Jeff Richgels
Tissue Regeneration Systems Inc., a medical device company developing bioactive implants for bone and soft tissue regeneration, on Thursday announced the close of a $2 million round of financing led by Madison-based Venture Investors and joined by the founders of TRS.
The company is a spin-out of the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin, where TRS' core proprietary technologies were developed over the past decade, and from which TRS has an exclusive option to commercialize.
TRS currently is developing its first generation products aimed at the $6 billion spine market using its bioresorbable scaffold and bioactive coatings technology platforms.
TRS said it has demonstrated in animals the ability to produce spinal implants that grow strong bone without leaving an artificial implant in the body. These improvements are expected to result in patients being able to return to their normal function sooner and with improved long-term patient outcomes.
Currently, permanent metallic and polymer implants are the standard in spinal fusion or disc replacement, "hardware-based approaches" with the "primary role to mechanically fix the tissue and mechanically replace vertebrae in the spine and fuse vertebrae together," TRS co-founder Bill Murphy, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and pharmacology at the UW, said in a statement.
