North Kingstown firm targeting implant infections

MATERIAL WORLD: John D. Jarrell, president of Materials Science Associates and founder of BioIntraface Inc., pictured above standing, speaks to associates about one of the company’s products, a coated screw that promotes faster healing in bone-fracture repair. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
MATERIAL WORLD: John D. Jarrell, president of Materials Science Associates and founder of BioIntraface Inc., pictured above standing, speaks to associates about one of the company’s products, a coated screw that promotes faster healing in bone-fracture repair. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

When dirt collects in a motorcyclist’s open fracture after an accident, bacteria may adhere to any implant, like stainless steel staples, that the surgeon inserts, and removing that bacteria can be traumatic and costly to the patient, says Dioscaris R. Garcia, a pharmacologist and microbiologist at Materials Science Associates LLC in North Kingstown.
That’s where MSA could make a difference, says Garcia, whose boss, company President John D. Jarrell, recently won a 2014 Bioscience Award from the Tech Collective.
“Part of what we’re doing is developing a coating that can go on these implants that would prevent the bacteria from adhering to the surface,” said Garcia. That and other innovations have been fostered by Jarrell, he said, on top of company growth that is leading to expansion.
“He provides vision,” Garcia said of his supervisor and mentor. “He is a true visionary. He is constantly pushing the envelope in terms of how far we can advance with antibacterial materials coatings.”
While Jarrell notes that preventing infection is not a claim that can be made without endorsement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, he says that, not only as scientists but as engineers and businessmen, “We hope to show that the coating can prevent infections.”
Jarrell is making prototypes for a coating applicator that could be used in surgical rooms for which he hopes to apply for FDA approval within the year. The coating technology is owned by BioIntraface Inc., which holds the patents on the technology, another company he has founded, while the applicator, a medical device that would apply the coating, is being developed by Materials Science, Jarrell said.
“The benefit is that it’s biocompatible and has antimicrobial properties designed to resist bacterial growth,” he explained.
Jarrell is one of three individuals who received awards, said Kathie Shields, executive director of the Tech Collective. She was also one of the judges.
“The impression is, he is an up and coming leader in this community,” she said. “He excels in his thinking [regarding] science and technology and community, at the same time being very innovative, and looking to not only advance himself but his business and Rhode Island, which is what we felt came through strong in his application.” Educated at Brown University, where he earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in materials science and engineering, as well as a Ph.D. in biology, Jarrell also holds a professional license in mechanical engineering. He called himself a “multidiscipline engineer specializing in the analysis of complex designs and failures involving materials, mechanical and biological systems.”
Nominated in the individual category for the bioscience award by marketing company Ensure Branding, Jarrell also recently won standing for Materials Science in Providence Business News’ 2014 Fastest-Growing Companies, ranking fourth based on fiscal 2013 revenue in the range of $250,000 to $5 million, with $799,000. That marked a three-year growth rate of 221 percent when compared to fiscal 2011 revenue of $249,000.
He has applied to the U.S. Small Business Administration and Bank of America to build a biological lab and a “wet” lab – that is, one with running water. The expansion is valued at between $750,000 and $1 million, he said.
MSA provides consulting services for Rhode Island Hospital.
The SBA application is to build out property he is currently leasing, he explained, adding that the availability of these commercial resources is critical in today’s market
“There’s such a lack of chemical wet labs and biological labs, it’s very difficult to get access with fee for service,” Jarrell said. “That’s what’s needed here in Rhode Island. [Startups] don’t want to be running a biological lab, they want to be developing a drug. And we want to help them develop better assays, better testing. We can do a lot in a short amount of time by using techniques developed for pharmaceutical and drug development.”
Garcia says Jarrell’s ability to put together talented teams with high standards will yield results in the labs.
“We plan to have streamlined setup,” Garcia said, “bringing in expertise and training received at Brown to run these types of assays in a very fast manner, in a few days as opposed to three weeks, [or] a few days to a week as opposed to a few weeks to a month [and have] trackable results, providing multiple services that businesses can tailor to their own needs.” In his application for the bioscience award, Jarrell describes the importance of new technology in multiple fields that cross the health care sector as “feasible, clinically relevant but at the same time commercially viable.”
“That’s the innovative thinking of somebody in the scientific world that’s important when you’re talking about coming to market,” said Shields.
She cited not only his creation of antimicrobial coatings devices but 3-D scanners as evidence that he’s “thinking about not only the science of medical devices but safety and continued use [and] taking that to the next level.
“He’s taking what his original scientific work was and utilizing new technologies like the 3-D imaging and then expanding what he’s able to provide as services to his clients, as well as developing new technologies like the antimicrobial coatings for surgical implants,” she said. “And he’s continuing not to just be a deliverer of services, but also continuing his research and development in partnership with hospitals and academia to apply those new technologies.”
His 3-D imaging technologies, created at MSA, are a variation of existing scanners but suited for the precision required for medical devices, he said.
“You can bring a medical device in, scan it, convert it to design drawings, then use those to make changes,” he said. “Then you can print out a 3-D example as a prototype. We made one in-house: we’re not yet selling them; we offer scanning as a service.”
For Jarrell, the objective for both his companies is to be a resource internationally.
“We would like to be the source for the biological testing for local businesses when they’re getting grants,” he said. “Right now, they’re sending it out of state or overseas. We’re going to hire people from [the University of Rhode Island] and Brown to run these tests and keep the work here in the state.”

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