Success Stories
The arrival of new products to the market provides the ultimate validation for any technology and assures public benefit. Emory has had more than 35 products reach the market.
These stories demonstrate the positive impact of the high risk, high reward business of technology transfer. For several of these products their journey was long and twisted and that can only occur with perseverance over the long haul. What a lot of people do not realize is that a large amount of work that occurs after a license is signed. We work alongside our various licensees through all the many ups and downs in order for technologies to find their way to the marketplace to save lives. You'll find all of this in more weaved into all of these stories. That's life in technology transfer and we love what we do.
HIV Antiretrovirals
In the early 1990s, Schinazi, an infectious disease and antiviral expert, Liotta, a chemist, and Choi announced the discovery of an unusual molecule, FTC (emtricitabine, sold alone as Emtriva®, with the "Em" standing for Emory) and a chemically similar compound, 3TC (lamivudine, sold alone as Epvir®).
HIV Antiretrovirals Success
Molnupiravir
The DRIVE team was working on EIDD-2801 to treat RNA viruses, like chikungunya and flu, but quickly pivoted to SARS-SoV-2 (COVID-19). Could any of their current work help with this global crisis - in the end yes it could!
Molnupiravir Success
Emory Cardiac Toolbox
A three-dimensional image of a beating heart rotates on the monitor in Garcia's first-floor office. On another screen, color-coded virtual "slices" of the heart show the distribution of blood flow while the patient is resting and exercising. The area of the cardiac muscle with inadequate blood flow shows up as a black void.
Cardiac Toolbox Success
Obizur
Pete Lollar didn't set out to create a treatment for hemophilia. In the 1990s he began researching hemostasis and stumbled upon a serendipitous discovery. This lead to the creation of a modified form of factor VIII; which in turn became Obizur for the treatment of acquired Hemophilia.
Obizur Success
NeuroStar TMS Therapy
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which generates small bursts of MRI-strength magnetic energy that stimulate nerve cells in the brain, has shown success in easing depression. This is the first TMS therapy to be approved for treatment resistant depression.
NeuroStar TMS Therapy Success
Arctic Front
Medication helps only about half of the seven million people worldwide who experience atrial fibrillation (AF) - alternative, catheter-based treatments are vital. The multi-electrode catheter is used to map, ablate and verify isolation of the pulmonary veins, streamlining the procedure and reducing the risk of complications.
Arctic Front Success
Virtually Better
Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT) involves exposing clients to a computer-generated model of a fear-provoking situation until they become more comfortable with it. An alternative to traditional exposure therapy. Therapists can treat patients in the office-which is less expensive, more convenient, and less time-consuming.
Virtually Better Success
Axumin
Waiting twenty years for your discovery to gain FDA approval might test some researchers' resolve. But Mark Goodman, kept his eye on the prize: a new and improved imaging agent. We created a molecule, FACBC, and studied it in cancer cell. We discovered that the radiotracer was especially good for looking at prostate cancer and superior to the current imaging agent.
Axumin Success
Tyzeka
HBV patients, who show signs of liver damage, are pregnant, or who have HIV as well, the medications normally used to treat HBV might be harmful. The drug telbivudine can to help this group since it isn't inactive against HIV. It does not cure HBV
Tyzeka Success
Cognitive Assessments
Technologies that utilize eye tracking to enable people to assess and strengthen their cognitive health and decrease their risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's.
NeuroTrack Success
AnemoCheck
AnemoCheck is a simple, cost-effective anemia test kit. It only uses a single drop of blood, from a finger prick, The test produces easy-to-read results in under a minute via a color change that corresponds to the amount of hemoglobin in the blood.
AnemoCheck Success
Velocity AI
Imagine cancer treatment as a war and the physician as the general who must find the critical targets for battle. Now, thanks to technological advances in molecular imaging software that provides patient-tailored treatments, these strategic attacks on invading cancer cells can be more accurate and more effective.
Velocity AI Success
Access, Stabilization, and Closure System
Researchers are constantly looking for ways to make medicine and medicinal practices as minimally invasive as possible. The ASC system creates a stable port in the apex of the heart for delivery of therapeutic devices. The port can be easily sealed afterwards with a small closure cap, minimizing the scar tissue that forms. Also, not only is the device less invasive, but the procedure is much quicker to complete.
ASC System Success
ACU-SIBR
In the SIBR care model, every member of the care team visits the patient and family together. The hospital professionals responsible for patients are part of an "accountable care unit," or ACU, which means they share the integrated physical space, patients, workflow, and value outcomes on a single hospital unit.
ACU-SIBR Success
RealConsent
College-aged women experience high levels of sexual violence, more so than any other age group. This is a web-based sexual violence prevention program. There are six modules focused on specific protective factors for preventing the perpetuation of sexual violence. One of the keys to the program is to be entertaining while also educating and changing attitudes.
RealConsent
Be Free Ostomy System
On average, ostomates need to empty their pouch 4 to 6 times a day. However, when emptied, the ostomy pouch produces a strong and distinct smell that will attract unwanted attention from surrounding people. This system consists of an absorbent pod impregnated with a deodorant. Not only does the pod eliminate odor throughout the day without any further intervention by the ostomate, it also eliminates the need for ostomate to carry deodorants with them wherever they go.
Ostomy System
Scanlan Instruments
Skim through the Scanlan International surgical instrument catalog and John Puskas's name emerges frequently: The Puskas micro-scissors, the Never Shear Dual Guide titanium forceps, the Scanlan Puskas "Black Knight" Lillehei-Potts Scissors. As the popularity of off-pump bypass surgery has spread, so has the demand for a set of instruments designed specifically for beating-heart surgery.
Scanlan Success
Beta-Cath
Angioplasty has come a long way. In the early days, stainless steel stents were used to keep the patient's artery from reclosing after the angioplasty balloon restored blood flow. MD, The Beta-Cath System, which uses vascular brachytherapy to prevent the artery from re-closing. Tiny "seeds" of radiation are placed within the coronary artery at the site of the angioplasty.
Beta-Cath Success
ClearGlide
A successful heart bypass operation involves not one but two surgeries. A healthy blood vessel is used to bypass the damaged or blocked artery in the heart. And that healthy vessel must be removed from the patient. Endoscopic vessel harvesting techniques allow less invasive harvesting of suitable vessels for use in coronary artery bypass grafting.
ClearGlide Success
Handy Eye Chart
An eye test based on pictures of command hand gestures to assess visual function. These gestures are easily communicated by children who are nonverbal, who do not speak English, or who are deaf. Best of all the children find the test fun.
Eye Chart Success
NeoControl
Emory physician scientists Charles Epstein and Niall Galloway have developed a treatment for urinary incontinence in women involving high-tech magnetic therapy that functions like an automatic Kegel muscle exercise machine. Improving outcomes for women often perform the exercises incorrectly, incompletely, or inconsistently.
NeoControl Success
Sucrets DEFENSE
Glutathione, a key anti-oxidant found in every living organism, is provided by many foods-fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish. Dean Jones one of the foremost glutathione experts in the world, has developed a type of glutathione that, when taken orally could prove a better preventive strategy against influenza than flu vaccines.
Sucrets DEFENSE Success
ProkoPack Mosquito Aspirator
About half the worlds population is at risk of acquiring mosquito-transmitted diseases, from malaria to dengue fever to West Nile virus. ProkoPack-a mosquito aspirator-that is inexpensive, convenient to use, and collects a broad variety of adult mosquitoes.
ProkoPack Success