On Thursday evening, ten local startups will take the stage at the Boston TechCrunch Meetup + Pitchoff to compete for a spot at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City. TechCrunch’s East Coast editor John Biggs and reporter Jordan Crook will be in town for the event, which is co-hosted by VentureFizz, NextView Ventures, and General Assembly, and will be held at The Estate.

The companies pitching at Thursday night’s event submitted their applications and were then narrowed down to ten by TechCrunch staff. And while the Boston event doesn’t come with a financial prize, winning at Disrupt can earn the company $50,000 in prize money, the chance to get some national spotlight, and the prestige of being selected as the most innovative technology startup by the nation’s best known online tech blog.

Among the top contenders this year is Orig3n, which was recently covered by Scott Kirsner. The company uses induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from donated blood samples to create cells that can help biotech and pharmaceutical companies test new drugs and gene therapies. It recently raised $1.3 million in funding and is working to create cell libraries that patients can draw from should they need customized therapies for medical disorders.

Another contestant is location-based communication app Glyb, one of a growing class of Snapchat-like disappearing text/image applications. Unlike Snapchat, Glyb isn’t time-based but instead lets users anonymously send messages to any other Glyb users in a particular location; the messages are deleted as soon as the users leaves the site.

Dynometrics, a company built by MIT and Harvard students, helps endurance athletes measure when they reach their peak exercise threshold. Unlike other devices Dynometrics’ optical lactate meter does not require a blood sample and can give updates in real-time, which is invaluable for endurance athletes in training.

Also pitching is Cybereason, a Boston-area cybersecurity company with Israeli roots. Cybereason’s software can detect both known and unknown security threats and attacks, which allows companies to deal with cyberattacks quickly.

Neumitra develops biomodules (which can be embedded in watches and jewelry) that monitor a user’s automnomic nervous systems in order to detect stress levels. The company was founded by Robert Goldberg, Ph.D., Safiyy Momen, and Anand Yadav, who met at MIT in 2009.

Other startups pitching at the TechCrunch Pitchoff include Blynk, Clique Chic, digit, Immersed Games, and Lettuce: Eat & Play. Last year’s winner was TicketZen, which lets users pay parking tickets with their mobile phones. Although it didn’t win the Disrupt pitch contest in New York, the company has had a very successful year since, recently announcing an extension of its pilot program with the City of Boston and partnering with London-based PayByPhone.

From: betaboston.com