The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has awarded a Phase I NIH-STTR grant to advance NeuroSigma’s thin-film nitinol (TFN)-covered stent for potential brain aneurysm treatment.
The sponsored research organization in this STTR grant is Mayo Clinic. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) developed the TFN-covered stent technology. NeuroSigma’s majority-owned subsidiary, NSVascular is the exclusive global licensee of the technology through a deal signed with UCLA in 2011. NSVascular was formed in the same year by NeuroSigma.
Nitinol is an alloy of nickel and titanium with special properties. The superelastic alloy can be deformed and recovered to its original shape when exposed to body heat. Initially, NSVascular will concentrate on designing and marketing TFN-covered stents for use in endovascular applications, of which its first applications will be flow-diverting stents for treating intracranial aneurysms and stents for peripheral artery disease treatment.
The Phase I grant of NeuroSigma is roughly $680,000 in two tranches for a period of over one year, with the second tranche based on the fund availability and satisfactory development made utilizing the first tranche. The NINDS STTR scheme may offer follow-on Phase II fund of up to $3 million for further clinical studies. The primary objective of the scheme is the advancement and pre-clinical study of NeuroSigma's TFN-covered stent for potential brain aneurysm treatment.
The STTR grant’s Principal Investigator is NeuroSigma’s Director of Advanced Materials. David Johnson. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in the TFN fabrication. Drs. David Kallmes, Antonio De Salles and Colin Kealey are the co-investigators of the project. Dr. Kallmes is an interventional neuroradiologist, who will handle the pre-clinical studies that will be conducted at Mayo Clinic by his team. Dr. De Salles is the co-founder of NeuroSigma and serves as a Senior Medical Advisor for NeuroSigma and a Neurosurgery Professor at UCLA. Dr. De Salles is a Professor of Neurosurgery at UCLA, and co-founder and Senior Medical Advisor at NeuroSigma.
Source: http://www.neurosigma.com