharmaceuticals, digital health, medical devices, and AI-enabled care delivery. Together, they represent a growing pipeline of innovations designed to expand access to care, improve health equity, and strengthen community health outcomes in Los Angeles County and other underserved regions.
Meet the 2026 Heal.LA Fellows
Selected for their potential to address pressing regional needs, this year’s cohort prioritizes three critical Challenge Areas:
Female Health
- Bilisense, providing rapid insight for newborn jaundice management.
- BreastHealth.ai, enabling earlier breast cancer risk detection without radiation.
- Lidavex Inc., capturing objective cervical data during labor to expand access to high‑quality maternal care.
- Megi Health, predicting preeclampsia risk early in pregnancy through a cardiovascular digital biomarker.
- Novara Health, using AI‑driven patient engagement to help fertility clinics retain patients through treatment.
- Nspire Co., enabling more effective airway pressure delivery for premature infants by minimizing oxygen leakage.
- Rekovar Inc., delivering AI‑driven, clinically actionable insights to improve neonatal care for high‑risk infants.
- Wavelet, detecting fetal brain distress before birth with advanced sensing.
Mental & Cognitive Health
- Cenna Biosciences Inc., developing disease‑modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s.
- CountedCare Inc., providing financial clarity for family caregivers.
- LigronBio, developing disease-modifying therapies for neurodegenerative disorders.
- TAMMIRA, bringing trusted care to students where they are.
Chronic Disease Prevention & Management
- CardioStory Inc., changing heart failure monitoring with non‑invasive daily heart pressure data.
- CircuCare, enabling continuous cardiac imaging through an AI‑powered wearable ultrasound device.
- Define Medical, transforming coronary angiography into real‑time functional insights using AI‑powered cardiac modeling.
- iLABS, transforming lab workflows with AI for biotech, pharma, and life science research.
- MandalMed, Inc., translating research breakthroughs into therapies for patients with unmet medical needs.
- OncoRx Insights, enabling community oncologists to make well‑informed decisions in precision oncology.
- Osteolyse, Inc., extending implant life in orthopedics and dentistry
- Paralos Biosciences Inc., building a precision drug‑delivery platform to reduce off‑target toxicity and improve efficacy in severe infections.
- Scopi Medical, building smart point‑of‑care visualization tools that bring high‑quality diagnostic imaging closer to patients.
- Sharp and Flat, implementing adaptive music technology for re‑training movement and coordination.
- Sorem.ai, transforming standard clinical wound images into real‑time, objective staging and audit‑ready documentation using AI‑powered diagnostics.
- Thymos Health, promoting disease regression and reducing healthcare costs through integrated telemedicine for autoimmune diseases.
- Total Health Centers LLC, delivering whole-person, prevention-oriented care.
- Viranova, developing antisense therapeutics to prevent recurrent chronic viral eye disease.
- Visolyr, delivering agentic clinical AI to provide actionable insights and personalized treatment recommendations for cardiometabolic care.
- Yumlish, removing barriers to culturally aligned diabetes prevention for low‑income, Spanish‑first Medicaid populations.
Other
- Varosync, predicting clinical trial failures before they happen.
- TiterUp, making recombinant protein production economically viable.
A Proven Model for Health Equity
Heal.LA provides a structured ecosystem that translates bioscience breakthroughs into measurable community benefit. Across all cohorts, the program has achieved:
• Capital Raised: Over $98M in private investment and $2.72M in non-dilutive funding secured to date
• Economic Mobility: More than 151 jobs created and preserved
• Inclusive Innovation: In 2025, 76% of enterprises were women-led and 93% were led by diverse founders
“Heal.LA was designed to address the structural barriers that prevent life-saving innovations from reaching the communities most affected by health disparities,” said Rohit Shukla, Founder and CEO of Larta Institute. “Innovation delivers impact only when it becomes accessible, community-rooted, and implementable in real-world care environments.”
With support from California Jobs First and Accelerate California, Larta is strengthening Los Angeles’ regional health innovation ecosystem so these technologies move beyond the laboratory to create local economic opportunity and measurable health outcomes. By pairing Larta’s more than three decades of commercialization expertise with the catalytic capital of the Larta Impact Fund, the organization is building the infrastructure needed to bridge the implementation gap.
Heal.LA supports founders who are advancing health equity as a cornerstone of regional resilience—ensuring that residents across Los Angeles County can benefit from the future of bioscience and care delivery.”
Program Support & Partners
Heal.LA is made possible through a growing consortium of partners advancing healthcare innovation and community deployment across Los Angeles County, including the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA), California Jobs First (CJF), Gilead Sciences, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, BioscienceLA, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity, AltaMed Health Services, Biocom LA and others.
“The California Office of the Small Business Advocate is proud to partner with Larta in our goal of diversifying the innovation economy in the Los Angeles area and statewide,” said Clare Whitmer, Deputy Director of CalOSBA. “Together we are supporting diverse and creative funders in a sector critical to California’s economic future and the size of this cohort speaks to both the demand for these kinds of medical innovations and the availability of talent in our state.”
To learn more about the 2026 cohort and the program, visit: Larta.org/Heal-LA.
About Larta Institute
Larta Institute is a Los Angeles–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds translation infrastructure to move science- and technology-based solutions from discovery into real-world deployment for a sustainable planet. Since 1993, Larta has supported more than 7,000 innovators developing solutions that create economic opportunity and community impact. Learn more at Larta.org.
For media inquiries, contact:
Ilaria Ghelardoni
Office of Brand, Marketing, & Communications
BMC@larta.org