JumpStart recently invested $250,000 in Guided Interventions, a startup company that has developed technology to assess coronary artery blockages. The company was formed two years ago and has been mainly focused on developing its intellectual property and proof of concepts, says Guided Interventions CEO Matthew Pollman.

“The concept is revolutionary,” Pollman says. “It uses a pressurized guideline to measure fractional flow reserve (FFR). It facilitates assessing blockages in the coronary artery and determines whether to perform an intervention.”

Pollman cites a clinical study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that showed using technologies like Guided Interventions’ FFR product instead of traditional angiogram indicate that 37 percent of the time the blockage should be left alone. “Sometimes leaving it alone is actually the best thing for patients,” he says.

Pollman plans to use the JumpStart investment to build out operations at GLIDE and the SMART Commercialization Center for Microsystems at Lorain County Community College.

The money will also allow the company to hire as many as six employees in the next two years, in particular engineers, and then triple or even quadruple the number of employees in the next three to five years. Currently, Pollman and his partner, Reinhard Warnking, are the only two employees.

Pollman, who is in the process of moving to Northeast Ohio from California, says he is looking forward to moving to a region that is so supportive of startup biotechnology companies and research.

Source: Matthew Pollman
Writer: Karin Connelly