Remedium Wins ORNL Global Venture Challenge

• Remedium

Kytoclot, a sprayable, blood-clotting foam developed by Remedium Technologies, Inc., a startup company based in the A. James Clark School of Engineering, has won first prize and $25K in the Community Resilience and Homeland Security division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) 2010 Global Venture Challenge. Remedium was represented by its CEO, graduate student Matthew Dowling (Fischell Department of Bioengineering [BioE]), CTO and fellow graduate student Peter Thomas (BioE), and CMO and postdoctoral research associate Oluwatosin Ogunsola (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering).

In the ORNL Global Venture Challenge, students developing new technologies that address urgent energy and security needs compete for cash prizes and network with venture investors from across the country.

Kytoclot, Remedium's newest product based on their haemostatic technology, is designed to treat non-compressible injuries—those for which direct pressure or bandages cannot be used to control bleeding in large or irregular wounds in the body cavity. Typically, these injuries are very difficult or impossible to treat outside of an operating room and are a leading cause of hemorrhaging-related deaths. Kytoclot is a pressurized foam which, when sprayed into a wound, expands to fill the space and quickly stops the bleeding, giving first responders more time to transport the patient to a hospital.

"It's a lot like a can of shaving cream," says Dowling. "It doesn’t require any special training to use so it can be distributed to soldiers, paramedics, or civilians for emergency or mass casualty situations."

The Global Venture Challenge award is only the latest in a string of competition wins for Remedium over the past two years. The young company has been aided in its development by the Maryland Technology Institute's (Mtech) Technology Advancement Program (TAP). Based in the Clark School, Mtech's TAP program helps faculty, student, and regional entrepreneurs launch successful companies and network with venture capital firms.

Clark School dean Darryll Pines is proud of Remedium's success. "Our TAP companies keep winning awards," he says. "This indeed is a testament to the nurturing and guidance they receive while in residency here."

All of Remedium's past and current members have been advised by or worked for its scientific co-founder and advisory board member, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Associate Professor Srinivasa Raghavan. Raghavan is the director of the Complex Fluids and Nanomaterials Group laboratory, where the research behind Remedium's products is carried out.

The Global Venture Challenge is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the National Institute for Hometown Security, the East Tennessee Economic Council, the Community & Regional Resilience Institute, Battelle Ventures, the National Venture Capital Association, and Meritus Ventures.

For More Information:

Visit the Global Venture Challenge web site »
Read the ORNL press release »
Visit the Remedium Technologies web site »
Visit the Complex Fluids and Nanomaterials Group web site »
Visit the Mtech TAP web site »

Published March 31, 2010