I-Corps Teams: South Texas CRYO

The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg TX

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in the area of human and animal health care. The proposed device will continue to improve and modernize the US heath care system allowing it to remain competitive in the global marketplace. The technology aims to streamline the manufacturing process of blood products (e.g. Cryoprecipitate AHF) by reducing production time, increasing product throughput and improving product consistency while enabling customized medicine when using blood products (e.g. controlling the specific levels of fibrinogen and anticoagulants for the specific need of the patient). Besides personalized medicine, the technology also enables ways for improved product consistency. The commercial impact relies on developing a technology that addresses the current issues with the current technology. The proposed device focuses on the most frequent complaint of current technologies by staff, technicians and doctors, which is the time consumption nature of the process. The costumers and/or users of this technology include general hospitals, blood banks, medical centers, and animal hospitals. Specifically, the most likely typical customer to buy the medical device would be the administrators of hospitals and blood banks. The most likely end users of the medical device are lab technicians. This I-Corps project aims to streamline the current manufacturing process of cryoprecipitate [Antihemophilic Factor (AHF)] by reducing production time, increasing product throughput, and improving product consistencies. Cryoprecipitate is a blood-derived product that contains proteins called clotting factors. Among these factors is fibrinogen, one of the most important components that allows the blood to form a strong, sturdy clot in a process called secondary homeostasis. It is most commonly used as part of a massive transfusion where large numbers of blood components are required to assist with clotting (i.e. to help control bleeding or reduce the risk of bleeding during a surgery). Commonly, the cryoprecipitate production process involves a tedious manual process requiring that a technician massage the product before the product is pooled into an administration bag for patient delivery. At some medical institutions the current process for cryoprecipitate production is time consuming (e.g. kneading process), labor intensive (i.e. lab technicians are at risk of carpal tunnel syndrome/tendonitis or ganglionic cysts), and hospitals cannot meet volume demands (i.e. outsource needed). The proposed medical device aims to shorten the amount of time, decrease the manual labor needed, increase cryoprecipitate product throughput, and improve product consistencies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.