From lab to market: U of T spinoff aims to improve treatment of neurovascular disorders
Neurovascular disorders, including strokes, aneurysms and vascular lesions, are a leading cause of disability and death around the world.
University of Toronto researchers have co-founded a medical technology company aimed at improving the treatment of these debilitating and deadly conditions.
The startup —Northern Vascular Systems (NVS)— grew out of technology developed at Sunnybrook Research Institute by Yuta Dobashi, a PhD candidate at the Institute of Medical Science in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
Dobashi is supervised by Victor Yang, a former surgeon-scientist at Sunnybrook, experienced entrepreneur, and professor of biomedical engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
“We always encourage our graduate students to take their research an extra mile, to get to the patients’ care,” says Yang, “and in this case, to produce a unifying solution for many hemorrhagic strokes.”
Northern Vascular Systems combined Dobashi’s background in synthetic hydrogel chemistry with Yang’s expertise as a neurosurgeon and engineer to create a unique endovascular embolization system.
“Over the past three years, we’ve made significant progress in translating our lab-born technology into clinically viable products,” says Dobashi, the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
Embolization is a procedure that blocks blood flow in a specific part of the body. Embolic agents are the substances or materials used to block that blood flow.
Neurovascular disorders are usually treated using rigid devices such as coils, stents, or liquid embolics that solidify in the blood vessels.
The company’s new embolization system includes three parts: a laser unit, UV emitting micro-catheter and photo-activated embolic hydrogel. A clinician can tune the amount of UV light emitted through the catheter in real time to control if the hydrogel is injected into the blood vessel as a liquid, solid, or somewhere in-between.
The researchers say their system essentially gives clinicians an on-off control to the solidification process, allowing the material to better conform to complex vascular anatomies, unlike other devices currently being used.
The embolic agent they created —the light-responsive hydrogel— conforms to tissue without compromising structure, integrates with blood vessels, and absorbs into the body over time.
“This new technology has the potential to improve the treatment of vascular disorders as clinicians could more precisely control how, where and when embolization occurs,” explains Dobashi.
Feasibility studies in vitro and in preclinical models have shown promising outcomes.
Northern Vascular Systems was founded in collaboration with Konrad Walus, a Professor of Engineering at the University of British Columbia and co-founder of Aspect Biosystems, and Joel Ramjist, an MASc student in Biomedical Engineering at TMU.
The team went through Lab2Market via TMU, which at the time was jointly run with MITACS Accelerate — national programs that help startups succeed by fostering innovation and commercializing research-based technology.
The company, now a diverse group of nearly ten engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs, officially became a spinoff last year. They have attracted over $2 million in investments from private sources, says Dobashi, and have just celebrated another milestone.
They recently received funding from Ontario’s Life Sciences Innovation Fund, administered through the Ontario Centre of Innovation. This support has been instrumental in helping Northern Vascular Systems advance its groundbreaking technology and prepare for market readiness.
Dobashi is nearing the end of his doctoral program. In reflecting on his journey from PhD student to startup co-founder, he emphasizes how rewarding it is "to be at the forefront of neurovascular innovation and see the crude prototypes I made in the lab materialize into a fully fleshed out system.”
