An MIT startup’s tailored heart implants, aimed at aiding in stroke prevention, secured the MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovation Prize (SHIP) this Thursday.
Spheric Bio’s implants develop within the body upon injection, adapting to the individual patient’s distinct anatomy. This innovation could enhance stroke prevention since current implants are generic devices that often fail to entirely obstruct the most vulnerable areas, resulting in leaks and other challenges.
“Our goal is to revolutionize stroke prevention by creating personalized medical devices straight within patients’ hearts,” stated Connor Verheyen PhD ’23, a postdoctoral researcher in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST), who presented the victorious pitch.
Verheyen’s co-founders include MIT Associate Professor Ellen Roche and HST postdoctoral fellow Markus Horvath PhD ’22.
Spheric Bio was among seven teams that presented their solutions at the event, which took place at the MIT Media Lab and initiated the MIT Sloan Healthcare and BioInnovations Conference.
Spheric received the first-place award of $25,000 at the event. The second-place award went to nurtur, another startup founded by MIT alumni, which has created a platform powered by artificial intelligence intended to identify and prevent postpartum depression. Nurtur was part of the delta v startup accelerator program hosted by the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship last summer.
The audience choice award was presented to Merunova, which employs AI and MRI diagnostics to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of spinal cord conditions. Merunova was co-founded by Dheera Ananthakrishnan, a former spine surgeon who obtained an executive MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2023.
Customized stroke prevention
Spheric Bio’s initial implants aim to tackle the issue of atrial fibrillation, a condition that causes parts of the heart to beat erratically, significantly increasing stroke risk. The issue arises when blood gathers and clot forms in the heart. These clots can then travel to the brain and lead to a stroke.
“This is a predicament I’ve seen firsthand in my family,” Verheyen shares. “It’s prevalent enough that millions of families around the globe have had to watch a loved one endure a stroke as well.”
Patients suffering from atrial fibrillation can today either take blood thinners, often for years or even a lifetime, or undergo a procedure where surgeons place a device inside the heart to seal off a section known as the left atrial appendage, responsible for about 90 percent of such clots.
The implants currently available for this procedure are usually pre-manufactured metal devices that do not accommodate the extensive variations found in patient heart anatomies. Verheyen states that as many as half of these devices fail to adequately seal the appendage, potentially resulting in complications and intricate care pathways designed to address these deficiencies.
“There’s a key disconnect between the devices available and the actual physical diversity of human patients,” notes Verheyen. “Humans vary infinitely in shape and size, and these tissues, in particular, are very soft, intricate, and delicate. It creates a significant incompatibility.”
Spheric Bio’s implants are engineered to adapt to a patient’s anatomy akin to how water fills a glass. The implant consists of biomaterials developed over several years of research at MIT. They are administered through a catheter and subsequently expand and self-heal to perfectly fit the patient.
“This ensures complete closure of the appendage for each patient, every time,” Verheyen said, who has successfully tested the device in animal models. “It also enables us to minimize device-related complications and simplifies the deployment process for operators.”
Verheyen pursued his PhD in medical imaging and medical physics in Roche’s laboratory. Roche is also the associate head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
Innovations that matter
The 23rd annual pitch competition provided those interested in healthcare innovation a glimpse into the promising new solutions emerging from universities. The event was open to all early-stage healthcare startups with at least one student or recent graduate as a co-founder.
This event resulted from a months-long evaluation in which over 100 applicants were narrowed down through three rounds by a panel of 20 judges.
The final competition also marked the start of the MIT Sloan Healthcare and BioInnovations Conference, which occurred on February 27 and 28. This year’s conference was themed From Innovation to Impact: The Changing Face of Healthcare and featured keynote speakers from the healthcare industry, including Chris Boerner, CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb, and James Davis, CEO of Quest Diagnostics.
The keynote for the competition was presented by Iterative Health CEO Jonathan Ng, who was a finalist in the 2017 competition. Ng expressed admiration for this year’s participants.
“It’s uplifting to look around and see individuals passionate about changing the world,” said Ng, whose company is using cameras and AI to enhance colorectal cancer screening. “There are certainly easier sectors to work in, but MIT is an excellent place to discover your community: to find people who strive to create similar impacts on the world as you.”