BioAccel Call to Bring Life-Altering Technology to Paralyzed Patients

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BioAccel, the nation's premier non-profit medical technology incubator, has teamed with MakerStaker.com to provide patients who have paralyzing spinal cord injuries with technology that has helped nearly 20 study participants begin to regain their independence.

Patients with devastating injuries to their spinal cords have new hope, thanks to BioAccel, the nation's premier non-profit medical technology incubator. BioAccel has teamed this holiday season with Georgia-based MakerStaker.com in supporting NeuroRecovery Technologies effort to bring a radical new paralysis treatment to patients through the Revive Crowd-funding Campaign.

The company's treatment approach for spinal cord stimulation, dubbed in media reports as a "medical breakthrough", has improved and/or restored independent standing and voluntary movement in nearly 20 patients with complete or partial paralysis due to spinal cord injury. Moreover, the patients experienced varying degrees of restored autonomic function (bladder, bowel, sexual function, and blood pressure control).

If successful, BioAccel's efforts will assure that a critically needed rehabilitative tool becomes a commercial product able to reach the nearly 8 million Americans living with paralysis who have not yet been fortunate enough to participate in ongoing studies.

The story of one such participant, chronicled by ABC, is that of a college baseball all-star pitcher left paralyzed by a hit-and-run accident.

As a result of the life-altering spinal cord stimulation treatment, he was able to move his torso, feel sensations, and regain control of important body functions.

Another young patient whose interview is viewable on the campaign website, was able to start picking up pills on his own and, eventually, to regain the ability to eat with a fork and to write his own name again. He describes how the treatment works, "They put it on, right on the spot of my injury, around the C5 area, and that's when I felt tingling..."

While this treatment has been remarkably effective for those lucky enough to be a part of early studies, there are still many people who do not have access to this treatment. The campaign video concludes with a patient with a high neck injury (C3) who says that his life would be "completely different" if he could regain even a small amount of motor control, noting that he would be able to breathe on his own, without a ventilator, and that he would be able to move his arms and regain his sense of independence.

BioAccel and their fundraising partners are hoping to change all of that.

David Talenfeld, Project Director for BioAccel says;

"We just want to get this treatment into the hands of the people who need it. When I had the good fortune to witness this technology in action for the first time, it brought me to tears. I knew I had to help. Because we weren't able to fund this within existing programs, we made the decision to sponsor this campaign."

The groups involved aim to raise $300,000 via crowd-funding to boost development of NeuroRecovery's proprietary external stimulator system. Talenfeld adds;

"This is going to be life-changing for the people who receive treatment. We want to give them their independence and their lives back. We hope that someday millions of people will benefit from the hard work that a brilliant and dedicated team of collaborators nationwide have already brought to this effort."

The Technology

The intellectual property surrounding the technology grew out of a collaborative effort between scientists from several prestigious teaching institutions, UCLA, Cal Tech and the University of Louisville, with some of their work depicted on national and international media, including: ABC, Today, CNN, QMED, NIH, NBC, FOX, Wall Street Journal, BBC, TEDx Caltech, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Popular Mechanics, The Scientist, Discover Magazine, CTV, The Times of London, ABC Australia, Science, and MIT Technology Review.

BioAccel

BioAccel is a 501c3 created to accelerate delivery of market ready technologies that drive economic development, create high-paying jobs, and identify solutions for today's greatest healthcare challenges.

BioAccel accelerates the commercialization of research outcomes by identifying promising technologies, mitigating risk, and providing wrap-around mentoring and expertise - from bench to bedside.

Makerstaker

MakerStaker.com is a crowd-funding virtual incubator, allowing investors to make equity and non-equity investments in medical device and mHealth start-ups. MakerStaker is founded by successful medical device executives and provides a mentorship approach to help steward your project from whiteboard to boardroom.

MakerStaker's mentoring approach aggregates top executive talent to address challenges a Maker will encounter commercializing a concept and provides trusted advice at no charge. MakerStaker aims to bring the fiscal and intellectual capital needed for Makers to get to market.

NeuroRecovery Technologies

NeuroRecovery Technologies is a pre-revenue medical device company based in Southern California engaged in the development of innovative neuromodulation systems designed to advance the rehabilitation and recovery of individuals living with paralysis. The company is poised to execute on a successful regulatory and commercial development plan lead by former top executives from Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical, and Cameron Health.

NeuroRecovery Technologies are currently seeking Series A financing to add to their already awarded SBIR grants to complete the commercial development of their first products, two innovative spinal cord neuromodulation systems.

Attribution/Source(s):

This quality-reviewed article relating to our Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) section was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World due to its likely interest to our disability community readers. Though the content may have been edited for style, clarity, or length, the article "BioAccel Call to Bring Life-Altering Technology to Paralyzed Patients" was originally written by BioAccel, and published by Disabled-World.com on 2014/11/28 (Updated: 2021/03/15). Should you require further information or clarification, BioAccel can be contacted at bioaccel.org. Disabled World makes no warranties or representations in connection therewith.

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