Business Development and Partnership Office

GRC Human Health Business Approach

Glenn is an integral part of the NASA Human Research Program and is currently making significant contributions to NASA’s efforts in the following projects:

• Exercise Countermeasures which provides optimized and validated exercise protocols and equipment designs;
• Digital Astronaut which develops computational models of physiological systems affected by spaceflight and simulations supporting quantification of health, safety, and performance risks; and
• Exploration Medicine Capability which develops requirements and designs for clinical medical systems requiring little or no real-time support from earth.

Over the years many NASA GRC developed technologies have advanced the state-of-the-art for the human health community. Glenn has worked with the medical community to develop implantable wireless sensors for medical devices in tissue and developed fractal-based software to quantify the formation of new blood vessels especially as it relates to diabetic retinopathy.

Human Health Partnerships

To develop these new business opportunities GRC has already developed key strategic alliances and partnerships with:

• John Glenn Biomedical Engineering Consortium – Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), University Hospitals (UH), and the National Center for Exploration Research
• Cleveland Clinic Center for Space Medicine
• Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB)
• BioEnterprise (a collaboration to advance the development and commercialization of life science-related technologies in Northeast Ohio)
• National Institute of Health (NIH)
• North East Ohio Partnership (GRC, OAI, NorTech, Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) and Team NEO

GRC will work collaboratively within these alliances to compete for future funding opportunities. In addition to these strategic alliances described above, GRC has developed Space Act Agreements with universities in Ohio, as well as with several industrial partners. Intellectual property and technology transfer issues are defined in each of these blanket agreements that codify the alliances.

Human Health Opportunities

The human health market is very broad in scope. GRC has discussed the human health market with its strategic partners and stakeholders and defined specific sub-markets that GRC can enter and apply its expertise and unique facilities as noted below: - Medical Devices, such as diagnostic imaging, embedded and non-invasive therapeutic devices, patient monitoring, and biomaterials; - Provision of Care, such as computer modeling and improved training from biological process simulation tools; - Pharmaceuticals, such as drug delivery technologies.

Medical Devices:

- Diagnostics equipment (not imaging) - Medical imaging equipment - Medical lab equipment - Medical supplies (bio-materials, synthetic fluids) - Patient monitoring/tele-medicine (remote health monitoring remote health diagnosis) - Surgical devices (tele-medicine, tele-surgery - Therapeutic devices – invasive (exercise physiology, orthopedics, neuro-prosthesis, BioMEMS (lab on a chip, pressure sensors) - Therapeutic devices – minimally and non-invasive (exercise physiology, orthopedics, neuro-prosthesis, breath monitoring)

Provision of Care:

Operations, training and tools as relates to hospitals and physicians and related staff - Training (e.g. computer modeling and simulation of biological processes/surgical procedures) - Non-invasive, wireless diagnostic and health monitoring

Pharmaceuticals:

Relating to drugs used in medical treatment - Drug delivery - Drug effectiveness/absorption There are other sub-markets to human health but the ones listed show the highest possible GRC contribution for our partners. These sub-markets are also prevalent in Northeast Ohio especially the market for medical devices. Of the 775 bioscience-related entities operating in the State of Ohio in 2005 approximately 400 were focused on medical devices and equipment with most of these located in Northeast Ohio. This economy supported workforce skills in material science and biomedical engineering.

Historical examples of GRC’s Human Health technologies

GRC has succeeded in the NASA Human Research Program and in human health markets in the past, as listed below. - Development of ocular monitoring system to detect eye and systemic diseases - Development of advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques to study cell physiology

Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis (PUMA) demonstration during NASA’s undersea NASA’s Extreme Environment Missions Operations (NEEMO)

- Demonstration of modeling and probabilistic risk assessment methodology applied to human health and performance risk management - Development of sensors for implantable medical devices in bone, muscle or tissue with remote telemetry focusing on orthopedics - Development of MEMS-based breath monitoring system - Development of fractal-based software to quantify the formation of new blood vessels - Particle image velocimetry for cardiac valve systems in mechanical hearts to map the flow of blood platelets - Development of arrhythmia monitoring system - Development of a innovative ventricular assist system – a permanently implantable non-pulsatile blood pumping system - Development of a removal technique of biologically active contaminants from the surfaces of surgical implants.These successes demonstrate how GRC capabilities, facilities and tools have contributed to the human health markets.