Tag Archives: heart

Technology Transfer All the Way.

File:Rasagiline-3D-balls-B.png
A flagship example of T3 Technology Transfer: Rasagiline – a discovery by Prof. Moussa Youdim now marketed as a drug for Parkinsons disease Azilect(TM) by Teva Pharmaceuticals, also demonstrates the powerful Technion process of technology transfer – from the lab. to the marketplace. Image: Wikicommons.

The company Mazor Robotics won FDA approval to apply its robotic surgical system to neurosurgery in July 2012. In the same month, the flagship company Corindus won FDA approval for its CorPath 200 System to be used in performing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). The technology is now approved in the United States to assist interventional cardiologists in performing PCI, a procedure to restore blood flow to blocked arteries in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).Recent global headlines have evidenced the ongoing miracle of Israel’s ability to translate new discoveries into patented innovations that become applicable on world markets. In the past two months, two flagship companies created through the dynamic activities of the T3 – the Technion office of Technology Transfer, passed the key milestone and significant hurdle in the process of effective technology transfer, with the reception of approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The mission of T3 – the technology transfer arm of the Technion, is to transform scientific discoveries and innovative technologies into real-life, applied solutions for the advancement of humanity, the State of Israel, and the Technion. By creating optimal alliances between scientists, industry and investors, T3 facilitates the smooth transfer of technologies to the commercial sector. This is accomplished through the licensing of intellectual property and the establishment of start-up companies. Occasionally, T3 also plays an active role as an entrepreneur by building teams, preparing business plans and providing the capital necessary to bring the technologies developed by Technion researchers to maturity.

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is Israel’s first university and home to three Nobel Laureates. The Technion is credited worldwide for its ability to generate start-ups, its remarkable ability to innovate and its powerful connections to industry. Known as “Israel’s MIT,” the Technion has made a significant impact across the range of applied science and technology including electronics, information technology, water management, nanotechnology, life sciences & chemistry, clean-tech, materials engineering and aerospace engineering.

During the past years, T3 has enjoyed a robust and marked increase both in the number of patent families originating from Technion research as well as in the number of commercialization successes. With 80-100 new patent filings every year, over 400 granted patents and over 900 pending patents, Technion now has approximately 400 patent families available for commercialization.

 

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FDA Approved. Corindus – making heart surgery safer

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FDA CLEARS FIRST ROBOTIC-ASSISTED SYSTEM FOR CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE STENT PROCEDURES

Corindus Vascular Robotics wins 510(k) clearance for CorPath® 200 System; Robotic-assisted percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) enhances control and protects physicians from radiation

 

Continue reading FDA Approved. Corindus – making heart surgery safer →

FDA Approved. Corindus – making heart surgery safer

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FDA CLEARS FIRST ROBOTIC-ASSISTED SYSTEM FOR CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE STENT PROCEDURES

Corindus Vascular Robotics wins 510(k) clearance for CorPath® 200 System; Robotic-assisted percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) enhances control and protects physicians from radiation

 

Continue reading FDA Approved. Corindus – making heart surgery safer →

TECHNION FOCUS MAGAZINE – Outstanding Achievement Award to Prof. Lior Gepstein

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TECHNION FOCUS MAGAZINE – Outstanding Achievement Award to Prof. Lior Gepstein

Prof. Lior Gepstein: Technion Faculty of Medicine.
Date: 15/08/2011
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) honours Prof. Lior Gepstein of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine with an Outstanding Achievement Award. With this award the ESC Council for Basic Cardiovascular Science annually honours two basic researchers with outstanding accomplishments in the early stage of their career. At the ESC Congress in Paris, Gepstein, together with fellow awardee Thomas Thum of Germany, will each receive an honorary plaque and 3,000 Euros.  

The European Society of Cardiology represents over 62,000 cardiology professionals across Europe and the Mediterranean. Its mission is to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe.

Stem Cells with a Heart
A Technion study published in Nature in January 2011 shows the ability of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs ) to recreate – in a Petri dish – a cardiac disorder known as long QT syndrome, enabling researchers to model the abnormal cardiac function and to identify potential new therapeutic agents.
Led by Prof. Lior Gepstein of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, the research team obtained skin cells from a patient known to have long QT syndrome – a disease which affects the heart’s ability to recharge itself after each heartbeat, causing fainting, seizures and even leading to sudden death. The Technion scientists turned the skin cells into iPSCs and then coaxed these all-purpose stem cells to become cardiac cells.
These newly created beating heart cells showed abnormal electrical activity, mimicking that of the patient’s actual heart, and enabling the scientists to test the efficacy of different drugs on the cells.
While some patients acquire the syndrome after taking certain medications, Gepstein’s patient was a 28-year-old woman with an inherited form of the disorder – type-2 LQTS – caused by a single genetic mutation. In this case, the individual cardiac cells derived from iPSCs demonstrated the same long recharging period and arrhythmia common in the hearts of long QT syndrome patients.
  
The study represents a new paradigm to help scientists learn more about how a disease like long QT syndrome works at the cellular level. Gepstein said that the disease “could be demonstrated and studied at the single-cell or multicellular level, but it doesn’t require an entire organ, which of course we cannot create.”
But it also offers a glimpse at the future of personalized medicine, where a patient’s own cells can be used to determine which treatments might work best – or should be avoided – for a particular condition. Furthermore, since heart biopsies, for example, are hard to obtain, this methodology using iPSCs also offers a novel way to study diseased cells that cannot easily be removed from the body. Researchers around the world are also using iPSCs to study other heart diseases and nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Gepstein said.
The research team at the Sohnis and Forman Families Center of Excellence for Stem Cell and Tissue Regeneration Research included Ilanit Itzhaki, Leonid Meizels, Irit Huber, and colleagues.

Heart cells derived from the human induced
pluripotent stem cells.

TECHNION FOCUS MAGAZINE – Outstanding Achievement Award to Prof. Lior Gepstein

Leave a comment
TECHNION FOCUS MAGAZINE – Outstanding Achievement Award to Prof. Lior Gepstein

Prof. Lior Gepstein: Technion Faculty of Medicine.
Date: 15/08/2011
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) honours Prof. Lior Gepstein of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine with an Outstanding Achievement Award. With this award the ESC Council for Basic Cardiovascular Science annually honours two basic researchers with outstanding accomplishments in the early stage of their career. At the ESC Congress in Paris, Gepstein, together with fellow awardee Thomas Thum of Germany, will each receive an honorary plaque and 3,000 Euros.  

The European Society of Cardiology represents over 62,000 cardiology professionals across Europe and the Mediterranean. Its mission is to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe.

Stem Cells with a Heart
A Technion study published in Nature in January 2011 shows the ability of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs ) to recreate – in a Petri dish – a cardiac disorder known as long QT syndrome, enabling researchers to model the abnormal cardiac function and to identify potential new therapeutic agents.
Led by Prof. Lior Gepstein of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, the research team obtained skin cells from a patient known to have long QT syndrome – a disease which affects the heart’s ability to recharge itself after each heartbeat, causing fainting, seizures and even leading to sudden death. The Technion scientists turned the skin cells into iPSCs and then coaxed these all-purpose stem cells to become cardiac cells.
These newly created beating heart cells showed abnormal electrical activity, mimicking that of the patient’s actual heart, and enabling the scientists to test the efficacy of different drugs on the cells.
While some patients acquire the syndrome after taking certain medications, Gepstein’s patient was a 28-year-old woman with an inherited form of the disorder – type-2 LQTS – caused by a single genetic mutation. In this case, the individual cardiac cells derived from iPSCs demonstrated the same long recharging period and arrhythmia common in the hearts of long QT syndrome patients.
  
The study represents a new paradigm to help scientists learn more about how a disease like long QT syndrome works at the cellular level. Gepstein said that the disease “could be demonstrated and studied at the single-cell or multicellular level, but it doesn’t require an entire organ, which of course we cannot create.”
But it also offers a glimpse at the future of personalized medicine, where a patient’s own cells can be used to determine which treatments might work best – or should be avoided – for a particular condition. Furthermore, since heart biopsies, for example, are hard to obtain, this methodology using iPSCs also offers a novel way to study diseased cells that cannot easily be removed from the body. Researchers around the world are also using iPSCs to study other heart diseases and nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Gepstein said.
The research team at the Sohnis and Forman Families Center of Excellence for Stem Cell and Tissue Regeneration Research included Ilanit Itzhaki, Leonid Meizels, Irit Huber, and colleagues.

Heart cells derived from the human induced
pluripotent stem cells.