A conversation with Endomimetics CEO Joseph Garner, Ph.D.
Nearly 60% of arteriovenous fistulas fail to mature. These surgically created connections between an artery and a vein are a lifeline for dialysis patients, but when they fail, patients may need additional procedures and prolonged use of temporary catheters.
Endomimetics’ Bionanomatrix gel reduced intimal hyperplasia, a major cause of fistula failure, by more than 70% in rodents while improving vein diameter and blood flow. That program could anchor a conventional biotech company, but Endomimetics has structured itself around a bigger possibility: that the material behind it can support an entire portfolio.
In February 2026, the Birmingham company reorganized as an intellectual property foundry, a structure designed to build standalone companies around individual Bionanomatrix applications.
The Material Behind the Model
At the center of Endomimetics is Bionanomatrix, a self-assembling, peptide-based biomaterial designed to mimic key features of the body’s natural extracellular environment.
Even when an implant works mechanically, the body may still recognize it as foreign, triggering inflammation, clotting, and scarring that compromise healing and long-term performance. Bionanomatrix is designed to change that interaction. Its engineered peptides self-assemble into a nanoscale matrix that releases nitric oxide, antibiotics, and other drugs to promote healing and supports endothelial-cell attachment and tissue integration.
“Our approach is to integrate Bionanomatrix with existing devices and surgical procedures so the material can communicate with the surrounding biology and actively guide the healing response,” Garner says.
Developed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Bionanomatrix is supported by more than 15 peer-reviewed publications and a portfolio of worldwide patents extending through 2043.
From One Platform to Multiple Companies
Before joining Endomimetics, Garner served as CEO of Soluble Therapeutics, which was acquired in 2016. That experience helped shape Endomimetics’ approach to building focused companies around promising Bionanomatrix applications.
“As the platform expanded, it became clear that trying to commercialize every application within one company would eventually slow all of them down,” Garner says.
“The foundry model lets us keep the science centralized while giving each program the focus it needs to succeed.”
Endomimetics owns the core intellectual property and advances new applications through early development. Once a program reaches a technical, regulatory or commercial milestone, it can receive an exclusive, field-specific license and move into a standalone company.
Investors can back Endomimetics at the platform level or invest in individual programs as spinouts are formed. Strategic partners and potential acquirers can likewise evaluate each spinout on its own assets, leadership, and development plan. Endomimetics plans to retain an interest in each spinout through licensing fees, milestone payments, royalties and equity, allowing value created by each application to flow back to the parent company.
Starting with Vascular Access
Vascular access will be the first opportunity to move Bionanomatrix from preclinical evidence into clinical development. Endomimetics’ Vascular Access (AVF) Gel is designed to support the maturation of newly created arteriovenous fistulas by releasing nitric oxide at the surgical site for greater than 45 days. The company anticipates that the FDA will give this product Orphan Drug designation which will allow the Vascular Access Gel to advance through the regulatory process considerably faster and at a much lower cost.
Bionanomatrix can also be formulated as a coating or three-dimensional scaffold for other medical-device and drug-development programs. Collectively, the company estimates that its active programs target a total addressable market of $37.9 billion by 2032.
Looking Ahead
Since its founding, Endomimetics has raised more than $10 million, including nondilutive NIH funding. The company is now raising $3 million to $5 million to advance its vascular access program toward clinical testing and prepare additional programs for spinout.
Endomimetics’ foundry is designed to give each application its own financing and development path while preserving the value of the underlying platform. Vascular access will provide the first test of whether one Birmingham-born biomaterial can generate a portfolio of biotech companies.