Editor's note: Houston innovators are blazing new trails with medical breakthroughs and more. Here are four innovators to know, who have been featured on InnovationMap this month.
Dr. Ron Moses, creator of NanoEar
Dr. Ron Moses, an ENT specialist and surgeon at Houston Methodist is the creator of NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.”
NanoEar is an implantable device that combines the invisibility of a micro-sized tympanostomy tube with more power — and a superior hearing experience — than the best behind-the-ear hearing aid.
Moses initially patented a version of the invention in 2000, but says that it took finding the right team to incorporate as NanoEar. Today, NanoEar has nine active patents. The NanoEar concept has done proof-of-concept testing on both cadavers at the University of Antwerp and on chinchillas, which are excellent models for human hearing, at Tulane University.
Thus far, NanoEar has raised about $900,000 to get its nine patents and perform its proof-of-concept experiments. The next step is to build the prototype, but completing it will take $2.75 million of seed funding. Read more.
Dr. Fong Lam, Baylor College of Medicine, and Sergey Shevkoplyas, UH
A team of Houston researchers has developed a new microfluidic device aimed at making treatments safer for children with hyperleukocytosis, a life-threatening hematologic emergency often seen in patients with leukemia.
Dr. Fong Lam, associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatric intensive care physician at Texas Children’s Hospital, partnered with Sergey Shevkoplyas, a professor of biomedical engineering at UH, on the device that uses a large number of tiny channels to quickly separate blood cells by size in a process called controlled incremental filtration.
They tested whether performing cell separation with a high-throughput microfluidic device could alleviate the limitations of traditional conventional blood-filtering machines, which pose risks for pediatric patients due to their large extracorporeal volume (ECV), high flow rates and tendency to cause significant platelet loss in the patient.
“Continuously and efficiently separating leukocytes from recirculating undiluted whole blood — without device clogging and cell activation or damage — has long been a major challenge in microfluidic cell separation,” Shevkoplyas said. “Our study is the first to solve this problem.” Read more.
Elizabeth Gore, "The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore"
Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Houston's Hello Alice, debuted the first episode of her new video podcast series with Yahoo Finance on April 24.
The weekly series, known as "The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore," will focus on providing information and resources to small business owners and sharing stories of entrepreneurship.
“Entrepreneurs and small business owners drive our country’s economy forward. With a record number of small businesses launching in our communities, my goal is to help every citizen live the American Dream. On the Big Idea, we will break down barriers for entrepreneurs and lift up opportunities for every person wanting to be their own boss,” Gore said. Read more.
