Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Caredx, Emed Medical, Jenavalve, Lifeward, Natera, Newel Health, Orion, Peija, Rewalk, Science 37, Sequana Medical.
Researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and collaborators have successfully treated bladder tumors in mice using urease-powered nanobots. The testing consisted of the administration of 18F-nanorobots to tumor-bearing mice divided into four groups depending on tumor volumes using a group of non-tumor-bearing mice as control. Importantly, the therapy remained in the bladder with only a very small proportion of radioactivity seen in other organs. The results were published in Nature Nanotechnology on Jan. 15, 2024.
The $4.5 million in seed funding that Acorai AB recently raised will allow the company to continue its forward momentum in developing its technology to support the treatment of patients living with heart failure, Matthew Mace, co-founder and chief scientific officer told BioWorld. In practice, this means that with the funds the company will be able to meet its “projected timelines on the path toward regulatory approval in the U.S., focus on market entry and get the device into the hands of health care professionals sooner.”
Pearsanta Inc., a subsidiary of Aditxt Inc. formed in Feb. 2023, acquired MDNA Life Sciences Inc. for $25 million in stock, marking Aditxt’s second deal announced in a month. The company moved into the women’s health market with the $100 million planned acquisition of Evofem Biosciences Inc., maker of the contraceptive gel Phexxi, which it reported on Dec. 12. The deals show boldness on the part of Aditxt’s management team as the company just announced it regained compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing rule for minimum stockholder’s equity on Jan. 2.
To date, developers of digital health technologies have had little luck with coverage and reimbursement, but the picture is slowly improving. The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has endorsed two artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for diagnosis of stroke, although this is limited to an evidence generation framework that puts the sponsors on the hook for generating the data that will allow unlimited use in the U.K.’s trusts.
A new study published by researchers from the Tokyo University of Science (TUS) unveiled a new machine learning-aided, non-invasive imaging framework for rapid liver lipid visualization, which could help diagnose and treat steatotic liver diseases (SLD).
Researchers from the University of Maryland Baltimore and University of Maryland Baltimore County are seeking patent protection for an angle-tuned (AT) ring coil for improving the depth-spread performance of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) coils as well as high-performance composite coils and multisite TMS systems.