ALUMNI
WOUND WARRIORS UCI alumni partner with doctor to engineer potential stem cell treatment for diabetic foot ulcers
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JANET WILSON
STEVE ZYLIUS
FOR AHMED ZOBI, IT’S HIS MOTHER. FOR HUGO SALAS, A BELOVED GRANDMOTHER. FOR JUSTIN STOVNER, A MALE RELATIVE WHO HAS ENDURED 10 SURGERIES. FOR DR. DEREK BANYARD, IT’S HIS FATHER AND THE LARGELY AFRICAN AMERICAN PATIENTS WHOSE LIMBS HE’S HAD TO AMPUTATE OR WHO HAVE DIED TOO YOUNG.
All have seen people they care for suffer from Type 2 diabetes. Together, the three recent UC Irvine biomedical engineering graduates and the young physician with the UCI plastic surgery department’s Center for Tissue Engineering have co-founded a startup called Syntr Health Technologies. Their first goal? Perfecting a device to quickly and inexpensively process one’s own fat tissue into a potent tool to help heal dangerous foot ulcers. UCI Department of Biomedical Engineering