At VentureWell, we provide a full spectrum of commercialization services that help bring innovations from lab to market—but what does that look like in practice? Follow along our Medtech to Market series, as each blog examines a real-world success story of how we support our innovators, partners, and funders.
Stanford University scientists are on an ambitious path to create artificial sight for people with retinal diseases. Turning those possibilities into accessible solutions takes more than research. To help bring their vision to life, VentureWell is providing biomedical engineering and commercialization expertise to move their work out of the lab and into the real world.
Vision loss can happen to anyone, resulting from age, injury, diabetes, or inherited genetic conditions. For the millions of people with incurable retinal disease, current treatments only slow the progression of eventual and irreversible vision loss. To address this, Dr. E.J. Chichilnisky’s team from Stanford is developing an electronic implant that reproduces natural electrical signals, mimicking visual function in a blind retina. The implant conforms to individual eye shape, has over a thousand microelectrodes that stimulate cell activity, and uses minimal power.
If successful, their platform technology targeting specific cell types could pave the way for a host of other brain-machine interface technologies, such as spinal cord implants to restore mobility.
The Stanford Artificial Retina Project is one of the many innovative efforts supported by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Blueprint MedTech Incubator Hubs Program, a neuroscience technology accelerator advancing technologies for neurological issues like vision loss, spinal cord injuries, stroke, brain cancer, and chronic nerve pain, including a wearable rehabilitation robot for children with cerebral palsy and a brain-computer interface to treat chronic pain.
VentureWell Service Spotlight: Product Design Support
The Blueprint MedTech program awards funding, mentorship, and professional support to neuroscience specialists with a proof of concept who can demonstrate results for their emerging medical device technologies. NIH selected two incubator hubs, Cimit and NeuroTech Harbor, to run the initiative, with VentureWell providing mentorship and commercialization support to both.
VentureWell connects scientists with the design, prototyping, manufacturing, regulatory, and business expertise to transform their concept into a marketable product people can use. We have supported over 75 Blueprint MedTech teams, working with our partners to shepherd these ideas to first-in-human clinical trials and to prepare them for follow-on investment.
For the Stanford team’s concept to work, they needed access to specialized electronics capabilities that could help them create a practical, scalable, and biocompatible device. Our team sourced a suite of vetted experts to facilitate the manufacture of complex electronic components needed for the implant.
“The prototyping and manufacturing support from VentureWell has been crucial to the success of the project,” said Dr. Chichilnisky, Stanford University professor of Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, and Electrical Engineering, and principal pnvestigator for the Stanford Artificial Retina Project. He noted that with VentureWell’s support, the team can fabricate new chips for the device, electrical interposers to connect the device to the retina, and other smaller elements such as dummy devices for surgical testing.
“The regulatory consulting, project management, and business development support has also been essential,” Chichilnisky added. “The Stanford team does not have this expertise in-house, and the VentureWell support has changed the game in preparing our team for initial clinical testing, business and regulatory development, and long-term clinical deployment of our technology.”
Commercialization Catalyst
From student teams and startups to large academic and federal institutions, VentureWell provides commercialization services and expert matchmaking tailored for innovation teams of every size and stage.
“While these services don’t always get the spotlight, a team’s choice of regulatory consultant, manufacturer, and design firm can make or break a product,” said Jenny Marsh, program officer for biomedical engineering programs at VentureWell. “Early-stage teams may not have the legal agreements, payroll systems, and other infrastructure in place to hire vendors at scale—or the industry insight into what quotes are reasonable.”
By partnering with VentureWell, early-stage companies benefit from our administrative, contracting, and vendor management expertise, making sure they receive the high-quality service they pay for. With over 30 years of experience in science and technology, VentureWell provides the commercialization catalyst for innovators to launch the medtech of the future.
This work was funded in part with grants from U54EB033664 to NeuroTech Harbor and U54EB033650 to Cimit/CINTA.
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