Neural Intervention Technologies: Making an Impact on Neurovascular Disease
Each year, millions of people suffer strokes that result in debility or death. Approximately 80 percent are ischemic strokes, caused by lack of blood flow to the brain. But as many as 150,000 additional cases annually involve hemorrhaging stroke, in which neurovascular lesions and other defects lead to a rupture of blood vessels. The fatality rate for hemorrhaging stroke is extraordinarily high-and millions of people are at risk.
In the past, treatments for "the other stroke" have involved dangerous surgical procedures or toxic substances for repairing lesions. But that could change with the introduction of a non-toxic, biocompatible product called ALGEL™ which blocks the flow of blood to vessel defects and promotes healing of dangerous lesions. The ALGEL™ technology was initially developed at Arizona State University and further refined at the University of Michigan by biomedical engineers Tim Becker and Daryl Kipke. In 2001, with the assistance of UM Tech Transfer, Drs. Becker and Kipke joined forces to found Neural Intervention Technologies (NIT), Inc.
According to serial entrepreneur and NIT President and CEO Thomas A. Collet, the organization has been built on collaboration. "There's ALGEL™ itself," he explains, "and the fact that we're bundling technology from Arizona State and the University of Michigan. But there's also the strong support we've received from UM Tech Transfer in everything from licensing to assistance with reimbursement and regulatory planning."
Recently, NIT and UM received a joint $2.2 million award for clinical development from the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor. The company has also received two Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants.
Printed from: http://www.techtransfer.umich.edu/news_events/success_stories/story_28.php