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This technology includes a novel method to access the arterial circulation to allow introduction of large devices, such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement, percutaneous left ventricular assist devices, and thoracic aortic endografts. It also can be used in most labeled and off-label applications of Amplatzer nitinol occluder devices to occlude intracardiac holes and to allow non-surgical direct access to the heart. This new disclosure adds additional design features that have been tested in vivo.

This technology includes a pair of subsystems for a novel transcatheter bicuspid valve (frame and leaflets) intended for implantation in the mitral position. It is simple, it overcomes key limitations to transcatheter bicuspid mitral valve implants, and it overcomes key limitations to transcatheter tricuspid mitral valve implants.

This technology includes a family of transcatheter endovenous intramyocardial tether (MIRTH) procedures to impose myocardial constraint on the LV (MIRTH), LV and RV (SCIMITAR), and cardiac resynchronization procedures. Included is a set of advanced cardiac treatment technologies that focus on minimally invasive procedures for heart patients. The main technology is the transcatheter endovenous intramyocardial tether (MIRTH) procedure, which is designed to apply physical constraint to the left ventricle (LV) of the heart.

This technology includes a novel transcatheter repair for functional mitral valve regurgitation, called mitral cerclage annuloplasty. This includes coronary artery protection for mitral cerclage annuloplasty against inside-out compression from subsequent transcatheter valve-in-ring mitral valve implantation, wherein the ring is created by the cerclage annuloplasty. Cerclage annuloplasty is to create a semi-rigid ring at the level of the mitral annulus.

This technology includes a metallic guidewire that is suitable for MRI catheterization, because it is mechanically long but electrically consists of short conductive segments that cannot resonate during MRI. The invention consists of stiffness-matched non-conductive connectors or connections that are used along with short metallic segments. The embodiment reduced to practice has torquability and flexibility comparable to marketed metallic guidewires, yet is free from MRI heating.

This technology includes a device to close a hole in the wall of a large blood vessel or cardiac chamber from the inside out, delivered over a guidewire and through a catheter or sheath. First, the proximal portion deploys within the vessel or chamber and is advanced over a guidewire to oppose the wall and seal the hole. Second, the distal portion self-assembles outside the vessel or chamber upon withdrawal of the guidewire. Deployment of the distal portion anchors the device securely in place.

This technology includes a catheter design to be used for cardiovascular procedures. This catheter has intrinsic freedom from MRI heating by segmenting and insulating the braiding material, yet that retains most of the mechanical properties of a braided catheter aligning the segment interruptions out-of-phase with each other.

This technology includes a catheter-delivered endograft designed to treat congenital heart disease without surgery. The specific surgical procedure averted is cavopulmonary bypass graft. The key innovations are features to effect distal end-to-side anastomosis and proximal end-to-end anastomosis without surgery. The system operates under X-ray and MRI guidance.

Many biological and clinical procedures require functional validation of a desired cell type. Current techniques to validate rely on various assays and methods, such as staining with dyes, antibodies, and nucleic acid probes, to assess stem cell health, death, proliferation, and functionality. These techniques potentially destroy stem cells and risk contaminating cells and cultures by exposing them to the environment; they are low-throughput and difficult to scale-up.

Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have discovered an invention describing a composition and method(s) of using such composition for preserving viability of cells, tissues, or organs at a low temperature (around 4ºC). Current cold storage solutions or methods for cells, tissues, and organs are suboptimal due to irreversible damage to cold-sensitive tissue or organ transplants that need a longer term of storage for facilitating clinical practices.