ARTICLE SUMMARY:
An Israeli start-up’s novel approach to saving infected implants via nano-debridement makes its debut in the knee arthroplasty space.
Yair Ramot joined Dimoveo Medical, a recent spinout of MEDX Xelerator’s incubator program, as the company’s CEO in July 2020. Dimoveo’s key innovation is nano-debridement, a method of cleaning infections and biofilm from cavities after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedures without excessive use of antibiotics or harsh chemicals. Holding degrees in both mechanical and biomedical engineering from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, Ramot has spent 35 years in the medical device industry with a penchant for R&D. Before being appointed to Dimoveo’s executive leadership, he worked in a multitude of areas ranging from pediatric disability rehabilitation and Alzheimer’s to EEG applications and mastectomy implants.
Dimoveo’s patent-pending nano-debridement technology features nanoparticles that, when excited with ultrasound energy, enhance the cavitation effect of the ultrasonic waves on tough biofilms that resist eradication with the standard of care. “You get something like sandblasting on a nano scale,” Ramot explains, adding, “most if not all of our competitors use a chemical solution to attack the biofilm.” The latter method is a suboptimal approach for disrupting the hardy polysaccharide chains that scaffold biofilms, often resulting in recurrence of the infection.
