Shuriken Medical Joins the MDC Studio
The Maryland Development Center (MDC) is pleased to announce the addition of Shuriken Medical, Inc. to its portfolio of medical device startup companies. Shuriken is a new company founded by Andrew Demmert MD, Chris Bailey MD, and Clifford Weiss MD. Drs. Demmert and Bailey are residents in the Vascular and Interventional Radiology Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Weiss is Medical Director, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering, Innovation and Design (CBID) and Associate Professor of Radiology and Radiological Science.
Shuriken was founded to commercialize a novel gastrojejunostomy (GJ) feeding tube technology invented by Drs. Demmert, Bailey, and Weiss. GJ tubes enable patients who cannot eat to receive food and medication into their stomach and/or small bowel. When these tubes clog or break, they currently must be exchanged in a procedure suite involving radiation, sedation/anesthesia, and room time. While most exchanges are simple procedures, exchanging a clogged tube can take hours if the physician cannot unclog it during the procedure, as the physician must then remove the tube and re-navigate the pylorus and duodenal sweep. The Shuriken GJ tube system enables quick bedside or home tube exchanges (similar to gastrostomy (G) tubes).
Shuriken Medical joined the MDC portfolio to have access to engineering services to develop and test the design and for business development and support for funding to develop the Shuriken device, obtain regulatory approval, and gain market traction. MDC c0-Founding Partner, Dr. Jonathan Pearl, an who is a GI Surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Chief of General Surgery at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, is supporting the Shuriken group.
“We are delighted to be working with Andrew, Chris, Aryaman, and Cliff to bring the Shuriken technology into the market. The need is substantial and the design has novel elements that could make it the standard of care for GJ feeding tubes,” said Gil Blankenship, Founder of MDC.
"Being part of MDC will make it possible for Shuriken to develop its technology and secure funding for company development and growth," said Cliff Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Shuriken.
About Shuriken Medical
Shuriken was founded to commercialize a novel gastrojejunostomy (GJ) feeding tube technology invented by Drs. Demmert, Bailey, and Weiss. GJ tubes enable patients who cannot eat to receive food and medication into their stomach and/or small bowel. When these tubes clog or break, they currently must be exchanged in a procedure suite involving radiation, sedation/anesthesia, and room time. While most exchanges are simple procedures, exchanging a clogged tube can take hours if the physician cannot unclog it during the procedure, as the physician must then remove the tube and re-navigate the pylorus and duodenal sweep. The Shuriken GJ tube system enables quick bedside or home tube exchanges (similar to gastrostomy (G) tubes).
Shuriken Medical joined the MDC portfolio to have access to engineering services to develop and test the design and for business development and support for funding to develop the Shuriken device, obtain regulatory approval, and gain market traction. MDC co-Founding Partner, Dr. Jonathan Pearl, who is a GI Surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Chief of General Surgery at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, is supporting the Shuriken team.
Shuriken Medical is a client company of the Maryland Development Center, a MedTech Startup Studio in Baltimore founded by Gil Blankenship. Dr. Blankenship is an advisor to Shuriken.
About the MDC Studio
The MDC Studio is the operational unit of the Maryland Development Center Partnership, which was founded in 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. MDC Studio functions as a MedTech Startup Studio that provides engineering support, business development services, and funding to create and support companies commercializing medical devices. The Studio works with inventors to develop their ideas into working prototypes and marketable products and form companies that will grow and create value for both their shareholders and all of society. MDC Studio Baltimore is located in the historic Wilkens-Robins building in the heart of Baltimore, near the University of Maryland Medical Center, and Johns Hopkins University where MDC’s founding partners and affiliates practice, teach, and research state of the art surgery and medicine.