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University of California at Los Angeles's on-campus technology incubator at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) has opened lab space to MediSens Wireless, a startup company that develops and manufactures personal body-monitoring systems for medical and health applications.

The CNSI is an integrated research center operating jointly at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara whose mission is to foster interdisciplinary collaborations for discoveries in nanosystems and nanotechnology; train the next generation of scientists, educators and technology leaders; and facilitate partnerships with industry, fueling economic development and the social well-being of California, the United States and the world. The CNSI was established in 2000 with $100 million from the state of California and an additional $250 million in federal research grants and industry funding. At the institute, scientists in the areas of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, mathematics, computational science and engineering are measuring, modifying and manipulating the building blocks of our world -- atoms and molecules.

The CNSI Technology Incubation Program was established in March of this year to nurture early-stage research and accelerate the commercial translation of technologies developed at UCLA. MediSens Wireless has licensed patented technology from UCLA for wireless sensor systems developed by Majid Sarrafzadeh, a UCLA professor of computer science and engineering, and his team. The technology is for real-time wireless monitoring of pressure and motion in both medical and nonmedical products. The technology will be used to develop body monitoring systems with specific applications for use by diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy -- the loss of sensation in the foot -- and those with health issues affecting balance who are at high risk of falls.

The UCLA on-campus Technology Incubation Program at the CNSI is an innovative resource with a mission to help accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial startup companies and early-stage technology research projects that originate at UCLA. The incubator offers shared, flexible lab space dedicated to housing eight to 10 early-stage incubation projects for short periods of time.

"The incubator program is an important way for UCLA to make the fruits of our world-class faculty's research available to the public as rapidly as possible," said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. "California looks to universities like UCLA for innovative technology. It is fitting then to have these startup companies embedded within the CNSI, whose mission is to fuel economic development by nurturing novel technologies and transferring them from the lab to the clinical arena and commercial market."

"We look forward to working with MediSens to move the technology to product development," said Sarrafzadeh. "The collaborative research environment at CNSI is invigorating.

Leonard H. Rome, interim director of the CNSI and senior associate dean for research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said "CNSI is committed to facilitating collaborations with private industry for the rapid commercialization of new innovations, and we are excited to welcome this startup into the incubator space as it carries out its essential R&D."

--UCLA News Office

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