Vibrato Medical: Commercialization within academia without quitting your day job

Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that therapeutic ultrasound (TUS) increases perfusion and promotes new blood vessel growth in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and coronary artery disease. Vibrato Medical was founded to translate these findings for PAD patients by developing a non-invasive, wearable array of TUS transducers (LimbSonic) engineered for the human calf muscles and tibial arteries. With initial support of Phase I and II NIH SBIR grants, Vibrato has grown and executed its first-in-human early feasibility study demonstrating a 180 ± 34% (p<0.001) increase in lower extremity perfusion (FlowMet; Medtronic) with TUS along with improvement in other limb perfusion and oxygenation endpoints, as well as patient-reported outcome measures. A sham-controlled randomized clinical trial in patients with advanced PAD is currently in progress. As part of the “Transitioning Technology from Idea to Industry” invited panel, Dr. Nazer will discuss his rubric to “commercialization within academia” (The Idea, The Unmet Need, The IP, Regulatory, Reimbursement, and Distribution) within the context of Vibrato. As an active academic physician-scientist, he will also share his perspective on how academic faculty and students can harness resources to commercialize their ideas without “quitting their day jobs” within academia.