Myka Labs founder receives APSA Distinguished Service Award

Photograph of UCSF pediatric and fetal surgeon Dr. Michael Harrison

During the annual meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Surgery (APSA) held this week in Phoenix, Arizona, the organization bestowed its highest honor, the APSA Distinguished Service Award, on pioneering UCSF pediatric and fetal surgeon–and Myka Labs founder–Dr. Michael Harrison. The Distinguished Service Award has only been awarded a few times in APSA’s history. Dr. Harrison received this tremendous honor in recognition of his wide-ranging contributions in the fields of pediatric surgery, including his pioneering research on healing and necrosis in neonatal gastrointestinal tract tissue that were a critical foundational element for the development of Connect, an innovative system for use in repairing congenital malformations involving the esophagus and windpipe now being brought to market by Myka Labs. Dr. Harrison’s contributions over his lengthy career also include having pioneered fetal surgery to repair malformations involving the diaphragm that were, until the introduction of the technique developed by Dr. Harrison’s team, almost always fatal.

Pioneering Myka Labs research on GLP-1 a highlight of major scientific meeting

Society of American Gastroenterologists and Endoscopic Surgeons

While Connect is an incredible advance in the field of pediatric surgery, Myka’s pipeline of products based on its proprietary advanced sensor system architectures and artificial intelligence-based anatomy modeling algorithms includes many new solutions for conditions that predominantly affect adults:  pancreatic cancer and liver cancer, as well as wide-ranging other conditions involving the gastrointestinal tract, heart and lungs.   At the annual meeting of the Annual Meeting of the Society of American Gastroenterologists and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) which took place last month, a report on groundbreaking research conducted by a joint UCSF-Myka Labs team was among the highest profile events of the meeting, having been selected for a prestigious long-form podium presentation. 

The study presented at SAGES by research team member and UCSF surgery fellow Dr. Tejas Sathe sought to elucidate the relationship between endogenous production of gut hormones and the relative composition of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate, lipid) in food taken into the body. The existence of a triggering effect on the production of hormones like GLP-1 and peptide YY by the arrival of food in the distal portion of the small bowel–where the largest number of hormone-producing L cells are found–is widely believed to play a role in the favorable health benefits seen with procedures like sleeve gastrectomy. An improved understanding of how different macronutrients affect gut peptide hormones holds great promise for the development of new therapeutic approaches for type 2 diabetes and obesity–including approaches that can potentially spare patients from the need for lifetime drug regimens, as currently required with GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic (semaglutide).    

The research team included both Myka Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Michael Harrison as well as renowned endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig, a member of the Myka Labs advisory board.

Leaders in abdominal cancer and cardiology join Myka Labs advisory board

Myka Labs announced today the addition of two key figures to its Clinical Advisory Board.

Dr. Ivo Boskoski is Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at the Università Cattolica & Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS Catholic University in Rome, Italy. Dr. Boskoski is a global leader in advanced endoscopic procedures and has authored over 150 papers including holding senior authorship on a number of important recent papers in the fields of gastroenterology and cancer, spanning topics from pancreatic insulinoma to malignant biliary obstruction to pancreatitis to metabolism. He is a key contributor in the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy’s assessment of opportunities and risks around artificial intelligence. Dr. Boskoski is a member of the American College of Gastroenterology, the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Italian Society of Young Gastroenterologists. He received his medical degree from the University of Perugia and holds a Ph.D. in experimental surgery from the Università Cattolica. At Myka Labs, he will play a key role in the development of Conflux for endoscopic bypass of malignancy-associated obstruction as well as broader corporate priorities around precision surgery.

Dr. Jacob Mishell is Director of the Structure Heart Program for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a practicing interventional cardiologist with the Permanente Medical Group, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is a member of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions; a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology; and a member of the American College of Physicians. He is heavily involved in clinical research, with leadership roles on major clinical studies in areas including transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement, transcatheter mitral valve repair and patent foramen ovale closure for stroke. He received his MD from the University of Rochster and completed his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins. At Myka Labs, Dr. Mishell is central to new initiatives inside the company to apply its industry-leading navigation systems technology in new areas, including structural heart.

Two global leaders in patient care join Myka Labs Advisory Board

Longtime Dana Farber Cancer Institute CEO Dr. Edward Benz and Dr. Richard Isaacs, former CEO of Kaiser Permanente, bring extraordinary knowledge and experience

Dr. Edward Benz. Trained as a clinical hematologist, Dr. Benz is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. His research centers on the molecular basis and genetics of inherited blood disorders like thalassemia. Dr. Benz has served as president of the American Society of Hematology, the Association of American Cancer Institutes, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Clinical and Climatological Association, and the Friends of the National Institutes of Nursing Research. From 2000 to 2016, Dr. Benz served as President and CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, director and principal investigator of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and a member of the Governing Board of Dana-Farber/Children’s Cancer Center. At Myka Labs, he will guide the company’s current and future initiatives in cancer, including its pipeline expansion beyond the pancreatic and other abdominal cancers where its advanced intraoperative imaging technology is positioned to markedly extend patient lives.

Dr. Richard Isaacs. Dr. Isaacs is Dean of the College of Medicine at California Northstate University. Previously, Dr. Isaacs held the position of CEO at The Permanente Medical Group, the largest medical group in the nation. He also served as the president of The Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. In these roles, he led 12,000 physicians and 45,000 staff members, overseeing the medical care of 5.4 million Kaiser Permanente members on both the west and east coasts. Dr. Isaacs has been named among Modern Healthcare’s 50 most influential physician leaders and 100 most influential healthcare leaders. Dr. Isaacs is trained in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery, specializing in skull base, head and neck oncologic/microvascular surgery. At Myka Labs, he will provide essential insight on the company’s product initiatives and corporate strategy, including how the company’s technologically advanced products can have a foundational role in future advances in integrated health care delivery.

Myka Labs to participate in major event focusing on pancreatic cancer early detection

Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Consortium (PRECEDE) meeting brings together leading pancreatic cancer researchers from around the world in New York City

Myka Labs, a San Francisco-based start-up that is a leader in advanced technologies for cancer diagnosis and treatment, will participate in the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Consortium (PRECEDE), the company announced today.

PRECEDE was established in 2020 to transform outcomes for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. While advances like optimized chemotherapy regimens have boosted the five-year survival in pancreatic cancer from around six percent in the mid-2000s to 13% today, the burden of pancreatic cancer is large and growing, with the disease expected to soon surpass colorectal cancer to become the second-leading cancer killer in the United States.

Anchored at leading cancer care institutions including NYU Langone, OHSU’s Brenden-Colson, and UCSD, improving early detection of pancreatic cancer is a key PRECEDE priority. The consortium has an innovative and ambitious program of large-scale, long-term data collection of demographic, clinical, imaging data and biosamples from large high-risk familial pancreatic cancer cohorts around the world. Myka Labs is contributing expertise in the use of advanced methods for extracting actionable information from endoscopic ultrasound, a widely used imaging modality in pancreatic cancer diagnosis and monitoring, to advance PRECEDE program goals.

The PRECEDE Annual Meeting and Inaugural AI Summit will take place on December 6-7 at Cornell Tech, located on Roosevelt Island in New York City.

New publication highlights benefits to high-risk newborns of treatment with Connect-EA

Paper appears in the March 2024 issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery.

A new publication appearing in a leading pediatric surgery journal concludes that Connect-EA, a recently developed system for use in treating newborns born with a rare esophageal condition, is a safe for use in high-risk patients.

For the 25,000 babies born every year with esophageal atresia, taking in nutrition by mouth–whether nursing or bottle-feeding–is impossible. The esophagus has formed in two pieces instead of as a single long, continuous tubular organ. Most babies born with esophageal atresia also have a related condition known as tracheoesophageal fistula, where one or both of the esophageal pouches is fused to the windpipe (trachea).

Thanks to advances in surgical techniques and intraoperative imaging dating back to the 1940s, for most babies born with esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula, surgical “repair” is now widely performed. While the development of early techniques for surgical repair of esophageal atresia was a major achievement in the practice of medicine, pediatric surgeons are continuously seeking to improve how they care for babies born with esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula. Two top priorities: repairing the condition with fewer or smaller incisions, wtih the goal of sparing the patient from potential long-term musculoskeletal injuries; and minimizing the likelihood that scarring around the former site of the malformation will result in a baby born with EA/TEF experiencing problems in the weeks, months and years after a repair.

Devised on the basis of years of research into the physiology of the neonatal esophagus and designed to take advantage of advanced technologies for navigating slender tubular instruments within a baby’s body, Connect-EA is the first major advance in esophageal atresia patient care in decades.

Connect-EA uses an innovative clip design with the potential to minimize formation of scar tissue in the esophagus. In another important advance, for many babies, the Connect-EA clip components can be put in place without the need for any new incisions. Tiny sensors designed to be used with the Connect-EA clips make it possible for the care team to carefully maneuver the clip components into position while minimizing the need for x-ray.

The new paper summarizes the results of the first group of babies treated with Connect-EA. This babies treated included several with multiple major comorbidities, like problems with their hearts and lungs.

The paper reaches a conclusion that is an exciting step for pediatric surgeons around the world, as well as for the families of babies born with esophageal atresia: Connect-EA can be used safely for repairing esophageal atresia in high-risk babies. Of particular note is that, by 3 months after repair, every single one of the patients treated had no need for dilations. Long-term reliance on dilation is common in babies who have undergone esophageal atresia repair where narrowing of the esophagus occurs due to scarring.

Myka Labs is working closely with pediatric surgeons around the world as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other regulatory bodies, and other key stakeholders to broaden the group of esophageal atresia patients who have the opportunity to be treated using Connect-EA and to eventually make Connect-EA available around the world.

Patients were treated at three leading institutions in the U.S. and Europe: Stanford Children’s, Vanderbilt Children’s, and Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital at LMU Klinikum in Munich, Germany.

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