SAN FRANCISCO, June 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- San Francisco medtech innovation company TheraNova, LLC, and UCSF Surgical Innovations, an incubator-accelerator for University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) medtech innovators, have announced a partnership that aims to co-develop device technologies for unmet patient needs. The partnership agreement establishes mechanisms for collaboration and access to expertise at both sites, enabling supported technologies to benefit from UCSF's intellectual and clinical environment and TheraNova's comprehensive product development capabilities.

TheraNova projects and spinouts will benefit from UCSF expertise and collaborators for clinical trials and academic grants. UCSF technologies will be supported by TheraNova's certified manufacturing facilities, product development expertise and fundraising experience. The agreement also outlines provisions for the development of joint inventions.

Surgical Innovations is a five-year-old initiative of UCSF's Departments of Surgery and Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences designed to drive early-stage device technologies toward clinical use. The program has advanced eight novel devices to first-in-human trials and attracted over $30 million in grants and seed-stage investments.

"As a major source of medtech innovation in San Francisco, UCSF has an unparalleled environment for device invention at the doorstep of Silicon Valley. We have world-class clinical KOLs, state-of-the-art research facilities, leading translational bioengineers and passionate trainees working at the frontier of patient care," says Hanmin Lee, MD, surgeon-in-chief of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and Surgical Innovations' clinical lead.

Located blocks from UCSF's campus, TheraNova has been committed to developing innovative solutions addressing large unmet needs and bringing them to market with in-house capabilities including R&D, clinical, regulatory, quality, intellectual property and business development. Since 2006, TheraNova has created 14 spin-off companies that have raised over $280 million in venture funding.

TheraNova CEO Dan Burnett, MD, has long advised projects and collaborated with programs at UCSF. "As Industry Director of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Master of Translational Medicine program I have been impressed with the caliber of both the students and the faculty. With this official partnership with Surgical Innovations, we are hoping to work more closely with UCSF innovators to bring more impactful products to market," says Burnett.

"UCSF has a long history of collaborating with external partners to translate our research into actual products," says UCSF professor of bioengineering Shuvo Roy, PhD. "TheraNova has resources in every step of the device development process, and we look forward to utilizing their expertise and working together to accelerate groundbreaking innovation to patients."


SOURCE TheraNova, LLC

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