Assisted by ASBTDC Lead Center at UA Little Rock
Consultant Rebecca Todd
University Spinout on SBIR Fast Track
NuShores Biosciences is a spinout company from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a client of the university’s Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center.
Led by Dr. Alex Biris as chief technology officer and Sharon Ballard, CEO, NuShores has developed a way to more quickly and effectively regenerate bone using a nanotechnology-based bone filler scaffold.
The company holds the exclusive, global license with UA Little Rock to commercialize its patented and patent-pending NuCress™ scaffold technologies.
A $1.7 million Fast Track grant from the National Institutes of Health is supporting NuShores’ bone regeneration research.
ASBTDC worked with NuShores on the Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research proposal, providing market research, business planning, and proposal development and review services.
For Fast Track SBIR grants, Phase I and Phase II proposals are reviewed together and packaged in a single award, expediting funding and research. NuShores’ project will involve a comparison trial that will be the foundation for later human trials in dental implant patients.
The company is also working toward approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
“Our focus for next year is in two key areas for our business success: achieving FDA approval for use in humans – late 2019 is our goal – and attracting the funding needed to conduct post-market clinical trials to generate clinical demand for the products,” said Ballard.
These two strategic milestones will position NuShores for commercialization success. “It also feels terrific to consider how our commercialization success links directly to treatment alternatives for our wounded soldiers — today the standard of care for traumatic bone injuries is more often than not amputation,” said Ballard.