Nanofiber Solutions, LLC, in collaboration with Gail E. Besner, MD, chief of Pediatric Surgery, program director of the Residency in Pediatric Surgery and co-director of the Burn Program all at Nationwide Children's Hospital, recently was honored with the Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation and Start-up Fund award.
Earlier this month, Nanofiber Solutions, an Ohio-based start-up company housed in the TechColumbus incubator, received a $100,000 grant to further develop the tissue engineered intestine technology developed in the lab of Dr. Besner, who also is principal investigator in the Center for Perinatal Research in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's. Nanofiber Solutions and The Research Institute have executed an option agreement for the technology and are expected to finalize an exclusive license agreement in the upcoming months.
Ohio Third Frontier provides funding to Ohio -based companies, universities, nonprofit research institutions and other organizations to create new technology-based products, companies, industries and jobs. The Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation and Start-up Fund Program supports Ohio start-up companies that license technologies developed at eligible Ohio institutions.
Nanofiber Solutions designs and manufactures novel, custom-designed electrospun nanofiber scaffolds. Nanofiber Solutions recently made history in designing the first synthetic tracheas implanted into human patients - four people across the world have now received life-saving tracheal implants made by Nanofiber Solutions. The patent-pending design of these scaffolds offers promise for a number of conditions where scaffold production for tissue engineering is needed.
The Besner Laboratory is presently collaborating with Nanofiber Solutions to develop tissue scaffolds for gastrointestinal conditions such as short bowel syndrome (SBS). SBS is a disease that affects newborns, children and adults with only limited treatment options. Currently, there is no cure for SBS. The joint efforts of Dr. Besner and Nanofiber Solutions could, for the first time, offer a comprehensive approach to designing new intestines for the treatment of SBS. This highly innovative technology has enormous clinical applicability that could revolutionize the care of patients with SBS.
Proof of concept and preclinical work for the tissue engineered intestine technology has been conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Besner, who is also a professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, and holds a number of patents in the area of gastrointestinal conditions. The synergistic collaboration between the Besner Laboratory and Nanofiber Solutions is unparalleled and their development of novel, custom-designed nanofiber scaffolds for medical implants represents a strategy that has never been employed for tissue engineered intestine production and is sure to maximize the commercial availability of the technology.
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