Oooooh, lots of research, lots of patent applications.
Laser Associated Sciences Technology Plans to Improve Hemodynamic Monitoring
Huh? I know, it’s complicated. It all started at the Beckman Laser Institute with a trio of colleagues who, between all three skill sets, discovered an urgent need for efficient and accurate hemodynamic monitoring in the medical industry. aser Associated Sciences.was born.
LAS’ three co-founders, Sean White, Ph.D., biomedical engineering, LAS chief executive officer, Bruce Yang, Ph.D. biomedical engineering, LAS chief engineer and Tyler Rice, Ph.D., physics, LAS chief technology officer, focused on different aspects of biophotonic technology to create the ideal user-friendly hemodynamic monitoring system.
(from left: Laser Associated Sciences co-founders Tyler Rice, CTO, Sean White, CEO and Bruce Yang, Chief Engineer.)
Primarily focused on peripheral artery disease (PAD), which is a common circulatory condition in which clogged blood vessels reduce blood flow to the limbs, the system essentially detects blood flow utilizing, as the team refers to, a camera the size of a postage stamp and a small laser diode. The device clips onto a toe to measure blood flow in the arteries, veins, and capillaries.
“This is important because some of disease progression might not be arterial related,” said White. “But it may be related to the microvascular level flow, as well—that is important.”
PAD is one of the leading causes of lower limb amputation, according to White, which attributes to approximately 150,000 lower limb amputations in the United States each year. Among the estimated 8-to-12 million Americans who have PAD, most are asymptomatic.
“If you are able to diagnose earlier, [there are medications] that you can take to help improve long-term outcomes, which was the goal when we started this —‘can we develop a technology to diagnose this earlier?’” said White.
Read more: Laser Associated Sciences Technology Plans to Improve Hemodynamic Monitoring
Next, Non-Immunogenic Coating for Biomedical Devices … important stuff!
Fibrosis, an immune response that triggers fibroid encapsulation of the polymeric surface of an implant, is a leading cause of biomedical device and implant failure. Researchers at UCI have developed a new methodology for synthesizing polymers that, in addition to being inexpensive and simple to generate, uses unique structural features to discourage the immune response that leads to device failure.
Invented by Elliot Botvinick and Ali Mohraz, a working prototype was developed and tested in vivo (mouse studies). Studies on additional mammals in progress. Patent Pending.
Read more: Non-Immunogenic Coating for Biomedical Devices
More, there’s the Continuous Analyte Sensor Device, invented by Elliot Botvinick. What’s that, you might ask?
Researchers at UCI have developed an implantable medical device for monitoring patient analytes. One application for the device is to continuously measure analytes and oxygen in trauma patients. This biosensor affords rapid and accurate continuous measurements of molecules critical for assessing patient status in clinical settings. This device may also be adapted to measure other analytes, such as glucose, for long-term disease management.
In vivo (rat and rabbit) studies were also performed. The implanted device successfully measured accurate, real-time analyte concentrations in the blood in response to a stimulus. Results were compared against commercial devices using drawn blood. Patent was filed by Elliot Botvinick, John Weidling and Sean White.
Read about this patent (WO2016025297A2): Continuous analyte sensor
And one more … Implantation Device to House Insulin Secreting Cells as a Treatment for Diabetes!
UCI researchers have designed a long-term solution to diabetes (both Type 1 and 2) management that is highly effective and convenient. The solution is an implantable device that regulates insulin levels without continuous patient or physician intervention. The novel device is implanted under the patient’s skin and houses exogenous insulin-producing cells. The construction of the device is such that it will become properly vascularized by the patient’s own tissues. The physical features of the device allow the housed cells to have access to nutrients and oxygen which maintains the health and functionality of the cells, and also puts the cells into contact with the patient’s blood to efficiently monitor glucose levels and respond accordingly.
Elliot Botvinick developed the prototype and successfully demonstrated in vivo in a murine diabetes models. Patent pending.
Read more about this patent (US20160082236A1): Transplantation device and method of use
And some great comments from Elliot:
Wow!!!! Love it!!! Thank you sooooo much. I don’t know what to say….you are wonderful 🙂
FYI, the multi-analyte sensor has already been tested in the clinic (lactic acid) during exercise, and we are doing a second study in July 2018 down under with David O’Neal at the University of Melbourne. This is another exercise study, but this time with subjects having T1D. The goal is to determine if lactic acid dynamics during exercise correlates with blood glucose in the hours after exercise. If the answer is yes, then we can deploy our continuous monitor of lactic acid and glucose to help make automated insulin infusion robust to exercise, be it low intensity, all-out, or mixed interval.
Also, the non-immunogenic material is key to a JDRF grant for which we (Ali Mohraz and my groups) are coating infusion sets with this material. Our goal is to develop a 2-week infusion set that is connected directly into the micro-vasculature.
With happiness 🙂
Elliot