Upstate Medical University will host business and industry leaders, along with government and economic development officials from Syracuse and Kingston, Ontario, March 29 to hear about key collaborative opportunities between the two cities.

The conference will take place from 8:30 to 5 p.m. at the second annual Kingston-Syracuse Pathway Cross Border Conference on Health Innovation to be held at the Crown Plaza Syracuse, 701 E. Genesee St.

Sessions will include discussions on Industry and University Collaborations; Cancer Diagnosis; MedTech Innovation; Regenerative Medicine and Biomanufacturing; Workforce Development in Health Care, among others. Additionally, five Innovation teams have been selected from applications received to participate In the 2nd Annual Kingston Syracuse Pathway (KSP) Pitch Competition.

To read the full article including details about partnership and the conference keynote speaker, please visit the Upstate Medical University website.

Upstate Medical University campus photo2nd Annual Kingston Syracuse Pathway Cross Border Conference on Health Innovation March 29, 2023 Pitch Competition

Selected Pitch Teams

IV Wedge, LLC: IV catheter placement is the most common invasive hospital procedure in the world; catheter failure rates are often as high as 50%. The driver behind these complications can be attributed to a single cause: the lack of stability. The IV Wedge is an accessory to a catheter that holds IV catheters and other cannula-bearing devices at a secure and fixed position for the entirety of treatment, stabilizing the catheter, supporting the proper insertion angle, and minimizing movement in the vein and kinking. The stabilizing device is simple, usable, and effective enough to be applied globally, reducing reinsertions, workloads, and costs.

Vitruviae: a preclinical stage biotechnology company developing first-in class broad-spectrum, mutation-agnostic therapeutics for infectious disease and cancer indications. Viruses and cancers mutate to evade the immune system and become drug resistant. Our technology aims to overcome cancer relapse and our current vulnerability to emerging pandemics and biothreats.

Dynamiris Inc.: a spin-off from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, developing a quick, objective, and sensitive tool to help diagnose and monitor Parkinson's Disease (PD) using eye-tracking and machine learning. Leveraging over 30 years of eye-movement research, we have identified a number of oculomotor features with the ability to detect subtle symptoms of PD and differentiate between PD and other Parkinsonian-like disorders. This will lead to earlier diagnosis, reduced stress for patients, and better treatment outcomes.

Evidus: a novel surgical technology for intracranial hypertension. Decompressive craniectomy (DC) has long proven to be a life-saving intervention for medically intractable rise in intracranial pressure. However, the long-term benefits of the DC can't be assumed for a patient without considering the complications associated with the cranioplasty (CP) in survivors of TBI. The potential long term negative psychosocial and detrimental neurocognitive effects result in poor quality of life and large economic burden. For these reasons we examined how our technology could restructure this surgery and offer benefits such as reduced complication and morbidity rates, decreased duration to return the bone flap to its natural position, as well as large economic potential.

Triton Bio: Microbes impact essentially every aspect of human activity, especially our health. Despite their importance, little is known about the dynamics and functions microbial communities play in their respective ecosystems because most are difficult to culture. Our team is developing a Microbiome Refinery that can quickly and cost-effectively isolate different microbes from one another, allowing scientists to access microbes more easily for their research and makes it possible to study even the most difficult-to-culture microbes. This automated process dramatically reduces the time and cost associated with traditional culturing methods and exploratory omics approaches, thereby allowing researchers to accelerate the development of new therapeutics and diagnostics.