Meet the start-up: Electrospinning for wound care
Dr. Chen Barak, CEO of Nanomedic, spoke to Med-Tech Innovation News about the company and its wound care start-up.
Tell us about your company. When did you establish yourself and what do you offer?
Nanomedic Technologies was established in 2018 and is headquartered in Lod, Israel. We are a biomedical therapeutics technology company seeking to change the accepted paradigm within wound care through development and distribution of the Spincare System.
Based on our proprietary electrospinning EHF technology, the Spincare System bio-mimics the natural structure of human tissue and the extracellular matrix (ECM) to encourage quick and efficient tissue integration and regeneration while minimising risk of potential complications. With wide market applications both inside and outside of hospital environments, the Spincare System prints the Spincare matrix in real-time and directly on the patient's body employing a single-use, disposable solution ampule. This matrix behaves as a temporary skin, providing the wound or lesion with an optimal environment for healing. It closely conforms to the wound's surface, shape, and area, fitting any structure or wound morphology.
Unlike traditional electrospinning technology, operated by large computer-controlled machines, our IP focuses on our unique ability to miniaturise the technology into a portable, battery operated device that can electrospin nanofibrous matrices directly onto a wound.
The company recently launched the Spincare System in Europe and has also been implemented in several countries across Asia.
Where did the idea for your start-up come from?
The company was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from Nicast Ltd., a developer of implantable medical devices made of electrospun polymer nanofibers. Traditionally, electrospinning processes take place in industrial climate-controlled cleanrooms with large computer-controlled machines. We took a different approach to the use of electrospinning in wound therapy, developing a miniaturised, battery-operated electrospinning system - the Spincare System - the first and only portable, hand-held electrospinning system commercially available today.
What difference do you think you can make in your particular sector?
The Spincare System fulfils unmet market needs, such as no-contact application, perfect and quick adherence to the wound, and super-easy logistic handling due to its one-size and versatility.
For clinicians and healthcare providers, the system facilitates quick and effective healing with reduced risk of infection and future options to slowly release additives into a wound to enhance the healing process. Being handheld and portable, the system can be used in any setting, printing the matrix directly on a wound even in hard-to reach areas. It has excellent adherence, even to the most difficult contours, and eliminates the need for secondary dressings, spontaneously peeling off only after the wound is fully healed. The dressing is highly permeable and breathable and, being transparent, allows for continual wound assessment while eliminating the need for dressing changes. All this combines to reduce the workload and burden on caregivers, by accelerating the treatment process and reducing the need for patient home visits.
Patient benefits include reduced pain by eliminating friction from cloth bandages and dressing changes. Patients can shower within 24-48 hours after treatment and, with no need for bulky dressings, they can enjoy excellent mobility and personal independence, even with wounds to the joints and hands.
Tell us more about the technology at the centre of your product and service?
Spincare utilises proprietary EHF technology to treat even the most severe and complicated wounds with a single application, eliminating the need for painful re-dressings, solving both short-term and long-term healing challenges. Spincare prints in real-time a nanofibrous matrix directly onto a patient’s wound that bio-mimics the structure of natural skin, utilising a disposable single-use ampule. The matrix behaves as a temporary skin, providing an optimal environment for wound healing. It is breathable and permeable with excellent porosity for drainage to pass while also acting as a barrier against micro-organisms, thereby reducing risk of infection.
The Spincare matrix provides a transparent protective physical barrier, allowing for easy monitoring of the healing process and can be enhanced with a variety of additives – from antibacterial, collagen, and adhesive materials, to even embedded human cells – for a wide range of complex clinical applications.
The cost-effective and easy-to-use device provides care teams with flexible, full coverage of even hard-to-dress areas while enabling patients to quickly return to active life, with improved mobility and excellent healing and scarring. The real-time matrix printing is performed from a distance of 20cm without any contact between the patient and the medical staff, further reducing the risk of infection.
Who have you had to work with to establish your product/service?
Nanomedic Technologies works with prominent KOL physicians globally and has initiated clinical trials and clinical studies in their centres.