U-M grad students launch surgical device company

A quartet of University of Michigan graduate students are looking to make their fortune by licensing one of their inventions, specifically, a surgical tool called Endocutter.

The engineering students (Taarif Jafferi, Rahula Rattan, Zach Weingarden, and Raghunath Katragadda) came up with a device that helps break down and suck up abdominal blood during surgery, allowing doctors to see what's happening.

"You can see what you're sucking," says Rattan, a PhD candidate at U-M. "Because the things we are sucking are too big, this will cut them up (with a small tool at the tip of suction tube), too."

The students created the device during a year-long graduate bio-medical design class and are now trying to patent it. They have received $10,000 in seed funding from the U-M Medical Innovation Center and hope to find a business to partner with and license the technology out by the end of the year.

Source: Rahula Rattan, co-inventor of Encocutter
Writer: Jon Zemke

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