2008-10-30 11:34:01 -
www.invivotherapeutics.com - InVivo Therapeutics Corporation Frank Reynolds, 617-583-1315 info@invivotherapeutics.com or Anita Harris, 617-576-0906 anita.m.harris@harriscom.com InVivo Therapeutics Corporation has appointed Eric Woodard, MD, as Chief Medical Officer and Robin Newman, RN, RAC as Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, the company announced today.
InVivo Therapeutics is a medical device company focused on restoring function in individuals paralyzed by traumatic spinal cord injury.
InVivo's founder and chief executive officer, Frank Reynolds, said: "I am delighted to welcome these outstanding experts to the InVivo team. Dr. Woodard has contributed to our team for the last year and a half. He is a superb neurosurgeon and a distinguished researcher. Ms. Newman is a national leader in the clinical trial arena who also
has considerable background in business and patient care.
Dr. Woodard, who will retain his post as Chief of Neurosurgery at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, was formerly chief of the Division of Spinal Surgery in the Department of Neurologic Surgery at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital and an assistant professor in surgery at Harvard Medical School.
"I am very excited about the potential of InVivo's novel technology and about the quality of our team," said Dr. Woodard, who joined the InVivo scientific advisory board last year. "The group has done an amazing amount of preparation and research. I look forward to overseeing the eventual transfer of InVivo's technology to clinical applications, which could lead to important therapeutic gains."
Dr. Woodard completed an MD degree at the Pennsylvania State University, a residency in neurological surgery at Emory University and a fellowship in complex spinal surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Widely published, he has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Spinal Disorders, and Spine University.com and is an ad hoc reviewer for Neurosurgery, the Journal of Neurosurgery and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Ms. Newman joins InVivo with more than 20 years of experience in the clinical trials industry. As a founder, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of MedTrials, Inc. a contract research organization in Dallas, Ms. Newman oversaw and managed clinical trials for numerous medical device and biotechnology companies over a 16 year period.
In her words: "I am hopeful that InVivo's new technology will allow individuals who are wheelchair bound to stand and walk; those who cannot breathe on their own to breathe and talk; that it will improve the quality of life for individuals who now have very few options."
Ms. Newman is a registered nurse, certified pediatric nurse practitioner, certified clinical research associate, and credentialed clinical research trainer who has written or presented some 100 research papers. She has taught at University of North Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Science and at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and is immediate past chairman of the board of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.
Every year, more than 170 thousand people worldwide are left paralyzed by traumatic spinal cord injuries, according to US government statistics. Although it is not currently possible to repair such injuries, the InVivo team believes that by minimizing additional injury to surrounding tissue and promoting new tissue growth, it will be able to improve function in spinal cord injury patients, according to Reynolds.
InVivo Therapeutics' technology has advanced to a second round of non-human primate trials and has requested Food and Drug Administration permission to embark on human trials within a year.
InVivo Therapeutics Corporation is a Cambridge, MA medical device company focused on combining polymers and stem cells to restore function in individuals paralyzed as a result of traumatic spinal cord injury. The company was founded in 2005 on the basis of research initiated in the laboratories of Robert Langer, PhD, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Jay Vacanti, MD, of the Massachusetts General and Children's Hospitals, in Boston.
ΒΆ Developing technology aimed at healing traumatic spinal cord
injury
