ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Controlling the rate of drug delivery to a target area of the body is a challenge faced by physicians in various areas of medicine, particularly with respect to postoperative pain management. Spun out of the University of Toronto, AmacaThera has developed a hydrogel platform that is compatible with pharmaceuticals, stem cells, enzymes, and other therapeutic ingredients to deliver precise and localized dosages where they are needed most.
Hydrogels have a diverse range of commercial medical applications, including for contact lenses, facial fillers, and knee supplements. Yet, few have been developed that can deliver a drug payload. After witnessing the success of combining stem cells with hydrogels, however, biochemist Mike Cooke, PhD, and biomaterials engineer Molly Shoichet, PhD, set out to disrupt the product category. Beginning in 2008, Cooke worked in Shoichet’s lab at the University of Toronto, developing combined gel and stem cell applications to treat stroke, blindness, and spinal cord injury. Over six years of experimentation, Cooke and Shoichet invented a loadable gel that could elute a therapeutic agent of choice at a controlled pace. Two years later, in 2016, they co-founded AmacaThera with Cooke as CEO and Shoichet as chief scientific officer to bring their invention, AmacaGel, to market in various combined products.
