“We believe that it is now possible to create medicines that control action potentials in individual neurons and in functional groups of them.”, Nature, 2013 *

 

The Phoenix Technology

 


MedAutonomic's BNM technology has three main components.

  • Harvesting energy from the body, eliminating the need for a battery.
  • Designing a CPU that produces the correct signal in order to address the imbalance in the ANS.
  • Providing a mechanism through the stomach-brain axis to send the signal to the brain.
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A piezoelectric energy harvesting system (PEHS) developed by MedAutonomic provides the power of the Phoenix.  The PEHS is incorporated in the "tail" of the BNM and captures the biologic energy from the natural peristaltic movement and vibrations of the stomach.  So, a battery is not required to undertake direct communication with the brain.  The correct precise signal to the brain is calibrated by the CPU housed in the body of the BNM. From the gold electrodes ("eyes") signals are sent to the brain.

Implantation Technology

 

Our implantation technology is based on two main assets: the Phoenix implantation device and the implanting procedure.  The implantation tool (patent pending) has been developed to allow the first of its type procedure, inserting a device in the thickness of the stomach wall without any type of surgery.  Operating the device and implanting the BNM requires only an endoscopist and an assistant.  The implantation tool can be used to implant any device similar in size to the BNM in any hollow viscus, for example the bowel or the esophagus.

 


The implantation of the Phoenix is a simple short and pain free digestive endoscopic procedure with neither drugs nor surgery. The patient is studied in advance with a diagnostic gastroscopy, which takes approximately twelve minutes. The operative endoscopy for the BNM implantation takes place in a medical office and is completed in five minutes. The endoscopic implantation procedure can be, if needed, assisted by a deep analgesia or a light anesthesia.  

Competitive Advantages

 

The Phoenix has significant advantages over the two major competitors.

1.  Medical therapy with drugs does not repair the genetic effect, leaving the autonomic nervous system unbalanced.  Furthermore, drug resistance and side effects are often related to a chronic drug therapy.
2. The surgical therapy of functional disorders, like esophageal reflux or the weak satiety in obesity, does not repair the underlying genetic defect, but provides different kinds of unnatural changes of the digestive system, unfortunately with several side effects.

President Obama Supports Brain Medtech

“Initiated in support of the President’s brain initiative, ElectRx (pronounced “electrics”) aims to develop new, high-precision, minimally invasive technologies for modulating nerve circuits to restore and maintain human health"......."Simple implantable devices for management of chronic inflammatory diseases and other disorders are already in clinical use, and the market for neuromodulation devices is growing rapidly. Current devices, however, are relatively large (about the size of a deck of cards), require invasive surgical implantation and often produce side effects due to their lack of precision (italics added).  ElectRx seeks to create ultraminiaturized devices, approximately the same size as individual nerve fibers, which would require only minimally invasive insertion procedures such as injectable delivery through a needle.”**  

MedAutonomic's Phoenix has addressed three of the shortcomings of current devices identified by DARPA.  The Phoenix body is smaller than a typical oblong pill, and we are working on reducing the size for the future human implant.  The Phoenix is implanted through an upper digestive endoscope in a matter of minutes and does not require invasive surgical implantation.  The Phoenix sends the right precise signal to the brain to correct the imbalance of the ANS in people with the metabolic syndrome.

* Famm, K., et al. (2013). “A Jump Start for Electroceuticals”, Nature, Volume 496, April 11.

** DARPA (2013). “President Obama Highlights New DARPA Program Aimed at Developing Novel Therapies Customized to Individual Patients”.  http://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2014-08-26