Caleb Stine, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Jennifer Munson’s lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and co-founder of Cairina Inc., was recently awarded a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship through Virginia Tech’s LAUNCH: Center for New Ventures.

The innovation award will help Stine commercialize Cairina’s technology and software, which helps medical professionals provide personalized drug delivery to cancer patients.

Cairina stemmed from a research collaboration between scientists at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke and City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. It gets its name from a real event that reflects the research.

In the early 1990s, thousands of rubber duck bath toys were washed overboard an ocean liner in the Pacific Ocean. The event allowed scientists and educators to develop models that accurately tracked where the ducks would end up and when, based on ocean currents.

Years later, while writing code to analyze fluid flow in the brain, co-founder and mathematical oncologist Jessica Cunningham recognized similarities between rubber ducks traveling in the ocean and cancer cells traveling in the brain. Thus, Cairina Inc. received its name from a genus of ducks found all over the world.

Cairina Inc. combines MRI data with fluid flow analysis to predict where tumors are lurking within the brain and how they will spread. This revolutionary tool will allow neurosurgeons and oncologists to utilize convection-enhanced delivery to treat cancer as it spreads. Convection enhanced delivery is a method to bypass the blood brain barrier and directly inject chemotherapeutic agents into tumors.

Stine plans to use the innovation award to help license the company’s technology. At that point, co-founder Russell Rockne, an associate professor and computational oncologist at the City of Hope's Duarte Cancer Center, plans to bring on software developers, scientists, and a sales representative to expand the company.

“The expansion plan is definitely starting to take hold now that we have some of the key logistical things taken care of,” Rockne said.

Stine had no prior experience with commercialization when he started the company as a graduate student and new father of two. Between working full time in the Munson lab and devoting nights and weekends to the company and his children, Stine earned his fair share of sleepless nights. “I think the best way to do it is just to jump in and try to do it, and then you learn,” Stine said.

Today, Stine is part of a team of five that helps Cairina run smoothly. The team is split between researchers at the Munson lab, focused on fluid-flow, and researchers at City of Hope, focused on the computational side.

Whatever time is left Stine splits between woodworking, playing basketball, and spending time with his family.

Stine also recently applied for a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which will help support Cairina Inc. as it continues to grow. Stine and the team believe that with these grants, their software has the potential to be utilized for any part of the body, not just the brain.

“This has potential for a lot of different types of cancer where we know that fluid flow plays a large role,” Stine said. He also sees its potential for lymphedema and Alzheimer's disease, where fluid flow also is a factor.

For now, the founders are focused on getting their technology into clinical practice. Potential routes include work through the Food and Drug Administration or established imaging companies as well as incorporating the technology into hospital MRI machines.

“I think anything that can get it into patients’ hands and using it quicker and easier jibes with what I would like to do,” Stine said.

By Hannah Beasey and Faith McCrossin and part of a series written by undergraduate students studying science communication and administration as part of a summer fellowship at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke

Contact:

Tags

Share this story