Innovative blood treatment developed in Cork could prevent blockages leading to amputations

UCC spinout company has been awarded €2.5m grant through Enterprise Ireland

Professor Noel Caplice, ProVascTec chief scientific officer and chair of cardiovascular sciences at UCC. Picture: Tomas Tyner, UCC.

A new product designed in Cork to restore blood flow to the extremities following an arterial blockage has been awarded a €2.5m grant through Enterprise Ireland. 

Developed by University College Cork spin-out company ProVascTec, PulseCLTI is a cell therapy which will treat patients suffering from critical limb ischemia - a severe blockage in the arteries that can lead to amputation or limb loss. It has been backed with a research grant from the Enterprise Ireland Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF).

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) leading to blood vessel obstruction in the lower limbs affects 260m patients globally, with 40% of these at risk of developing Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia (CLTI), which can lead to gangrene or require amputation.

The PulseCLTI innovative treatment restores blood flow to the affected limb. The funding awarded to PulseCLTI will advance the development of the product through prototype development, preclinical testing and regulatory approval processes up to readiness for clinical trials.

The treatment is led by ProVascTec, with two DTIF consortium partners – Prof Subrata Ghosh at UCC’s School of Medicine and Sligo medtech firm Arrotek Medical Ltd.

ProVascTec is located at the UCC Gateway Incubation Hub. ProVascTec’s technology was developed by the company's chief scientific officer, Prof Noel Caplice. Prof Caplice is also chair of cardiovascular sciences at UCC. “This is a great boost to our efforts to translate a cutting-edge device technology with a state of the art stem cell approach to the clinic, where the medical need is great," said Prof Caplice.

Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD and Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless, TD, announced funding of a €33.1m to eight new projects under call seven of the DTIF, a €500m fund established under the National Development Plan (NDP) in 2018. The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment manages the DTIF with administrative support from Enterprise Ireland. The total allocation of DTIF funding so far has reached €455m.

Co-founder of ProVascTec Dr Holger B. Müller said receiving funding from DTIF is a "huge testament to ProVascTec’s completely novel approach to solving critical limb ischemia, and also speaks to the fantastic capability base that is available in Ireland for setting up consortia that enable the development of novel approaches.”