A Medical Device Daily

Luna Innovations (Roanoke, Virginia) reported the award of a $1.6 million Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the use of fullerene-based nanomedicines as a pathway to treat allergies and other inflammatory diseases.

This research program may offer a new therapeutic solution using fullerene compounds for treating allergies and other conditions that play a central role in inflammatory reactions, such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The study will include evaluation of Luna's exclusive nanomedicine prototypes.

Allergic conditions and other autoimmune diseases affect millions of people worldwide. These diseases are induced in tissues that contain mast cells (cells that line the surfaces of the skin, mouth, nose, eyes, sinuses, and lungs) and basophils (cells that are in the blood stream). Both cells contain histamine, the main cause of inflammatory allergic diseases.

Fullerenes are a novel class of carbon molecules that have unusual biological properties due to their unique structure. Luna s scientists in Danville, Virginia, are synthesizing a variety of fullerenes to develop new or improved technologies to diagnose, monitor, and treat certain medical conditions.

"Our fullerenes are spherical carbon nanomaterials that have been modified to target sites within cells that amplify the immune response," said Chris Kepley, principal investigator of the RO1 and nanoimmunology group leader at Luna. "We have discovered that our fullerene prototypes block the noxious effects of allergies and therefore may be a new way to control allergies and other diseases that are largely due to mast cell and basophil responses. Because these nanomedicine prototypes appear to work through a unique pathway, it is possible they could combine with existing medicines and produce a synergy, which makes a significant impact on these diseases."

In this program under the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Luna will explore whether fullerenes control allergies by investigating the systemic, cellular and molecular responses in vivo and in vitro.

An interdisciplinary research team, led by Kepley, has been assembled to accomplish these studies. This team combines expertise in the chemical, physical and biological sciences, and methodologies and models.

In other grants/contracts news:

• Sevocity, a division of Conceptual MindWorks (CMI; San Antonio), said it will offer up to $100,000 in grants to assist small- to medium-sized practices and community heath centers in Georgia and South Carolina to purchase Sevocity EHR.

Matt Hallman has joined the team as regional account manager and will oversee the grant program as well as lead Sevocity's expansion into Georgia and South Carolina. This program is part of Sevocity's nationwide expansion and complements a similar program now in place in Florida.

A total of $50,000 is available for each state and the grants will be available for the first few clinics that sign up for the program or until the maximum funds available have been reached.

• MetaPass (Sunnyvale, California) reported the deployment of its universal single sign-on (SSO) solution at Tahoe Forest Health System (Truckee, California). The access to all of the organization's applications has now been consolidated, delivering a true 100% single sign-on experience to the organization's users.

SSO gives computer users the ability to log onto multiple systems without having to authenticate with passwords multiple times. Users log on securely once and then access all other applications with a single click, drastically increasing network security and user productivity, while reducing user frustration and help desk costs.

• Answerthink, a division of The Hackett Group (Miami) reported the successful go-live implementation of EzMed, an SAP partner solution for the medical device industry, at Joerns Healthcare (Steven Points, Wisconsin), a provider of advanced healthcare products and services for the long-term care industry.

The manufacturer of medical beds, furnishings, repositioning equipment, and wound management products, wanted to increase its position in the industry and maintain a reliable supply chain, keep strict inventory controls, manage regulations and enhance the overall customer experience.

Joerns selected SAP and Answerthink to help in this effort. The implementation included the SAP ERP Release 6.0 application and EzMed.