MANAGEMENT: Peter Hollender
DUKE INVENTOR: Peter Hollender
microelastic.com
MicroElastic Ultrasound Systems is developing a handheld device that quantifies the elasticity of skin at the touch of a button. This proprietary technology uses ultrasound to locally vibrate tissue and measure the response in order to directly and noninvasively characterize tissue elastic properties.
Skin elasticity is both important for planning, guiding, and evaluating procedures and treatments in aesthetic dermatology and crucial for tracking and managing life-threatening chronic conditions like Graft-Versus-Host-Disease, yet existing methods are subjective, qualitative, or unreliable, causing the NIH to declare that “there is an urgent need for the development of more quantifiable and reproducible measurements”.
MicroElastic aims for early assessment, active feedback speeds, tailored treatments while reducing discomfort and other complications, reducing costs, and improving outcomes.
MicroElastic is taking its functional prototype into clinical testing and developing its first commercial product via funding from an NIH STTR grant and is negotiating a strategic partnership in the aesthetic space for application to anti-aging procedures. MicroElastic will be seeking funding in 2018 to complete development and regulatory approval as a class II device under the 510(k) pathway.
