Myka Labs partners with Mayo Clinic to develop next-gen AI for surgery
Major partnership with Mayo Clinic; third U.S. patent issues; new additions to Board of Directors
Myka Labs and Mayo Clinic sign landmark partnering agreement to develop next-generation artificial intelligence for surgery
Mayo Clinic is well known for providing exceptional care to millions of patients every year at its Rochester, Minnesota home base as well as at satellite hospitals in Florida and Arizona. Among innumerable testimonials to Mayo Clinic’s quality of patient care as well as its broader influence on the practice of medicine: Newsweek has ranked Mayo Clinic as the number one hospital in the world for six years running.
Under a major partnership agreement that has just been signed between the two organizations, Mayo Clinic’s strengths in clinical research and patient care are now coming together with the artificial intelligence expertise of Myka Labs. A key element of the new Myka Labs-Mayo Clinic collaboration is leveraging Myka’s recent breakthroughs in multimodal artificial intelligence models—breakthroughs that are positioned to bring into the operating room powerful new tools incorporating real-time analysis of combined feeds of imagery-based data along with data from distributed sensor arrays. The Myka Labs-Mayo Clinic collaboration has a near-term focus on developing tools for gastroenterologists and surgeons performing procedures to diagnose and treat disease in the pancreas and other abdominal organs, with a longer-term view toward developing wide-ranging artificial intelligence-based innovations that positively impact patient care across a broad spectrum of medical conditions.
US Patent and Trademark Office issues third Myka Labs patent, with Nobel Prize winner as inventor
The relentless push for patient-centric innovation at Myka Labs has produced not only a broad and deep product pipeline, but also an ever-growing list of issued and pending patents. Last year saw issuances by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of both #11,712,245 covering Lee Swanstrom’s and Hal Jerman’s designs for new types of devices for connecting multiple blood vessels or GI tract lumens and of #11,607,222 covering Mike Harrison’s sensor-based systems for procedures where the tips of two scopes–or a scope and a catheter–are advanced toward one another from different starting points. Now, a third Myka Labs patent has been issued by USPTO. This new patent, #12,076,254, includes designs for new types of devices that can be used to treat the severe narrowings in the bowel so often seen in patients with Crohn’s disease and other conditions.
Among the inventors on the ‘254 patent is Nobel Prize-winning Caltech chemist Bob Grubbs. Bob was a longtime friend and colleague of the Myka Labs founding team and when Myka Labs was just getting off the ground in early-mid 2021, he jumped at the chance to become involved. Sadly, Bob passed away before he had a chance to see this patent issue. The Myka Labs ‘254 patent now stands as the latest addition to the wide-ranging inventions and accomplishments that came out of Bob’s long and illustrious career in science.
Ashley Dombkowski and Glen French joining Myka Labs Board of Directors
Myka Labs is thrilled to welcome two truly exceptional individuals onto its Board of Directors.
Ashley Dombkowski is a highly accomplished start-up executive and venture capitalist. Early in her career, she served as a Managing Director at health care venture capital firms Bay City Capital and MPM Capital, overseeing investments in a wide-ranging portfolio of innovative biotechnology, medical device, consumer health and HCIT companies. Her operational experience includes having served as Chief Business Officer at 23andMe during the critical phase when the company was launching and scaling its revolutionary direct-to-consumer genetic testing business, as well as having co-founded and served as CEO at Alladapt Immunotherapeutics and Before Brands. Ashley holds a BA from Wellesley and Ph.D. from Rice University, both in mathematics.
Glen French has a distinguished career as a leader in both large public companies and in innovation-driven medical device start-ups. Glen’s experience in large, publicly-traded companies includes having served as President, Pulmonary Endoscopy at Boston Scientific. Earlier in his career, he co-founded and led NDO Surgical, a developer of an innovative device for gastroesophageal reflux disease that was acquired by Johnson and Johnson. He also served as CEO of Asthmatx, a developer of a catheter-based treatment for severe asthma that was acquired by Boston Scientific. Most recently, Glen was CEO of Pulmonx, a developer of treatments for severe emphysema, where he delivered 20% year-on-year revenue growth over a ten-year period and took the company public in 2020 in an oversubscribed $220 million offering. Glen holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.