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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Biodex Medical Systems To Manufacture Mobility Device Patented At Stony Brook University

10/01/2013
A licensing agreement has been reached between the Research Foundation for State University of New York and Biodex Medical Systems to manufacture Mobility Assist, a device patented at Stony Brook University to assist people who have trouble standing up or sitting down.

Mobility Assist, which will be manufactured at the Biodex plant in Shirley, New York and be available to patients in 2014, is a patented invention of Anurag Purwar, a researcher and associate professor of mechanical engineering at SBU. The device – which also serves as a walker – will be marketed to physical and occupational therapists as well as assisted living facilities, hospitals, and nursing homes to increase mobility among patients and residents.

“Having a New York company bring to market a life-changing product designed at our own SUNY system is the perfect example of what our state’s innovation agenda can achieve,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “Professor Purwar is emblematic of the intellectual capital at SUNY where talented students, faculty and researchers are developing cutting edge ideas in the classroom and laboratory that can become marketable assets and spur economic growth. There is boundless potential on SUNY’s campuses, and we want to continue to harness that asset to build new businesses, attract private investment and create jobs right here in New York State.”

“Dr. Purwar’s Mobility Assist is the newest life-changing invention to be imagined on a SUNY campus, given the room to grow through support from one of our Research Foundation programs, and ultimately brought to market by one of SUNY’s public-private partnerships,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “This agreement truly embodies the power of SUNY. Congratulations to Dr. Purwar and many thanks to those at SBU, the RF, and Biodex who have made this achievement possible.”

“This successful transition of technology from the lab to the marketplace is the product of dedicated research, industry-university collaboration, and creative funding programs that foster faculty research and support innovation,” said Dr. Tim Killeen, RF president and SUNY Vice Chancellor for Research. “Investments in cutting edge SUNY technologies continue to generate business and jobs for New York and benefit its citizenry.”

Two RF programs contributed to the creation of Mobility Assist. In 2012, Dr. Purwar received a $50,000 award from the SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund to prototype the device, and secured a $30,000 match in support from the New York State Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence program, with the Center for Biotechnology and Biodex.

“Customers who will use Mobility Assist represent a growing market, and Biodex already sells other devices for people with limited mobility,” said Ed Behan, the company’s vice president of market development. “This is a nice progression for some of the products that we already have in that area.”

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