PHX East Valley (Sept. 4, 2015) – Diverse and innovative businesses in the PHX East Valley are changing the healthcare and bioscience landscape. Researchers are finding ways to prevent Alzheimer’s, cancer and other devastating diseases that plague us and our loved ones.
The PHX East Valley region is home to many cutting edge, versatile companies involved in innovative and highly technological advances in the healthcare and bioscience industries.
Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute is one institution that addresses global challenges in healthcare, sustainability and security by developing solutions inspired from natural systems and translating those solutions into commercially viable products and clinical practices. Dr. Raymond DuBois, executive director at ASU Biodesign Institute, and other prominent researchers, are involved in lab research to investigate biological mechanisms to prevent cancer and other diseases.
Medtronic, also located in Tempe, works globally for hospitals, health systems and health care providers in three distinctive groups: cardiac and vascular, restorative therapies and diabetes. The core technologies that researchers and engineers at Medtronic develop and advance are electrical stimulation, implantable structural devices, target drug and biologics delivery, powered and advanced energy instruments, surgical navigation and imaging as well as patient and device management.
“Companies like Banner Health, Dignity Health and global bioscience manufacturing companies are changing the climate of healthcare and bioscience in the PHX East Valley,” said Roc Arnett, president and CEO of East Valley Partnership. “Researchers in both sectors are developing new findings that take us one step closer in preventing devastating diseases.”
Also located in the thriving PHX East Valley region is HealthTell of Chandler, a company revolutionizing disease diagnostics with Immunosignature technology, which measures a person’s real-time response to disease, for early screenings of multiple illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. The technology is able to analyze the binding patterns of an individual’s antibodies to provide highly accurate insight into the presence and nature of specific diseases.
Mesa is home to Ulthera, a company that has advanced the first nonsurgical U.S. FDA-cleared therapeutic ultrasound thermal technology for skin lifting and tightening treatments. The global medical device company focuses on developing and commercializing technologies for aesthetic and medical applications using its therapeutic ultrasound platform technology.
The region’s corporate-friendly environment and diverse, well-educated workforce has also drawn industry leaders from the healthcare and bioscience sectors to start or relocate their business.
Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, located in Gilbert, is an example of a business that expanded to the East Valley. The cancer center brings an unprecedented level of cancer care to Arizona by bringing the world-renowned resources of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to the East Valley; the center is becoming a destination for cancer care and complex cases. Patients receive unique treatment options at the center’s healing garden and chemo infusion therapy patio that overlooks the tranquil desert landscape.
Through a collaborative partnership between Dignity Healthcare and Celebration Stem Cell Centre, the PHX East Valley is a leading location for cord blood stem cell research. Celebration Stem Cell is a private umbilical cord blood bank, public cord blood donation bank, adult stem cell processing, contract manufacturer and research facility. Dignity Healthcare collects donated cord blood from consenting patients for the processing, storage, and subsequent delivery of stem cells for worldwide clinical research made available through Celebration Stem Cell Centre. Cord blood stem cells are non-controversial, unlike embryonic stem cells, because it is collected from the umbilical cord of newborn babies, which is usually discarded. Through his research, Dr. Nabil Dib, Director of Cardiovascular Translation Research at Dignity Healthcare performed the first worldwide experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of stem cell transplantation using 3-D catheter guidance in February 2000, and a few months later he implanted the first patient with stem cell therapy. In 2004, he obtained the first FDA approval in the United States for stem cell transplantation for patients with heart failure and heart attack using the 3-D catheter guidance technology, a minimally invasive procedure.
About East Valley Partnership
East Valley Partnership was created in 1982 as a 501(c)(6) nonpartisan coalition of civic, business, educational and political leaders dedicated to the economic development and promotion of the East Valley of Greater Phoenix. The partnership advocates areas such as economic development, education, transportation and infrastructure, arts, behavioral health, and other important areas. For more information, visit www.evp-az.org.
# # #
