This Month's Profile Group: Cartilage Repair: Opportunities In Motion-Preserving Orthopedics, features profiles of Articulinx, Carticept Medical and Orthox. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Ellipse Technologies, JDP Therapeutics, NuMe Health and SironRX Therapeutics.

Osteoarthritis affects almost 21 million Americans aged 25 or older, and is most prevalent in the hand. The need for an alternative to long-term drug therapy for treating early stage hand OA is a vastly underserved market that Silicon Valley-based Articulinx Inc. hopes to address with its Intercarpometacarpal Cushion, a spacer device used to augment cartilage in the basal joint of the thumb.

Start-ups and investors are looking to address the large and growing gap between palliative treatment and major joint surgery for patients with cartilage damage in the knee, toes and hands - although the FDA is putting up more roadblocks than ever before. In this issue we profile Articulinx, Carticept Medical and Orthox.

Start-Up's monthly comprehensive review of emerging life science companies that have received venture funding during the month, including companies in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic and research instrumentation and reagent sectors.