CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, February 10, 2010 -- HemoShear LLC, a developer of innovative, cell-based, human surrogate models for discovery and assessment of new drug compounds in the laboratory, is pleased to announce that Timothy L. Pruett, M.D., Director of Transplant Surgery at the University of Minnesota, has joined its Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr. Pruett will use his expertise to advise HemoShear, and its newly formed division, HepaShear, as the company continues its groundbreaking development of an advanced, physiologically relevant model of the human liver. The model will identify and validate new pathways of liver diseases and screen new drug candidates aimed at treating the many forms of liver disease that afflict millions of people worldwide.
“Current methods are far from adequate for the study of liver diseases and treatments,” said Dr. Pruett. “I look forward to supporting HepaShear’s development of dynamic models to better understand viral hepatitis, reperfusion and malnutrition in the liver, all of which are in great need of new approaches and new therapies.”
In addition to his distinguished service as Director of Transplant Surgery at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Pruett is the former president of United Organ Sharing Network, and serves on the Board of Directors for LifeNet Health and the Transplant Advisory Committee of the American Board of Surgery.
“We are thrilled to have Dr. Pruett’s enthusiastic support as well as his expertise in liver diseases,” said Jim Powers, CEO and President of HemoShear. “Dr. Pruett has already been valuable in guiding HepaShear’s development efforts and proof of concept study designs.”
Utilizing HemoShear’s proprietary technology, which applies human blood flow patterns to recreate the biology of organ tissue, Powers said HepaShear will vastly improve pharmaceutical scientists’ ability to identify new targets of disease and discover compounds that have a greater likelihood of successful treatment of liver diseases in humans.
The Company expects to complete development of the liver model and begin HepaShear’s commercial operations in the next nine months.
About HemoShear, LLC
HemoShear’s proprietary technology recreates physiological function of human cells and tissue by applying human-derived blood flow forces to cultures of primary human vascular cells in the laboratory. HemoShear works in strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to identify and validate pathways of disease progression, and to assess the efficacy and safety of new drug compounds. The Company’s breakthrough technology will reduce risk of costly drug development failures significantly while speeding successful new drugs to market. For information about HemoShear, please visit www.hemoshear.com.
About HepaShear
HepaShear, a division of HemoShear, provides scientific expertise and a proprietary human surrogate liver model to study liver diseases and accelerate discovery of innovative drug therapies in a novel system that closely mimics the biology and architecture of the human liver.
Utilizing HemoShear’s proprietary technology which applies human blood flow patterns to recreate the functions of human liver tissue, HepaShear will vastly improve the ability to identify new drug targets and discover compounds that have a greater likelihood of successful treatment of liver diseases.
