Dr. Jordan Kaufmann is a bright woman with a good idea. Now her intriguing medical research is being rewarded with a big grant to support a start-up company called Cardiovate.
Kaufmann is a recent Biomedical Engineering PhD graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio. She won the University of Texas Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition. That honor includes $50,000 in funding, money she will use to develop a new stent-graft that has been shown to prevent aneurysm leakage following cardiovascular surgery.
"The Horizon Fund competition was an excellent opportunity to present our idea to an external board," Kaufmann said. "It is an honor to receive this UT system-wide award as I know that there were many other great ideas submitted to the competition. The award also shows again that San Antonio can compete in the medical device and innovation arena which I think is something the city can be proud of. I look forward to using the award to help spur technological development and economic growth here in San Antonio."
The new stent-graft is for treatment of abdominal aortic aneuryms. Her version of the implant is a scaffolding that's biodegradable. The body fills in the tissue and the risk of a future leak goes down. It will have to be approved by the FDA as a medical device. It may be five or ten years until it's on the market. But it's genesis will be a small group of forward-thinking biomedical engineers from San Antonio.
"We are extremely proud of the work Jordan did in the laboratory while she was a doctoral student at UTSA," said Mauli Agrawal, dean of the UTSA College of Engineering. "She is a wonderful ambassador of the UTSA College of Engineering and we expect to see her doing many great things with Cardiovate and throughout the course of her career."
"The development of Dr. Kaufmann's new stent-graft and the launch of Cardiovate is testament to the entrepreneurial environment that UTSA has developed in recent years," said Cory Hallam, director of the UTSA Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship. "The technology has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of aortic aneurysm ruptures, which will ultimately reduce health care costs and complications for patients."
