UA Little Rock has received Army Medical Command approval to contract with NuShores to perform first generation production development of the NuCressTM bone regenerative product line.
Little Rock, AR – The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received state and federal approval to award a services contract to NuShores Biosciences LLC (NuShores) for Generation 1 manufacturing of the NuCressTM bone void filler scaffold products. This contract is funded by a $5.6 million grant awarded by the Department of Defense (DOD) to UA Little Rock in 2019.
Dr. Alex Biris, Director of the UA Little Rock Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences, leader of the DOD grant, and co-founder of NuShores, spearheaded this new contract alongside NuShores CEO Sharon Ballard.
“We are very excited to collaborate with NuShores for the manufacturing stage of the NuCressTM product development. NuShores was founded with DoD goals in mind, and this contract is essential for bringing those goals one step closer to fruition,” said Biris.
NuShores was founded in 2014, at DoD’s request, to license UA Little Rock’s bone regeneration products.
“This new contract affirms the strength of NuShores as a company, as well as the potential of UA Little Rock to launch successful technological development efforts. We look forward to seeing the results of this collaboration,” said Joni Lee, UA Little Rock Vice Chancellor for University Affairs.
The contracted work will be led by Ballard and supported by NuShores’ manufacturing manager Mr. Mark Pelo, a 27-year veteran of the implantable medical devices industry who joined the company in July of 2020. Together, they will establish one of the only medical device clean manufacturing facilities in Arkansas.
“This first manufacturing project will establish NuShores as a medical device manufacturer homegrown in Arkansas. We have proven we can fund, establish, and recruit these manufacturing elements. Thanks to this contract, we will now also be able to accelerate development and product manufacturing of other maturing products in our pipeline, such as spine and dental implant indications,” stated Ballard.
According to Pelo,
“NuShores’ focus in the next year or two will be production process automation, leading to a hands-free factory that optimizes quality and maximizes gross margins.We must be able to compete in pricing with established giants in the industry. The only way we can do that is intelligent automation and solid vendor relationships.”
Karrer Alghazali, a recent UA Little Rock PhD graduate and now a research scientist at NuShores added
“I am looking forward to supporting the transition of my academic work to the manufacturing process and into the marketplace for clinical benefit.”
Dr. Alghazali has more than 4 first author publications, several co-authors, and several patent and patent applications related to NuShores’ licensed technologies.
The U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, 839 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5014 is the awarding and administering acquisition office. This work is supported by the Department of Defense, through the Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program under Award No. W81XWH1920014. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense.
About NuShores Biosciences LLC
NuShores’ vision is to improve the quality of life for people globally and to compete successfully in the bone and tissue regenerative materials industry. Early studies suggest that NuShores’ licensed, patented technology could deliver improved solutions for bone regeneration while cutting healthcare costs, lowering treatment risks and reducing healing times. Research results show that NuShores’ NuCressTM scaffold could offer a number of benefits that to date not achieved by currently marketed bone regeneration products, therefore promising to bring better treatment outcomes to millions of people with severe bone injuries. NuShores has the exclusive, global license from University of Arkansas Little Rock to commercialize university-owned patented and patent-pending bone regeneration technologies.
For more information, visit https://nushores.com
