June 2008
Shyam Patel (Ph.D. 2007 BioE) has been developing a synthetic graft intended to guide neurons across gaps and restore lost connections in nerves serving limbs and other parts of the peripheral nervous system.
According to Patel, the new device, a flexible conduit that resembles a slender white straw, could open a new treatment option for people that experience peripheral nerve injuries that can lead to loss of sensation and movement.
Patel, chief scientific officer for a Fremont startup called NanoNerve, says that nanofibers that create a miniature scaffold for growing cells could soon help patients regenerate severed nerves in their arms and legs. Patel’s work builds on his doctoral research in the lab of Song Li, Associate Professor of Bioengineering.
The graft is composed of a polymer, similar to the material in surgical sutures, engineered so its tiny fibers are aligned in the same direction. The aligned nanofibers appear to dramatically influence the growth of cells. In lab tests, Patel found that nerve tissue cultured on unaligned fibers showed little organized growth. In contrast, neurons on aligned material extended along the precise pattern of the fibers. “It’s a way of guiding them, almost like train tracks,” says Patel. “When nerve fibers feel it, they align themselves along it.”
Based on promising lab and animal studies, the company plans to seek FDA approval to start clinical trials on the grafts and institute a marketing plan as early as next year. Li, who cofounded NanoNerve in 2006, says the graft “could be the most efficient synthetic matrix ever made for nerve guidance.”
Read the full article at Innovations