Gary Nieman, Associate Professor of Surgery and Senior Research Scientist at the State of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University’s Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Laboratory, recently received $50,000 in grant funding from SUNY’s Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF).
The funding will be used to develop a Minimally-Invasive Infusion and Suction Therapy (MIST) device. Research is ongoing to develop a novel medical device able to remove harmful abdominal fluid buildup.
The research involves developing an effective treatment for both intra-abdominal hypertension and abdominal compartment syndrome, which are deadly conditions caused by blunt abdominal trauma, burns, hemorrahagic shock, and massive fluid resuscitation or sepsis. In these patients, the body’s response to the primary disease state causes the buildup of inflammatory fluids in the abdomen which causes organs to fail.
The idea for the MIST device grew from testing in the lab on a new therapeutic bandage employing suction to heal abdominal wounds. The researchers noted that the suction bandage promoted healing but they also noticed that as the suction device removed the fluids called ascites, the inflammation grew less intense.
The researchers were able to see that while the suction bandage could reduce inflammation, the team thought that if they could insert a small device into the peritoneal cavity and use it to remove the inflammatory ascites, the patients would never develop Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS), or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), in the first place. So the team then created MIST and early tests show that by building a device built from the materials at hand, the procedure can work.
Nieman’s grant award is one of five TAF grants awarded to researchers at SUNY institutions to aid in the development of next generation of life saving technologies. Using part of the TAF award, the lab will contract with a manufacturer to design and build a fully functional prototype of the MIST device.
Collaborating with an entrepreneur, Nieman hopes eventually to commercialize the product. Given that abdominal compartment syndrome kill as many as 200,000 Americans a year, the MIST will fill an important market need.
In general, TAF accelerates the development and commercialization of innovations created by SUNY students, faculty, and staff. The projects including advances in medical imaging, pharmaceutical, fine chemicals, petrochemical and refining technologies were awarded $250,000 bringing the TAF to more than $1 million to support new innovative ideas at SUNY.
For more information, go to www.rfsuny.org/TAF.