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EQT Foundation commits more than €1 million to help unlock new ways of delivering medicines to the brain

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11 research projects working to improve how therapeutics reach the brain and central nervous system are supported through the latest EQT Foundation Science GrantResearchers are pursuing multiple routes through and around the blood-brain barrier, including engineered biological carriers, molecular shuttles, gene therapy vectors, nanoparticles and AI-designed delivery technologiesThe program targets a fundamental challenge in CNS medicine that limits the development of treatments for neurological, neurodegenerative, oncological and rare genetic diseases

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EQT Foundation has committed more than EUR 1 million to 11 research projects aiming to develop new ways to overcome that challenge, supporting technologies that could make a wider range of medicines viable for diseases of the central nervous system.

The projects, based at 10 research institutions across the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States and Canada, approach brain delivery from very different scientific directions. Some are engineering the body’s own transport mechanisms to carry therapeutic cargo. Others are designing new molecular shuttles, viral vectors and nanoparticles, or exploring less conventional routes into the central nervous system. Several of the projects are already applying these technologies to specific diseases, including brain cancer, ALS and rare genetic disorders.

The common challenge is the blood-brain barrier: a highly selective biological interface that protects the brain from potentially harmful substances circulating in the bloodstream, but at the same time makes many otherwise promising medicines difficult to deliver. This has implications well beyond any single disease. New delivery technologies could enable emerging modalities such as gene editing, RNA medicines, antibodies and other large-molecule therapeutics to reach targets in the brain that are currently inaccessible.

Cilia Holmes Indahl, Head of EQT Foundation, said: “I believe that science can now design increasingly sophisticated medicines. For the brain, the question is whether they can get to where they need to go, which makes delivery the problem underneath all the others. This group is trying a remarkably wide set of answers, from borrowing pathways the body already has to building entirely new ones. If any of them work, they could potentially work for many diseases at once. That is exactly the kind of early, step-change science we want to back.”

The researchers receiving funding are developing technologies that span both established and emerging approaches to CNS delivery:

Elga de Vries, Amsterdam UMC (Netherlands): Developing extracellular vesicles — naturally occurring particles used by cells to transport biological material — as carriers capable of bringing therapeutic cargo across the blood-brain barrier.           Sophia Shi, Harvard University (United States): Developing “GlycoShuttles”, a new approach that seeks to use glycans on the surface of brain blood vessels as an entry mechanism for therapeutics and improve their distribution within the brain.           Maarten Dewilde and Els Henckaerts, KU Leuven (Belgium): Creating a modular VHH-based adaptor designed to redirect AAV gene therapies toward alternative transport receptors at the blood-brain barrier, potentially expanding the options for systemic gene delivery to the brain.           Ana Raquel Pato Santa Maria, Wyss Institute at Harvard University (United States): Developing dual-target brain shuttles intended to improve both the transport and retention of antibody and oligonucleotide therapeutics in the central nervous system.           Praveen Raju, University of California San Diego (United States): Developing a targeted nanomedicine approach that aims to transport drugs into the brain specifically where disease has altered the blood-brain barrier, with an initial application in pediatric brain tumors.           Jeroen Pasterkamp, University Medical Center Utrecht (Netherlands): Investigating engineered extracellular vesicles as carriers for gene-editing tools targeting motor neurons, initially focusing on a genetic form of juvenile ALS.           Niek van Til, Amsterdam UMC (Netherlands): Developing an approach with the aim to enable therapeutic intracellular proteins to move across the blood-brain barrier through transcytosis, with an initial application in neurometabolic disease.           Saman Fatima, Seattle Children’s Hospital / University of Washington (United States): Using artificial intelligence to design compact macrocyclic peptides that could act as reusable shuttles for carrying different therapeutic payloads into the brain.           Umar Iqbal, National Research Council Canada (Canada): Developing lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery to the central nervous system, combining blood-brain barrier targeting with receptor-mediated transport.           Servio Ramirez, University of Florida (United States): Developing next-generation AAV vectors designed to cross the blood-brain barrier and selectively deliver therapeutic genes to microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. The platform is being developed initially for CSF1R-related disorders, a group of rare and devastating neurodegenerative diseases, with the potential to be adapted to other disorders involving microglial dysfunction.           Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke, VIB and Ghent University (Belgium): Examining whether the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier could provide an alternative route into the central nervous system, and how its effectiveness compares with delivery directly across the blood-brain barrier.

The grants are intended to provide researchers with early, flexible capital with the aim to generate the evidence needed to help advance promising concepts toward further translational development.

The initiative sits within EQT Foundation’s Science program, which backs entrepreneurial researchers developing early-stage climate and health technologies with the potential for significant impact. Alongside grant funding, researchers can access commercialization expertise and EQT’s global network of scientific, industry and entrepreneurial experts as they work to move their discoveries beyond the laboratory. 

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EQT Press Office, 
press@eqtpartners.com 

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Blood brain barriers

 

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Ives Ultra AI Opportunities Inc. (NYSE: IVAI) Announces Pricing of $200 Million Initial Public Offering

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SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ives Ultra AI Opportunities Inc. (“IVAI”) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 20,000,000 shares of common stock at $10.00 per share. IVAI is the first publicly listed closed-end investment fund dedicated to providing public market investors with access to private AI companies. IVAI has up to 12 months to propose its initial private AI investments and provide investors with the opportunity to tender their shares under its Tender Offer Policy.

Dan Ives serves as Chairman of the Board of Managers of Ives Ultra Capital Management LLC, IVAI’s investment adviser (“the Adviser”). Jeff Leathers is CEO of the Adviser and sits on its Board of Managers. Ed Leathers, CFA, is portfolio manager of IVAI and sits on the Board of Managers of the Adviser; Mr. Ives is not IVAI’s portfolio manager and does not serve on the Investment Committee. Mr. Ives is Partner and Senior Managing Director, Analyst at Yorkville Ives & Co.

IVAI’s shares of common stock are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) on September 30, 2026 under the symbol “IVAI.” IVAI also granted the underwriter an option to purchase up to 3,000,000 shares of its common stock to cover overallotments, if any. The offering is expected to close on October 1, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

Cohen & Company Capital Markets, Inc., a division of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, acted as the sole bookrunner for the offering.

A registration statement on Form N-2, as amended, relating to these securities was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and declared effective on September 29, 2026. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus and the final prospectus relating to the offering, when available, may be obtained from Cohen & Company Capital Markets, Inc., a division of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, 135 East 57th Street, 21st Floor, New York, New York 10022, or through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.

Investors should carefully consider IVAI’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. The preliminary prospectus, dated September 28, 2026, contains this and other important information about IVAI and should be read carefully before investing.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor will there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction. Offers of these securities are made only by means of the prospectus. The SEC has not approved or disapproved these securities or passed upon the adequacy of the preliminary prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

About IVAI

IVAI is the first publicly listed closed-end investment fund dedicated to providing public market investors with access to private AI companies. The fund seeks to provide exposure to leading private AI companies demonstrating strong growth, market leadership and attractive competitive positioning, with a primary focus on late-stage businesses in AI infrastructure and applied AI. IVAI is advised by Ives Ultra Capital Management LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, where Dan Ives serves as Chairman of the Board of Managers.

Forward Looking Statements

This communication contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the completion of IVAI’s initial public offering, the expected commencement of trading of IVAI’s common stock on the NYSE, the expected closing of the offering, the anticipated use of the net proceeds, and IVAI’s investment strategy. Statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements, including those described in the prospectus and IVAI’s other filings with the SEC. IVAI undertakes no obligation to update these forward looking statements to reflect changes since the date of this press release, except as required by law.

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SOURCE Ives Ultra AI Opportunities Inc.

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TrackVia Launches Next Generation of Its AI-Ready Field Operations Platform

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TrackVia IRIS, enterprise AI connectivity, a rebuilt Android application and a modernized user experience expand how organizations run, understand and improve mission-critical operations

DENVER, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TrackVia today announced a significant expansion of its Field Operations Intelligence platform, introducing new artificial intelligence capabilities, enterprise AI connectivity, a rebuilt Android application and a modernized web experience designed to help organizations run complex, mission-critical operations more effectively.

TrackVia serves organizations across industries including construction, facilities and property management, manufacturing, gaming, healthcare, hospitality, education and government. These are environments where operational work is complex, constantly changing and often too specialized for traditional off-the-shelf software.

Field teams are under more pressure than ever. Today, there are roughly three open skilled-trade jobs for every qualified worker available to fill them, according to an August 2026 Lightcast analysis. That workforce gap is colliding with rising expectations for faster service, greater productivity and tighter margins, even as the work itself becomes more complex.

TrackVia helps organizations meet that challenge by connecting the people doing the work, the workflows that run the operation and the data needed to make better decisions. Now, TrackVia is bringing artificial intelligence directly into that operational environment, allowing organizations to gain more insight from the systems and processes they already rely on every day.

“Our customers have spent years building incredibly important processes and operational knowledge into TrackVia,” said Aylin Basom, Chief Executive Officer of TrackVia. “Our opportunity now is to help them unlock even more value from that foundation. We want TrackVia to be the place where operational work, operational data and operational intelligence come together.”

“This is much bigger than adding an AI feature,” Basom continued. “We are investing across the entire TrackVia platform, including AI, mobility, user experience, integrations and enterprise readiness. We are making TrackVia easier to use, more intelligent and more powerful so our customers can not only run their operations, but increasingly understand, improve and transform them.”

Introducing TrackVia IRIS: AI for Operational Intelligence

At the center of TrackVia’s AI strategy is TrackVia IRIS, the company’s artificial intelligence layer for operational intelligence. Now users can ask questions about their operational data using natural language and receive answers directly within TrackVia. Instead of navigating multiple dashboards or waiting for someone to analyze the data, users can now ask questions about the information already available to them and get the insight they need more quickly.

TrackVia IRIS is designed with enterprise controls in mind and respects TrackVia’s existing permissions model, meaning users can only access information they are already authorized to see.

Connecting TrackVia to the Enterprise AI Ecosystem

TrackVia is also introducing support for Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling organizations to securely connect TrackVia with AI platforms and assistants they already use, including Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Gemini.

Through MCP, organizations can connect their TrackVia operational environment with the AI tools they choose, creating new possibilities for querying information, building applications, improving workflows and making operational data more accessible across the business.

“With the new MCP capabilities, I was able to build and refine a new fleet management application in just 20 minutes,” said one TrackVia customer.

This approach allows TrackVia to remain the operational system of record while giving customers greater flexibility in how they adopt and use AI.

Built for the People Doing the Work

TrackVia’s investment extends beyond AI. The company has also rebuilt its Android application on a modern technical foundation, delivering improved performance, reliability and usability for employees working in the field.

TrackVia has long enabled field teams to continue working even when connectivity is limited or unavailable, an essential capability for organizations operating at construction sites, facilities, manufacturing environments and other remote locations. The new Android experience brings TrackVia’s modernized interface to mobile users and establishes a stronger foundation for continued innovation across both Android and iOS.

For organizations with employees working across job sites, facilities, plants and other distributed environments, mobile technology is not simply an extension of the operational platform. It is often where the work actually happens.

A More Modern, Intuitive TrackVia Experience

TrackVia is also rolling out a refreshed web experience developed in response to customer feedback. The redesigned experience provides simpler navigation and a more intuitive interface while preserving one of TrackVia’s core advantages: the ability to configure technology around the way an organization actually operates.

Organizations should not have to redesign complex operations around rigid software. TrackVia allows customers to build and evolve operational applications around their own processes, helping them respond as requirements, teams and business conditions change.

The modernized experience makes TrackVia easier for new users to adopt while giving existing customers a stronger foundation for increasingly sophisticated operational workflows.

About TrackVia

TrackVia is a Field Operations Intelligence platform that helps organizations connect, control and continuously improve mission-critical operations.

TrackVia brings together field teams, operational workflows and enterprise data to create real-time visibility, automate work and turn operational data into actionable intelligence. With configurable operational applications, mobile capabilities, enterprise integrations and AI-powered intelligence, TrackVia helps organizations adapt as operations change without adding another rigid point solution or relying on costly custom development.

TrackVia serves organizations across construction, facilities and property management, manufacturing, gaming, healthcare, hospitality, education and government.

To learn more, visit trackvia.com.

Media Contact

Daniel Dorr TrackVia, daniel.dorr@trackvia.com

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SOURCE TrackVia

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ARC Bio Demonstrates Canadian Forest Residue Pathway to Sustainable Aviation Fuel

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Pilot-scale refinery co-processing demonstrates a pathway to convert forest industry residues into low-carbon jet fuel using existing infrastructure.

PORT-CARTIER, QC, Sept. 30, 2026 /CNW/ — ARC Bio, the Canadian joint venture between an affiliate of Bioénergie AE Cote-Nord Canada Inc. (“Bioénergie AECN”) and Alder Renewables, today announced the successful demonstration of a pathway to produce sustainable aviation fuel (“SAF”) from Canadian forest residues through refinery co-processing.

The demonstration brings together Canada’s forest products industry, renewable fuels technology and existing refining infrastructure to show how residual woody biomass can be converted into a refinery-ready biocrude for processing alongside conventional feedstocks to produce transportation fuels, including SAF.

“Canada has the biomass feedstock, the forest sector expertise, the industrial capability and the refining infrastructure to build an important new clean fuel value chain,” said Serge Mercier, President of Bioénergie AECN. “This work creates a direct connection between Canada’s forest sector economy and the growing need for low-carbon fuels in aviation and marine transportation markets.”

The project upgraded fast pyrolysis bio-oil produced from Canadian forest residues by Bioénergie AECN in Port-Cartier into barrel-scale quantities of Alder Renewable Crude (ARC). This biocrude was then processed in a fluid catalytic cracking, or FCC, pilot unit that simulates commercial refinery operation. Carbon-14 analysis of the resulting fuel products confirmed the presence of biogenic carbon from the wood residue-derived feedstock.

The FCC campaign successfully produced a jet-range fuel fraction that was isolated and evaluated for blending compatibility with HEFA-based SAF produced from fats, oils and greases. The resulting SAF blend met the key ASTM D1655 fuel-property specifications evaluated in the screening. The work represents an important step toward demonstrating that biocrude produced from Canadian forest residues can enter existing refinery infrastructure and be converted into finished transportation fuels.

“The significance of this demonstration is not simply that we produced a renewable jet-range fuel,” said Derek Vardon, CEO of Alder Renewables. “We demonstrated a pathway connecting Canadian forest residues with refinery infrastructure already operating at commercial scale. That creates the potential for a scalable, capital-efficient route to bring forest-derived renewable carbon into aviation fuel markets.”

With financial support from Boeing, the project was established to validate the conversion of forest residues into SAF in Canada and generate the technical and economic data needed to support future commercial-scale facilities.

A New Market Opportunity for Canada’s Forest Sector

Canada’s forest industry generates large volumes of wood residues. As traditional markets face changing demand and international trade pressures, creating higher-value uses for these residues can strengthen forest-sector economics while supplying renewable carbon to industries that are difficult to decarbonize.

The project also demonstrates opportunities to create value from low-value woody biomass, including forest residues generated through forest management and wildfire-risk reduction, where appropriate feedstock supply chains can be established.

By converting these materials into an energy-dense, transportable biocrude, ARC Bio is developing a model that connects distributed forestry resources with large-scale fuel refining infrastructure.

Leveraging Refinery Infrastructure Already in Place

Unlike pathways requiring an entirely new standalone fuel refinery, ARC Bio’s approach is designed to integrate with existing refinery operations. Fluid catalytic cracking is widely used in refineries around the world to produce transportation fuel components. Introducing Alder Renewable Crude into an FCC process creates a pathway connecting renewable feedstocks with existing commercial fuel production assets.

The next stage of the program will generate additional refinery-relevant data to support larger-scale trials. ARC Bio’s roadmap is ultimately aimed at enabling a first-of-a-kind Canadian commercial project combining forest-residue conversion, biocrude production and refinery integration.

Learn more about ARC Bio’s milestone and latest activities at ARC Bio News.

About ARC Bio and its Partners

ARC Bio is a Canadian joint venture between an affiliated company of Bioénergie AECN and Alder Renewables focused on converting Canadian forest residues into renewable fuels. The collaboration combines commercial fast pyrolysis, renewable crude upgrading, and refinery processing to advance sustainable aviation fuel and marine fuels in Canada. Bioénergie AECN operates North America’s largest fast pyrolysis bio-oil facility using wood residue feedstocks in Port-Cartier, Quebec. The Port-Cartier facility has an annual production capacity of 40 million litres of bio-oil. Alder Renewables develops upgrading technology that converts fast pyrolysis bio-oil into refinery-ready biocrude for downstream production of low-carbon fuels and other industrial products.

SOURCE Arc-Bio

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