DURHAM, N.C. (Nov. 28, 2016) — Nocturnal Product Development, LLC, received a prestigious Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer Program award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with George Washington University (GW) researcher Narine Sarvazyan, Ph.D., as the principal investigator. The $2.27 million award will support ongoing collaborative efforts between Nocturnal and GW to design, produce, and test real-time lesion visualization tools for cardiac ablation procedures.
“We are thrilled to be recognized by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH and to continue working with our esteemed colleagues at GW,” said Terry Ransbury, president of Nocturnal Product Development. “We feel this technology will become the next generation of biomarker feedback for the electrophysiology community.”
The collaboration between Nocturnal and GW was formally captured in the formation of LuxCath, LLC, an Allied Minds Company, dedicated to the development of new imaging technologies for cardiac ablation.
“Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia,” said Sarvazyan, professor of pharmacology and physiology at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “The technology we aim to develop can improve treatment options for the millions of people who suffer from atrial fibrillation and associated morbidities, including increased risk for stroke. It promises to pave the way for faster, safer, and more reliable minimally invasive ablation procedures. That’s the reason this research is so important”
Other researchers involved in this study include Marco Mercader, M.D., director of electrophysiology research and associate professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Murray H. Loew, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering at the GW School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The project was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (R42 HL120511) and is titled "New generation of catheters for treatment of atrial fibrillation.”
