Research@KU

KU Research Launches Company to Improve the Lives of Premature Babies

A KU professor's research on the care and treatment of premature babies has launched KC BioMediX Inc., a new company that will bring the research to market and help premature babies get a better start in life and get home sooner.

Steve Barlow, professor of speech-language-hearing and director of KU’s Communication Neuroscience Laboratories, co-developed the N-Trainer and Actifier as a result of his research at KU.

Barlow’s research was supported by a $2 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. Under the grant, nearly 400 babies at hospitals in Kansas City and Topeka received the devices as part of their neonatal care. Babies in this clinical trial continued to be assessed by the Actifier for up to two years.
If further trials and product development are successful, it’s possible the two medical devices could become standard equipment in neonatal intensive care units.

“Technology transfer is one important outcome of certain areas of research at KU,” said James Baxendale, director of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property. “Not all research leads to licensing or a start-up, of course, but when it does it benefits everyone: consumers, inventors and KU.”