A cell culture startup that attracted attention last year for providing the scaffold used in the world’s second-ever artificial trachea implant has landed a $500,000 investment.
Columbus, Ohio-based Nanofiber Solutions has received a $500,000 convertible loan from state-backed business development group TechColumbus, Columbus Business First reported.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
The company’s cell culture products use polymer nanofibers to more accurately simulate the 3-D structure of human tissue.
Here’s how Nanofiber Solutions works with artificial organs: It manufactures scaffolds in the shape of a human organ and those scaffolds are then seeded with a patient’s own stem cells. Next, the scaffold is placed in a culturing device for a few days and the patient’s tissue grows on it. The patient’s organ is then removed and the artificial organ that’s grown on the scaffold is implanted into the patient.
The company, which was spun out of Ohio State University, sees a lot of promise in the artificial organs market and says its technology could be used to create scaffolds for a number of other types of hollow organs, such as intestines, blood vessels and kidneys, chief technology officer Jed Johnson told MedCity News earlier this year.
Nanofiber Solutions is looking to close a series A round of investment of between $2 million and $5 million this year, Johnson said at the time. The cash from TechColumbus could be the beginning of seeing that happen.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
