It has been a long time coming, but our blog has finally arrived! Sorry for the long wait but science and business sometimes gets in the way. We have been extremely busy on several fronts, from developing our internal technology to working with partners where our technology is applied. I will provide some more info on some of the work we are doing as time goes on and give you a glimpse of what is to come. Be on the lookout every Friday evening for new posts. There are some really great things happening here at BioSurfaces!
No better way to open our first blog with some outstanding news. It has been one of those great weeks (you need them in a small business where most weeks are very stressful and trying). Two of our early stage devices were recognized by KidneyX, a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology to accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases. Our drug-eluting hemodialysis access graft technology was selected as one of fifteen winners (out of 165 applications). Our fistula cuff technology was selected as honorable mention (one of seven selected). We were the only MA company to win an award and to have both technologies acknowledged. Very humbling! We are excited to begin this important work. There are over 100,000 people in the US that begin dialysis each year (over 400,000 total people on dialysis). It is an area that has been neglected in terms of innovation. Investors do not invest in this area as we heard at KidneyX (https://twitter.com/gratefull080504/status/1123216101750517763) so we got our work cut out for us. We are always under this pressure as a small business in terms of raising capital so nothing new here. We do this because we believe that we can make a difference for patients. Nothing would be more rewarding! Those of you who are reading this can help by spreading the word that we are not going to accept the status quo any longer. Only advocating for change will bring real change.
To add to the good news, we received word that our work related to our hemodialysis access graft has been selected for a podium presentation at the 2019 New England Society for Vascular Surgery in Providence, RI in September. This work was selected for presentation after blinded-review (which means the reviewers do not have any information about the authors to prevent bias). Dr. Yael Vin, a Transplant Surgeon from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA, will be presenting this work. We are excited to have her as part of our team. This is another indication that what we are working on could have an impact on dialysis access.
There is so much more to talk about, from our work with Takeda on gastrointestinal applications to the National Institutes of Health and developing benchtop diagnostic tools for drug screening. More to come on these fronts and others in future blogs.
We could not accomplish any of this without the great group of people who believe and support us as well as those who are in the trenches here everyday to bring this technology forward step by step. We are appreciative of this and never lose sight of the fact that it takes a team.
Have a great weekend!
Matt