DURHAM – Humacyte, the emerging entrepreneurial life science firm focusing on the bioengineering of human tissue, reported a $31.6 million loss for its first quarter as a public company.

Noting much of the loss was associated with expenses and costs related to the merger that turned it into a public company as well as administrative costs, Humacyte (Nasdaq: HUMA) said it expected to have enough cash “to fund operations at least through the first anticipated approval and market launch of the HAV in the treatment of vascular trauma.”

HAV refers to implantable bioengineered human tissue.

Humacyte went public in August and reported having more than $240 million in cash and cash eqivalents following the merger and related investments.

“Humacyte has made great strides advancing our bioengineered tissue platform to create novel human acellular tissues and organs. This quarter was marked with significant corporate progress, including the closing of our business combination agreement with Alpha Healthcare and our debut on Nasdaq,” explained CEO Laura Niklason.

“We are excited about our transition to a public company, and we are laying a strong foundation of clinical, technical and infrastructure progress to support our continued advancement toward commercialization. This month we will be sharing late-breaking data on the performance of HAVs manufactured with our commercial-scale LUNA200 platform. We look forward to continued progress of our HAV for vascular trauma, AV access and peripheral arterial disease toward late-stage clinical readouts, while advancing our earlier stage work in treatments for heart disease and diabetes.”

The company also recentl;y secured three more patents, giving it 119 that the firm owns or licenses.