Hope everyone is doing well and is safe and healthy. I hope you had a great holiday weekend as well. It was a well-needed “break” and was nice to be out of the office for most of the weekend. Summer will hopefully bring more long weekends that will allow me to recharge the battery. It was nice to be able to see our good friends Ed and Trisha with all social distancing and mask rules maintained. It had been months since we were last able to see them. While it is a new “normal”, seeing good friends somehow makes you feel a sense of the previous normal. We caught right back up, like we had never been apart. They are always thoughtful to ask what is going on with the business. This isn’t always common with a science-based business since some people are nervous that they will not understand what we do (the topic of one of my earlier blogs). We enjoy the conversations and you never know where they are going to lead.
As we were chatting about the business and we were filling them in on what’s been going on, Ed talked about how the company he works for (ARC Advisory Group, https://www.arcweb.com/) has ventured into webcasts and podcasts to provide their customers a more complete experience. It is something we had internally discussed but were not ready to venture into this space; until now. We immediately brought our marketing communications associate who happens to live with us into the conversation, and boom, just like that we are having a work meeting. As I mentioned, being a small business owner is not a 9 to 5 job. This discussion really started to generate ideas as to what this type of media could provide.
I immediately began to think that we could bring you a few different perspectives of our technology applications, from a doctor’s (i.e. a surgeon who implants the device, interventionalist who repairs the device) perspective and technology development to the needs of a patient and insights from our partners. As we become more comfortable with meeting platforms, this could provide you a good look into the applications for the technology. Already, I am thinking that the first two webcasts will center around our two most advanced technologies: our NuSpun™ Vascular Graft and our perianal fistula plug developed with our partners at Takeda. If you have any thoughts as to what you would like to hear about, please feel free to reach out at info@biosurfaces.us. Our plan is to have the first webcast ready for the end of June.
We continue to push forward in many areas. On the cell culture plate work with the NIH, we are finalizing some of the final parameters from quality control through material production and creating our manufacturing electrospinning unit. We are growing and expanding different types of cells to evaluate how these cells will interact with our Bio-Spun™ material surface. One of the applications we are beginning to work on with our
NIH partners focuses on growing lung cells (see image) on our Bio-Spun™ materials to assess mechanisms for COVID-19 infection and possible treatments. We are also starting to produce plates with other types of electrospun membranes mounted onto the plate. This will be able to provide future customers with several options. We are excited to see where this can lead us as a company in terms of making our first diagnostic tool. We are hoping to have an announcement in the upcoming weeks related to this area. Stay tuned!
We continue to explore advancing the technology we developed within Takeda. We have been busy evaluating potential opportunities and preparing various slide decks to describe how our technology could be applied in a specific area. We have discussed the perianal fistula plug in a previous blog and will talk about the other technologies in this program developed in future blogs. We are also working on our NuSpun™ Vascular Graft, including incorporation of a drug for the KidneyX program.
One area we would like to remind you about is the ability for you to automatically receive our weekly blog. We know from reviewing our website analytics (technology
that allows us to see what areas of the country/world are viewing the website) that many of you reading this blog right now are loyal readers. We would like to thank you for your support! Signing up for receiving the blog could not be easier. If you visit our news page (https://www.biosurfaces.us/blog), you find a heading (indicated in red box in the image) called “Log In/Sign Up). You can then quickly register to receive the weekly blog.
Continue to stay vigilant and keep social distancing, wear a mask where social distancing is not possible to protect yourself and those around you and frequently wash your hands. We need to look out for each other. Continue to support your local businesses as safely and as much as possible. Every little bit helps! Please stay safe and have a great weekend!
Matt