At the MTEC Annual Membership Meeting in March 2019, MTEC recently recognized two member organizations who have displayed outstanding technical progress related to their MTEC awards. Awardees were selected based on the following 5 criteria:
- The MTEC contract must be at least 1 year old in its execution.
- Progress must be ahead of or on schedule.
- Results to date should support the feasibility of the approach and advance the development toward the end prototype state.
- The prototype has the potential to impact both military and civilian populations.
- A commercialization partner is committed to transitioning the prototype into a final product available to the user.
The “MTEC Prototype of the Year Acceleration Award” was given to an organization that received less than $1M and focused on advancing the development of a prototype to its next major milestone. Congratulations to the Team at University of Texas at Arlington and ReHeal, LLC!! This team developed a process for low volume production for a novel wound therapy dressing for complex hand wounds. The completion of this work is critical in allowing the team to move forward with testing this hand wound care-dressing system in early feasibility studies and subsequent clinical trials.
The “MTEC Prototype of the Year Large Project Award” was given to an organization that received $1M or more and made substantial progress on the advancement of prototype development. Congratulations to Humacyte, Inc.! This team has developed a state-of-the-art tissue engineering bioprocess to manufacture a human tissue blood vessel that, following surgical implantation, repopulates and remodels with the recipient’s own cells. Much work has been completed in support of the submission of a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Humacyte has been actively engaged with the FDA and will move forward with human testing in the near-term. This human acellular vessel has the potential to be an integral component in the treatment of serious and life-threatening conditions resulting from combat injuries and is being developed for the United States Warfighter.
Soldiers in battlefield situations are often subject to severe injury. Thank you again to both of these Awardees for their outstanding technical progress and continued dedication to the wounded warrior.
Ted Lithgow of Humacyte accepting Prototype of the Year Award with General Lester Martinez, MD, MPH, Major General (Retired), U.S. Army, President and Chairman of the MTEC Board and William Howell, MTEC COO.
Muthu Wijesundara of ReHeal accepting Prototype of the Year Award with General Lester Martinez, MD, MPH, Major General (Retired), U.S. Army, President and Chairman of the MTEC Board and William Howell, MTEC COO.
