HysensBio wins dentech pitch competition with peptide that appears to regenerate dentin
Conference’s signature event featured 8 startup companies presenting oral health innovations
HysensBio — a clinical-stage biotechnology company — is the winner of this year’s Pitch Competition at ADA Forsyth dentech 2025.
The conference’s signature event included eight startup companies. A panel of judges comprising venture capitalists and business leaders chose the winner.
HysensBio’s winning oral health innovation is KH001, the world’s first topical bioactive peptide that appears to regenerate dentin by reactivating odontoblasts, potentially offering a novel solution for dentin hypersensitivity and early-stage caries. The peptide is applied to the surface of a tooth and then travels down the tubules to the pulp and reactivates dormant odontoblasts, according to the company’s dentech presentation. These cells then secrete new dentin, rebuilding the tooth from the inside.
The peptide is currently undergoing a Phase 2 clinical trial in the U.S. involving 120 patients to evaluate its efficacy in addressing dentin hypersensitivity. Its efficacy was previously validated in a 2024 Phase 2 clinical trial in Korea that included 171 patients. HysensBio also completed an investigator-initiated trial this year that involved human teeth and showed promise in addressing dentin caries.
The runner-up in the competition was InnoTech Precision Medicine, which developed a rapid, saliva-based test that uses first-in-class patented technology to apparently detect both phenotypic and genotypic biomarkers associated with oropharyngeal cancer, with results supported by artificial intelligence.
“Congratulations to HysensBio and InnoTech Precision Medicine on their outstanding presentations in this year’s Pitch Competition,” ADA Forsyth CEO Wenyuan Shi, Ph.D., said. “We invited a very strong, carefully curated group of companies to the Pitch Competition at dentech this year. I was impressed not only with the solutions they presented, but also with the way each of them showed the value they provide to dental clinicians and patients.”
The other competing companies included Abrux, GreenMark Biomedical, Intelibly, PerioTrap Pharmaceuticals, Practice by Numbers and STEMDEN.
ADA Forsyth dentech took place Oct. 9-10 at the ADA Forsyth Institute in Somerville, Massachusetts. For more from the event, visit forsyth.org/dentech.
