Cleveland-based Auxilium Health has closed an oversubscribed $3.4 million seed round to accelerate its Aer™ biomaterial platform toward FDA clearance and first-in-human studies. The company says the technology is designed to prevent infection by blocking bacterial attachment while promoting regenerative cell colonization — an approach that departs from traditional antimicrobial strategies.
## Auxilium Health’s Aer platform: preventing infection by design
Rather than killing bacteria after they arrive, Auxilium Health’s Aer platform re-engineers the implant surface itself. Aer mimics the body’s extracellular matrix and is built to resist bacterial attachment from the outset, while remaining permissive to healing cells. That structural strategy targets the “race for the surface” — the critical period when host cells and bacteria compete to colonize a wound or implant — and aims to reduce reliance on antibiotics and antimicrobial coatings.
## Funding, growth and local ecosystem
The $3.4 million seed — raised a year after an oversubscribed $1.5 million pre-seed — more than doubles the company’s prior capital and comes with rapid team expansion: Auxilium reports its full-time staff has doubled over the last 12 months. Headquartered in the Cleveland Clinic’s Global Innovation Center, the startup is embedded in a Northeast Ohio cluster supported by the National Science Foundation, the Ohio Department of Development and the Polymer Industry Cluster, linking its growth to regional materials and medtech priorities.
## What the company will do next
Auxilium plans to use the new capital to advance its lead Aer-based product through regulatory pathways and into first-in-human studies, and to expand its core R&D team. The platform is positioned as modular: while the initial focus is on wound care and reducing infection risk, Auxilium notes Aer’s potential applicability across wound repair, bone regeneration and localized delivery.
“Last year, the question was whether the science was real. This year, it’s how fast we can get it to patients,” said Isaiah Kaiser, PhD, founder and CEO of Auxilium Health. He credited investor and partner confidence with enabling the company to move with urgency.
Auxilium Health’s approach underscores a shift in biomaterials research toward preventive, structure-based solutions for infection control. As the company advances Aer through regulatory milestones, its progress will be watched both for clinical impact and for how it leverages a regional innovation ecosystem to scale biomaterials innovation.
