California Institute of Technology

Funds will support productization and clinical testing of Resonance Sonomanometry™ technology for calibration-free, noninvasive, continuous blood pressure monitoring. IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Esperto Medical™, Inc. a healthtech startup specializing in critical care and remote patient monitoring, announces the closing of an oversubscribed Series A investment round co-led by Catalyst Health Ventures and Bold Capital Partners, with support from Wavemaker Three-sixty Health, Free Flow Ventures, Fund@Caltech and Maverick Ventures. Continue Reading The funds will support productization and clinical testing of Esperto's new Resonance Sonomanometry™ (RSM) technology. RSM uses sound waves at different frequencies to directly measure blood pressure within arteries, avoiding the variability of other approaches - and requires no calibration, making it easy to set up and use. Details of the technique are published in PNAS Nexus. The wearable technology is calibration-free, accurate for all patients, and can be used on multiple parts of the body. Post this Cofounder and Chief Medical Officer, Alaina Rajagopal, MD, PhD added, "RSM's flexibility to work all over the body - on the arms, legs, even the neck - allows it to accommodate a wide range of patients. It has the potential to enhance cardiovascular monitoring for everyone." "RSM is a truly new monitoring technology and has significant competitive advantages. I am excited for its application not just in the hospital setting but in personal use, as well," said Joshua Phillips, cofounder and Managing Partner of Catalyst Health Ventures. Phillips, and Helen McBride, PhD, Partner at Bold Capital Partners, are also joining Esperto's board of directors to support the company as it brings RSM closer to commercialization. Phillips brings his experience as an investor and founder, having led multiple investments and successful exits while at CHV. McBride brings her experience as a healthcare technology investor and operator, having led life science investing for the Fund@Caltech for several years. "I have had the chance to track this technology from early days at Caltech. Esperto has built a great team to bring RSM to the clinic and beyond. I look forward to helping them continue their rapid progress toward transforming patient monitoring across hospital settings." said McBride. "We are pleased to welcome CHV, Bold Capital Partners and others to Esperto as we work to advance RSM for the benefit of patients, providers, health care systems, and payors," said Aditya Rajagopal, PhD, cofounder and CEO of Esperto Medical. "We are thrilled to have the chance to bring forward a solution to a longstanding clinical problem: accurate, noninvasive, calibration-free, continuous blood pressure monitoring." About Esperto Medical™ Named Octane's Best Emerging Disruptor of 2024, Esperto is dedicated to delivering the future of healthcare and expanding access by creating revolutionary noninvasive diagnostic technologies. Medicine is ready for huge breakthroughs, yet the burden of some essential tasks, like vital sign monitoring, hinders efficiency. Esperto aims to free clinicians and patients from the limitations of outdated technology. Learn more at . SOURCE Esperto Medical WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI), a pioneer in scientific research with a track record of groundbreaking discoveries, provides crucial insights into predicting the long-term risk for cardiovascular damage from e-cigarettes (ECs), particularly those containing nicotine. ECs have gained popularity among youth and are used as a potential aid to quit traditional cigarette smoking. However, their impact on cardiovascular health has been poorly understood — until now. Continue Reading New app uses carotid waveform measurements, making it faster and more affordable to detect cardiovascular changes. Post this Rashid Alavi, PhD, James G. Boswell Postdoctoral Fellow, Huntington Medical Research Institutes and California Institute of Technology In this study, "Adverse Cardiovascular Effects on Nicotine Delivered by Chronic Electronic Cigarettes or Standard Cigarettes Captured by Cardiovascular Intrinsic Frequencies," researchers applied an innovative blood flow dynamics method using intrinsic frequency to measure blood vessel dilatation and determine the impact of nicotine exposure from electronic cigarette vapor. Findings showed nicotine-containing vapes negatively impacted vascular function and left ventricle-arterial coupling ­— key indicators of cardiovascular health, contributing to accelerated aging of the vascular system. Rashid Alavi, PhD, James G. Boswell Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and HMRI, led this study, recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA). He began this research during his doctoral studies in mechanical/cardiovascular engineering in the lab of Niema Pahlevan, PhD, the Gordon S. Marshall Early Career Chair in Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), and Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), in collaboration with the Keck School of Medicine of USC, HMRI, and the University of California Irvine. "The intrinsic frequency method, which is a new fluid dynamics-based analysis technique, is very sensitive at detecting abnormalities in the cardiovascular system, even more than some standard hemodynamic measures," said one of Alavi's faculty mentors, Robert Kloner, MD, PhD, chief scientific officer at HMRI, and professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. "It is exciting that this technique can be applied to cell phone applications to assess the heart's function and help reduce risk for cardiovascular disease among e-cigarette users." This pioneering approach, validated on preclinical models, has significant potential for human applications, offering a simple yet powerful, non-invasive tool to detect cardiovascular risks early on. For human applications, the smartphone captures images of the neck skin. Then, the algorithm extracts vessel wall dilation from skin vibrations recorded on the images. The dilation of vessel waveforms mirrors pressure waveforms in large arteries, such as the carotid artery. Traditional methods to detect cardiovascular risk rely on more invasive and complex tests such as invasive cardiac catheterization that includes radiation exposure, or other imaging techniques such as cardiac MRI, CT scanning, or echocardiography. These tests can be relatively expensive and usually involve a visit to a hospital or medical clinic. The carotid waveform measurement can eventually be made from the comfort of one's home and will have minimal cost, and no risks, such as radiation exposure. This novel technique developed by Alavi and his collaborators requires only carotid waveform (neck pulse) measurements, making it faster, noninvasive, and more affordable to detect early cardiovascular changes, whether in clinical settings or using smartphone-based technologies. Researchers also evaluated vapor from traditional cigarettes and found it significantly impairs left ventricle contractile function. In addition to damage from vaping, the novel neck pulse waveform analysis will help users detect risks from traditional smoking. As vaping becomes increasingly common, especially among younger populations, these findings emphasize the need for greater awareness of the potential health risks associated with nicotine exposure through electronic cigarettes. "People have this idea that e-cigarettes are much better than traditional cigarettes, so they quit traditional smoking and try e-cigarettes with nicotine. However, e-cigarettes with nicotine have many adverse effects, so they need to be carefully considered," said Pahlevan. "The goal of this study was to raise awareness about vaping and the long-term effects of nicotine on the cardiovascular system," said Alavi. "When the vessels become impaired, this will eventually impact the heart. We want to help people make informed decisions about whether to use a substance and its impact on their cardiovascular health." A smartphone application is a simple, effective tool for people who vape and smoke to assess their risk. This technology has the potential to create increased health equity for the early detection of cardiovascular disease, paving the way for easily accessible, widespread testing. Alavi is known for developing hybrid physics-based artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for the non-invasive diagnosis of cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases (e.g., heart attacks, heart failure, and stroke). "My goal is to use cutting-edge technology and AI predictive models to help people reduce their risk for cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases," said Alavi. "My research focuses on leveraging biomarkers derived from biofluid dynamics and biomechanics to create smartphone-adaptable tools that enable individuals to monitor habitual health risks regularly, and make informed lifestyle choices to prevent disease progression," Alavi added. Alavi's postdoctoral mentorship team includes Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD; Morteza Gharib, PhD, professor of Medical Engineering and Aeronautics at Caltech; and Niema Pahlevan, PhD. Full list of authors: Rashid Alavi, PhD; Wangde Dai, MD; Sohrab P. Mazandarani, MA; Rebecca J. Arechavala, PhD; David A. Herman, PhD; Michael T. Kleinman, PhD; Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD; Niema M. Pahlevan, PhD Sources of Funding: The University of California Office of the President Special Research Programs: Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program study (grant number: 28IR- 0057). The James G. Boswell Foundation. DOI: About HMRI Based in Pasadena, California, Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI) is a pioneer in scientific research with a 70-year track record of groundbreaking discoveries that have changed the world – from seatbelts to lifesaving diagnostic technology like the MRI. Today, HRMI's work is laser-focused on biomedical research that investigates diseases of the heart and brain, and it is committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of scientists. SOURCE Huntington Medical Research Institutes WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

Viral "Social Lives" Key to Developing Treatments for Bacterial Infections NEW YORK, Dec. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Viruses that infect and kill bacteria, called phages, hold promise as new treatment types for dangerous infections, including strains that have become resistant to antibiotics. Yet, virologists know little about how phages persist in the populations of bacterial cells they infect, hampering the development of phage therapies. Published online December 12 in the journal Science, a new study offers the first evidence that a single bacterial species—the host of the phage—can maintain a diverse community of competing phage species. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Oxford, and Yale University, the study showed that several phage species coexist stably on a population of a genetically uniform strain of E. coli, a bacterial species that colonizes the human gut and includes disease-causing variants. The researchers found that, despite competition between the viruses, different phage species preferred slower or faster growing cells that randomly appeared in the population. In this way, each phage species was able to find a separate niche on the same host, leading to stable coexistence. Lack of local access to nutrients (starvation), for instance, may slow the growth of some cells to preserve scarce resources. In the current study, two species of phage, labeled N and S, co-existed because N was more fit to survive in fast-growing bacterial cells, while phage S was better in slow-growing cells. The designers of phage therapies hope to avert the problem in treatment with antibiotics, where a certain drug kills bacteria but leaves alive the fraction that by chance are the most resistant to that drug's mechanism of action. These survivors are a major concern because they have become resistant to available treatments. "Knowing how more than one kind of phage can survive over time on a single bacterium could help in designing next-generation phage cocktails," said first study author Nora Pyenson, PhD, a post-doctoral scholar in the lab of co-author Jonas Schluter, PhD, of the Institute of Systems Genetics at NYU Langone Health. "For example, each phage species might attack the bacterium in a different part of its lifecycle and enabling the whole population to be killed before resistance to the treatment evolves." "No phage therapies have yet become standard treatments for bacterial infections, either because in past attempts a single phage did not kill all the targeted bacteria or because the bacteria evolved to be resistant, similar to the evolution of antibiotic resistance," adds Dr. Pyenson. Labs are already testing phage treatments as an alternative to antibiotics. A co-author of the current paper, Paul Turner, PhD, at Yale University, for instance, leads a clinical trial that uses phages against the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can contribute to severe inflammation in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis. Dr. Schluter's lab is studying the role of phages in the gut ecosystem of humans and mice that could shape future therapies for infections like Salmonella. A main goal is to anticipate the impact of phage administration and design phage therapies that, unlike current versions that must be tailored to a single patient, work universally across many patients. Importance of Phage Ecology Understanding species diversity is a fundamental question in ecology and evolutionary biology. A major factor enabling diversity, from birds to plants to bacteria, is that species find ways to coexist while still competing for resources. However, viruses were not traditionally thought of in this "social" context. The current research team experimentally tested the long-held assumption that the genetic diversity of bacteria limits the diversity of viral species. This led to an expectation that one phage type would outcompete all others to be the lone survivor. However, just as multicellular organisms host a wide array of bacterial species within their microbiome, the new results show that a single bacterial strain can, itself, host a diverse community of phage species. "Our study contributes to the burgeoning field of studying the social lives of viruses," adds Dr. Pyenson. "We often think of viruses purely in terms of their impact on the host, but they also exist in the context of other viral species. These phage communities show how diversity emerges even among the simplest bits of biology." Interestingly, the presence of a diverse population of bacteria in the human gut is a sign of health, as the diverse set of species (microbiome) is better able to resist attempts at dominance by any invading, disease-causing species. By the same token, the population of viruses occupying the bacteria that live in the gut is also emerging as an important regulator of health, with abnormal phage mixes thought to contribute to conditions like sepsis. "This work represents a shift in our understanding of phage ecology," said Dr. Schluter, also a professor in the Department of Microbiology at NYU Langone. "Thanks to Nora's work, which she carried through a pandemic and across four labs, we can now begin to understand the evolution of phages when they are in community with diverse viral species and how this shapes their role in health and disease." Along with Drs. Pyenson and Schluter at NYU Langone, and Dr. Turner at Yale, study authors were Asher Leeks and Odera Nweke in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University; Joshua Goldford in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena; Kevin Foster in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford; and Alvaro Sanchez of the Institute of Functional Biology & Genomics, CSIC & University of Salamanca in Spain. Drs. Foster and Sanchez were corresponding authors alongside Dr. Pyenson. Funding for parts of the work was through the Life Science Research Foundation and the Simons Foundation provided to Dr. Pyenson, and through a New Innovator Award to Dr. Schluter (DP2AI164318) from the National Institute of Autoimmune and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. Contact: Gregory Williams, [email protected] SOURCE NYU Langone Health System WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED