With the startup culture pervading many parts of the Israeli environment, academia might be one area that could still do with a boost. The natural entrepreneurial approach is often less present in academia (even in Israel). As a result, encouraging the academic to consider applications has been a key issue in Israel (and elsewhere) for a while.
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Pete O'Heeron, CEO of a private company called SpinalCyte, a company developing an application to treat degenerative disc disease using cells derived from human skin for the Nov. 9th edition of Medical Device Daily . O'Heeron was especially enthusiastic about the application, which would promote autologous regrowth of the spinal disc nucleus using human dermal fibroblasts (HDF). If such a technology could garner approval, it could potentially replace implants in patients. Although, this has only been test in animal models - the technology holds great promise. I think this story was right on...
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