Patrick Sullivan, a biomedical engineering senior, spent his summer interning with Pure Transplant Solutions working on a product that could help those in need organ transplants.
Patrick Sullivan, a biomedical engineering senior, spent his summer interning with Pure Transplant Solutions working on a product that could help those in need organ transplants.
The ARC, or Antibody Removal Column, is a device that filters immune system proteins from a transplant patient's blood that would attack and ultimately reject a transplanted organ. With these antibodies removed, transplant patients could accept organs from nearly any donor, not solely ones with matching tissue types. This technology would allow the organ donor base to grow and for family members to donate organs to loved ones.
Sullivan, who is also working toward a Business Foundations Certificate, conducted market research for the small start-up company and helped them kick off a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo called Any Organ Any Body.
Individuals use crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo to raise money for projects ranging from film productions and music recordings. Other platforms are geared toward philanthropic activities. Although crowdfunding seems to fit naturally with startup company activities, it's a relatively new revenue source for health care. Sullivan is excited not only by the product, but also by the innovative way that Pure Transplant Solutions is marketing it.
"I haven't heard of crowdfunding being used to raise money for a medical device before this," Sullivan said. "The traditional way of raising money is to attract investors for an equity-based investment. With crowdfunding, we can attract more people who are genuinely interested in the technology and may personally be affected."
The goal of the Any Organ Any Body campaign is to raise $100,000. With that $100,000 Pure Transplant Solutions will be able to acquire the data necessary to attract a medical company that will in turn be able to partner for clinical trials. Pure Transplant Solution's goal is to license the technology to a medical company or sell it outright. That medical company would take it through clinical trials and approach the Federal Drug Administration.
This is the fourth internship Sullivan has participated in as a student at The University of Texas at Austin. His previous three internships were with Alcon Labs, based in Fort Worth, Texas. There he worked on the research and development team for intraocular lenses (IOL's) for hardened cataracts, on instrumentation and measurement of specs for IOL's, and at one of Alcon's IOL manufacturing facilities in Cork, Ireland.
Sullivan plans to pursue a career path in management at a medical device or pharmaceutical industry after he graduates in May 2014.
