{"444161":{"#nid":"444161","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Capstone Champs Score in National Challenge","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe hits keep coming for OculoStaple, a medical device company that began as a capstone design project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, based in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EComprised of three recent BME graduates \u2013 former Petit Undergraduate Research Scholar, Mohamad Ali Najia, with Jackie Borinski and Drew Padilla \u2013 OculoStaple took second place in the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) DEBUT Challenge. The contest is open to teams of undergraduate students from across the country who are working on innovative solutions to unmet health and clinical problems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe OculoStaple is a novel surgical clamp designed to replace current surgical techniques to treat ptosis (drooping eyelids). The clamp features custom designed bioabsorbable staples and is driven by a standard surgical scalpel. The surgeon is able to quickly and safely resect the muscle that raises the eyelid while simultaneously sealing the incision with the absorbable staples, transforming ptosis repair surgery into a rapid, office-based procedure, improving cosmetic outcomes while establishing a safer surgical paradigm. This could potentially reduce operating time by 73 percent with an estimated cost savings of $4,000 to $6,000 per procedure.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWith its second-place finish in this national contest, the OculoStaple team earns $15,000 and will be honored at the Biomedical Engineering Society Conference in Tampa, Florida, on October 9.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EIt\u2019s just the latest success in a rapid string of honors for OculoStaple. The team won Georgia Tech\u2019s campus-wide Capstone Design competition in December, took second place in Tech\u2019s InVenture Prize competition, and was awarded an early-stage medical device grant from the Atlanta Clinical Translational Science Institute (ACTSI).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe nascent company\u2019s co-founders have all moved on in their different careers, but remain committed to the continuing development and growth of OculoStaple.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ENajia, OculoStaple\u2019s CEO and a December 2014 BME graduate, is now pursuing a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Borinski, the team\u2019s vice president for quality and reliability, also graduated in December 2014 from the Coulter Department (a joint endeavor of Emory University and Georgia Tech), and is now working with Bard Medical. Padilla, a 2015 BME graduate, now working with the Barry-Wehmiller Design Group, is OculoStape\u2019s VP of manufacturing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ENIBIB, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has a mission to improve health by leading the development and accelerating the application of biomedical technologies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Former Petit Scholar helms fledgling medical device company, OculoStaple"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EFormer Petit Scholar helms fledgling medical device company, OculoStaple\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Former Petit Scholar helms fledgling medical device company, OculoStaple"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-09-03 08:18:26","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:29","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"444151":{"id":"444151","type":"image","title":"Ravi and Mohamad","body":null,"created":"1449256205","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:10:05","changed":"1475895182","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:02","alt":"Ravi and Mohamad","file":{"fid":"203145","name":"ravi_and_mohamad.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ravi_and_mohamad_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ravi_and_mohamad_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1113563,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ravi_and_mohamad_0.jpg?itok=QaMNLbgo"}}},"media_ids":["444151"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"123401","name":"OculoStaple"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}