A startup co-founded by University of Virginia alumni has earned the ninth investment coming out of the school's Licensing and Ventures Group.
The UVA LVG announced an investment for undisclosed terms in Direct Spinal Therapeutics Inc., a Charlottesville-based medical device company.
DSTI is developing a spinal cord stimulation product to enhance treatment for chronic back pain and other spinal cord injuries. Its technology is based on collaborative research and joint intellectual property from the University of Virginia and the University of Iowa.
The investment from the UVA LVG Seed Fund will advance DSTI’s product development and support regulatory and intellectual property work in advance of a pre-submission meeting with the FDA, according to the company.
“The expertise and leadership on the DSTI management team offer an unparalleled advantage for the novel IP2 technology,” said Bob Creeden, managing director of the UVA LVG Seed Fund, in a statement. “This investment epitomizes our goal to advance UVA-developed research discoveries and supports a company headquartered in our community, with co-founders who have deep ties to UVA.”
DSTI was co-founded in 2013 by two engineering and neurosurgery scientists working in translational research and a medical device industry expert, all of whom graduated from UVA.
George Gillies is a UVA research professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering and an inventor with more than 30 U.S. patents. He was recently named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2018. Matthew Howard III is chairman of the University of Iowa’s Department of Neurosurgery and an NIH-funded expert in human neurophysiology, and he also has two dozen patents. And Daniel O’Connell, CEO, has 20 years of early-stage biotech venture experience with an emphasis on university startups.
The startup had raised at least $1 million in funding in 2014 as it launched, in addition to $140,000 from the Iowa Growth Fund. DSTI is the seventh company to join the UVA LVG Seed Fund portfolio, receiving the fund’s ninth investment since its inception.
Founded in 1977 as a 501(c)(3), UVA-associated organization, the investment group has a mission of maximizing the impact of the university's innovation assets. It receives about 200 invention disclosures, executes 80 commercial transactions and launches five to seven new companies each year.
The DSTI investment follows two deals earlier this year, including participation in BrightSpec’s Series B financing round and a follow-on investment in existing portfolio company TearSolutions to support its clinical trials.
