SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Upstate Medical University’s CNY Biotech Accelerator (CNYBAC) has selected five teams for its 2023 Medical Device Innovation Challenge (MDIC).

The MDIC teams will participate in the Empire State Development (ESD) grant-supported program, which is now in its seventh year. The MDIC review committee, a select group of subject-matter experts, chooses the teams involved, CNYBAC said in a news release on the Upstate website. 

“We are very excited about the teams selected,” Kathi Durdon, executive director of the CNYBAC, which is located at 841 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse, said. “These are medical-device innovators working to commercialize exciting technology with the intent to positively impact how patients are diagnosed and treated.”

Under the program, the MDIC participants have access to targeted mentorship and matched resources from the state’s “innovation ecosystem.” The teams also receive student-based commercialization research through the Innovation Law Center at Syracuse University, a NYSTAR asset partner. NYSTAR is ESD’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation.

CNYBAC offers selected team’s workspace and access to prototyping equipment in the CNYBAC Creation Garage as well as coordinated connections to Upstate Medical University research and clinical expertise and CORE facilities throughout the six-month program.

“We have graduated 33 teams to date with many of our graduates generating significant milestones, such as receiving grant awards, winning competitions, partnering with Upstate researchers and being accepted into accelerator programs,” Durdon said. “We have wonderful mentor support in areas such as regulatory, product development, startup company commercialization, intellectual-property protection and funding support. Our mentors are the key to the program’s success.”

MDIC participants

The five selected MDIC participating teams are the following.

AngiOhm 

AngiOhm includes Wayne Patton, Ph.D. and Linghong Li, Ph.D. 

Chronic wounds are “common, costly, and especially impact older adults.” Pressure injuries (bed sores) affect 2.5 million patients yearly in the U.S. and can become persistent and chronic, often frustrating health-care providers due to adverse impact on patient quality of life. 

AngiOhm’s technology enables treatment of such soft-tissue wounds by promoting growth of collateral blood vessels to increase blood flow to a targeted tissue, through application of patent-pending pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs). It is applicable to the field of regenerative medicine as it stimulates endothelial cells to populate avascular tissues through the processes of blood vessel sprouting and lumen formation, as described in the Upstate release. 

BiRed Imaging Inc.

BiRed Imaging Inc. includes Satish Kandlikar, Ph.D. and Rhythm Patel. BiRed is located in Rochester and is part of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) Venture Creations Incubator.

BiRed is developing an adjunctive breast-cancer detection technology that is “comfortable, radiation-free, contact-free, operator-independent and breast density-independent,” per the news release. It is “accurate” and is expected to reduce the health-care cost of breast-cancer screening for women. 

It is based on an advanced machine-learning algorithm that uses breast-surface temperature measurements to supplement mammography. BiRed’s imaging system senses the altered temperatures on the surface of a breast from the increased metabolic activity of a cancerous tumor. 

The system uses inverse heat-transfer analysis to detect the tumor and predict its size and location within the breast. In preliminary clinical studies, this approach was used to study 24 biopsy-proven cancer patients with accurate predictions of tumor size and location. The contralateral breasts having no cancer were also correctly predicted. 

BiRed has successfully completed National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase-I project and is preparing to submit the Phase II proposal. It has one issued patent and two additional patents have been filed in the U.S. and other countries, per the release. 

Lighthanded Enterprises

Lighthanded Enterprises includes CEO Steven Burns; CSO Brecken Blackburn, Ph.D.; and CTO Matt McPheeters, Ph.D. 

Lighthanded is enabling pediatricians to better diagnose fluid in the middle ear with a “simple and effective” tool that works in the existing clinical workflow. Its laser otoscope enables pediatricians to obtain up to 90 percent accuracy at detecting otitis media with effusion (OME). This “revolutionary” technology will enable millions of kids to be “accurately” diagnosed with OME and receive appropriate treatment. For providers, the laser otoscope removes uncertainty in diagnosis and will enable more appropriate, value-driven referrals.

PodoSight, Inc.

PodoSight, Inc. includes Dr. Ronald Miller, Ph.D., and Daniel Ts’o, Ph.D. 

Diabetic foot ulcers remain a significant disease burden in the growing diabetic population. Approximately one in five diabetics will eventually develop a foot ulcer. Unfortunately, diabetic patients are often unable to complete the daily foot exams necessary to ensure prevention of foot ulcers. 

PodoSight has developed a device that enables early detection of developing ulcers by capturing and processing high fidelity plantar surface images. 

Its digital imaging-based solution can be used independently by patients at home without any assistance. Using this assessment tool, “a change in the patient’s foot health can be detected prior to significant tissue damage.”

Advanced Gene Transfer Company (AGTC)

Advanced Gene Transfer Company (AGTC) includes CEO Omar Bakht, the team lead, along with CSO Ian Dickerson, CTO Michael Schrlau, as well as Shafaqat Rahman and Mujtaba Siddiqui.

Current cell-therapy technologies rely on the delivery of a genetic payload via retroviral infection, electroporation, or other methodology that can damage cell integrity and limits the extent of material that can be transfected into the cell. 

AGTC is developing a carbon-nanotube technology (CNT) — co-invented at the University of Rochester and RIT — to build a device that allows for high-efficiency nonviral gene transfer without inducing cell damage. The goal of AGTC is to expedite cellular immunotherapy production using its proprietary CNT device that will improve dosage manufacturing, lower costs, and expedite delivery of these critical treatments. 

AGTC is supported by an SBIR from NIH (National Institutes of Health) to optimize its CNT device, scale production, and show proof of concept using primary human lymphocytes.