For Dr. Paul Gratzer, the best thing about his line of work is that it helps real people who are suffering to feel better.
His company, DeCell Technologies Inc. is an emerging biomedical technology company that’s been around since 2012. Co-founded with Sean Margueratt, former manager of the regional tissue bank in Halifax, the company grew out of 25 years of Dr. Gratzer’s research into wound care and optimizing the use of human tissue.
Their work has resulted in a product called DermGEN™, an innovative technology that takes donated human tissue and removes the cellular components (what another body would reject) along with potential bacteria and viruses. What’s left is a sterile, safe, and effective biological scaffold that can be applied to a patient with skin ulcers or open wounds.
“Our product cues the cells to activate what is in their DNA, causing tissue regeneration and healing,” says Gratzer, who is also an Associate Professor at the School of Biomedical Engineering at Dalhousie University. DeCell partners with RegenMed, a not-for-profit Tissue Bank located in Thunder Bay, Ontario; they manufacture and ship the product to clinics and hospitals across Canada.
One of DermGEN™’s largest successes to date has been a pilot study at the QEII’s Multi-Disciplinary Leg Ulcer Clinic in Halifax, funded by CAN Health and managed by Nova Scotia Health’s Innovation Hub. The patients in the trial were diabetics with foot and leg ulcers—basically open wounds—that for years refused to heal. The use of DermGEN™ on these patients has been life changing as their ulcers healed and a whole new quality of life became available.
These same positive outcomes are being repeated in other clinical trials across Canada, delighting DeCell’s founders and igniting a swell of optimism for the future. In addition, first-person testimonials report that DermGEN™ is easy to work with. The completely sterile product comes in a small peel-back pouch, ready to use upon opening. Other products require thawing or rehydrating the tissue through a series of soakings and washings that can take up to 30 minutes. Clinicians say this one-time application of DermGEN™ represents significant time-saving advantages.
“We talked to a lot of clinicians as we developed the product,” says Gratzer. “Ease of use was one of their top concerns, but they also told us they needed the product to be consistent and able to be applied in a variety of different patient situations.” To that end, DeCell has started experimenting with using DermGEN™ for other types of health conditions, including cysts that have become infected causing deep wounds and also on amputated limbs to promote healing.
Buoyed by their Canadian success, Gratzer and Margueratt are currently investigating both the European and American markets and DeCell is poised to have an international reach within the next decade. Having Nova Scotia as their home base, though, has brought tremendous benefits. Not only has the company benefitted from Dr. Gratzer’s lab at Dalhousie University, but with the “start-up” community in the province becoming more robust, there is ever more support available.
“When we first started out, there weren’t a lot of associations or organizations helping start-ups and entrepreneurs,” says Gratzer. Their first support came through SpringBoard Atlantic and ACOA, with additional support in recent years from Life Sciences Nova Scotia and the Innovation HUB of Nova Scotia Health.
Both Gratzer and Margueratt have full-time jobs in addition to running DeCell. As everyone knows, start-ups require a lot of effort and can be rife with trials and tribulations. Thankfully, the two founders match each other in their commitment to the company and also the meaning they extract from the work they are doing.
“Sean and I are equally passionate about what we do and also excited about the potential benefit to so many people around the world,” says Gratzer. “As a researcher, I feel incredibly fortunate to have applied my research to a particular problem in human health and to be able to see success and results. It’s an incredible feeling.”
