OmniGuide Announces First Customer of Revolutionary

[dadstimeon]

Technology that Shrinks Lung Cancer Tumors

http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-h ... 006-1.html

Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital Purchases OmniGuide Fibers for Lung Cancer Treatments

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- OmniGuide, Inc. (http://www.omni-guide.com/) announced today the first purchase of OmniGuide Fibers by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). OmniGuide is now an official supplier of Partners HealthCare, Inc.

The OmniGuide Fiber, a revolutionary optical fiber for flexibly guiding CO2 laser light that was developed at MIT(1), was recently used for completing the first-ever bronchial surgery for treatment of malignant airway obstruction using a CO2 laser delivered through a flexible bronchoscope. Raphael Bueno, MD, associate chief of Thoracic Surgery at BWH and associate professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, performed the procedure. The story entailing this revolutionary surgery is featured on BWH's website and press room at http://www.brighamandwomens.org/. OmniGuide's disruptive fiber technology allows, for the first time, the use of CO2 laser radiation through standard flexible bronchoscopy for precise ablation and removal of central airway obstruction, a condition impacting more than 30% of lung cancer patients.

"The OmniGuide Fiber gives us a tremendous advantage in treating lung cancer patients, many of whom have limited options because of the sensitive locations of their tumors," said Bueno. "The fiber allows for a much more precise resection with tight control over depth of penetration and ability to control bleeding." OmniGuide was introduced to Dr. Bueno through CIMIT, a consortium of the major Harvard teaching hospitals (http://www.cimit.org/). OmniGuide is an active member of CIMIT's Industry Liaison Program.

Dr. Steve Sheng, OmniGuide's CEO and President, said: "There are very few medical device companies who can declare their first customer to be a leading teaching institution of the caliber of Brigham and Women's Hospital. We expect Brigham and Women's, among other highly regarded medical centers, to lead the utilization of OmniGuide's technology in the field of airway surgery. We are privileged to be working with thought leaders of the caliber of Dr. Bueno. We see this achievement as a major endorsement of our core technology and look forward to expanding the treatment options for tens of thousands of lung cancer patients in the US every year."

About OmniGuide

Yoel Fink, John Joannopoulos and Edwin Thomas, all faculty members at MIT, and Uri Kolodny, founded OmniGuide in May 2000, in order to commercialize patented research conducted at MIT on omnidirectional reflectors. Based in Cambridge MA, where its corporate offices and labs are located, OmniGuide has an exclusive license from MIT on omni-directional reflectors and OmniGuide Fibers. The company has raised $29.5M from Ray Stata, Mukesh Chatter, Alliance Technology Ventures, 3i US, Westbury Partners, and Gainesborough Investments. OmniGuide's progress to date has captured broad attention in both scientific and popular venues.

About Brigham and Women's Hospital

Brigham and Women's Hospital is a 747-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare System, an integrated health care delivery network. BWH is committed to excellence in patient care with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery. The BWH medical preeminence dates back to 1832 and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, dedication to educating and training health care professionals, and strength in biomedical research. With $370M in funding and more than 500 research scientists, BWH is an acclaimed leader in clinical, basic and epidemiological investigation -- including the landmark Nurses Health Study, Physicians Health Studies, and the Women's Health Initiative. For more information about BWH, please visit: http://www.brighamandwomens.org/.

(1) Burak Temelkuran, Shandon D. Hart, Gilles Benoit, John D. Joannopoulos

& Yoel Fink, Nature, Vol. 420, pp. 650-653, December 12, 2002

Website: http://www.omni-guide.com/

Website: http://www.brighamandwomens.org/

Website: http://www.cimit.org/

[Ry]

Richard,

Thanks for posting this. This is pretty amazing. I immediately thought of David A--who died as a result of bleeding from this procedure.

Rochelle

[J.C.]

Thank you Rich

for posting this news.

You are very fast for finding news.

Jackie