The University of North Texas Health Science Center and TECH Fort Worth have signed their first tenant as a result of their joint efforts to bring university researchers and businesses together to advance technology in Fort Worth.

CorInnova, Inc. has leased a lab and office at the Center for BioHealth on the UNT Health Science Center campus, and has signed a client services agreement with TECH Fort Worth, a nonprofit incubator for technology startups. TECH Fort Worth will provide business mentoring, consulting and assistance in obtaining funding to help CorInnova bring their technology to market In addition to space, the Health Science Center will provide other services, such as access to research databases, contract and grant management advice, and other services normally available only to university researchers.

“This agreement, and it is just the first of many, cements an idea that is core to the mission of TECH Fort Worth,” said Darlene Ryan, executive director of TECH Fort Worth. “Our pursuit of technology jobs and the Health Science Center’s incredible resources are a magnet for life science startups in need of mentoring, business assistance and collaboration with university research capabilities.”

“When you put people in proximity to others with similar pursuits, the ideas seem to multiply. They find ways to work together.”

“In addition to leased lab and office space, CorInnova will have access to other support services available to TECH Fort Worth client companies, including our Center for Research Management and detailed market research reports,” said Dr. Robert D. McClain, associate vice president, Technology Transfer & Commercialization at UNT Health Science Center. “We think this gives CorInnova the environment it needs to expand its research.”

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to explore additional research opportunities with the Health Science Center and to work with TECH Fort Worth,” said Dr. John Criscione, CEO and co-founder of CorInnova. Criscione is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

CorInnova Incorporated, founded in July 2004, is an early stage medical device company that is developing and commercializing heart assist technologies that lead to heart recovery rather than heart replacement. Funding for CorInnova has come through Texas A&M sponsored research, a grant from the National Institutes of Health STTR Fast-Track Award, and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

The company’s core technology is a device that enhances heart recovery through restoration of proper cardiac motion. This is a Texas A&M University technology invented by Dr. John Criscione. Recent discoveries indicate that heart maintenance, growth, and repair processes are guided by the mechanical stimuli that are restored by the device. CorInnova's approach is, in essence, physical therapy for the heart. For example, the maintenance, growth, and repair processes of the elbow are guided by joint motion, and thus physical therapy or restoration of joint motion enhances elbow recovery.

If successful, CorInnova’s first device would treat heart patients with aberrant cardiac motions, of which there are more than 70,000 annually in the United States. Clinical human trials could begin in 2008.

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Contact: Lauren LaFleur at 817-735-5152, or by e-mail at llafleur@hsc.unt.edu.

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