Mir A. Imran (born 1956,
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
), is an Indian medical inventor,
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
and
venture capitalist
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...
. Imran has formed over 20 medical device companies since the early 1980s and holds over 400 patents.
He is known for his role in developing the world's first implantable
cardiac defibrillator
Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, specifically ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib) and ventricular tachycardia, non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach). A defibrillator delivers a dose of electric curren ...
.
In 2017, Imran was elected a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...
for his role in creating the first implantable cardiac defibrillator, and for developing multiple other technologies as inventor and entrepreneur.
Early life and education
Born and raised in Hyderabad, India, the son of a doctor, Imran was a problem-solver from a young age. As a child, he enjoyed taking toys apart to see how they worked, and as a teenager learned how to repair and build
AM radios.
After attending All Saints High School in Hyderabad, Imran moved to
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
in 1973 to attend
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
.
At Rutgers he received a
BS in
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
in 1976, followed by an
MS in
biomedical engineering
Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...
. He then spent three years At Rutgers Medical School before deciding to leave and work on the first
implantable cardioverter-defibrillator
An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) is a device implantable inside the body, able to perform defibrillation, and depending on the type, cardioversion and pacing of the ...
with Intec Systems.
Imran attributes his pursuit of innovation to being inspired by an experience he had as a college student: “I had a summer job working at The Matheney School for Cerebral Palsy Children. They needed engineers to develop communication devices for
quadriplegic
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or t ...
cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...
children, so I built a machine for one severely afflicted girl. The unit translated her
facial expression
A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. According to one set of controversial theories, these movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a ...
s using pre-recorded phrases, allowing her to communicate.”
Innovation and entrepreneurship
Imran says that he is motivated by "understanding and trying to solve big problems in medicine."
His interest is to develop medical devices that blur the distinction between organic and synthetic and advance patient treatment.
He joined Intec Systems in 1980 and developed IP key to the development of the automatic implantable defibrillator, a device that has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and has become a standard of care in
cardiology
Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...
. Intec Systems was acquired by
Eli Lily, spun out to form Guidant, and acquired by
Boston Scientific
Boston Scientific Corporation ("BSC"), incorporated in Delaware, is a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional medical specialties, including interventional radiology, in ...
in 2006 for $27.5 billion.
In 1992, Imran invented a cooled RF
ablation
Ablation ( la, ablatio – removal) is removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosion, erosive processes or by other means. Examples of ablative materials are described below, and include spacecraft materi ...
catheter
In medicine, a catheter (/ˈkæθətər/) is a thin tube made from medical grade materials serving a broad range of functions. Catheters are medical devices that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform a surgical procedure. Cath ...
for the treatment of
ventricular arrhythmias
Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, heart arrhythmias, or dysrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per minute in adults ...
. This invention became the initial product of Cardiac Pathways, and is now widely used by cardiac
electro-physiologists.
In 1995, he developed a low-pressure balloon and
aspirator system for use in catheter-based interventions. Imran was the first to articulate the concept of
embolic
An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule (fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amnioti ...
protection during high-risk interventions, and his device became the primary innovation for Percusurge, which was acquired by Medtronic in December 2000.
In 2017, Imran announced the development of the Rani pill, a novel approach to the oral delivery of large drug molecules which previously have only been deliverable via
injections.
Imran describes this development as “a mini swallowable auto-injector” that delivers the drug directly into the highly
vascular
The blood vessels are the components of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide away f ...
intestine
The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans ...
wall, allowing the drug to be absorbed quickly into the
bloodstream
The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...
.
Imran’s research interests are wide-ranging and include
tissue engineering
Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of Cell (biology), cells, engineering, Materials science, materials methods, and suitable biochemistry, biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintai ...
,
gastroenterology
Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract ...
,
nephrology
Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (ren ...
,
neurology
Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...
,
orthopedics
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...
, congestive
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...
and
artificial organ
An artificial organ is a human made organ device or tissue that is implanted or integrated into a human — interfacing with living tissue — to replace a natural organ, to duplicate or augment a specific function or functions so the patient m ...
s.
InCube Labs
Imran founded InCube Labs in 1995 after forming eight venture-backed
medical device
A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...
companies. Imran’s concept was that InCube would function as an
applied research
Applied science is the use of the scientific method and knowledge obtained via conclusions from the method to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted ...
institute. Since the formation of InCube Labs, Imran has formed more than 20
life sciences
This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, the ...
companies.
These include Rani Therapeutics, which was established in 2012 after beginning as a research project within InCube Labs.
Venture capital
Imran is an active
angel investor
An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...
and a limited partner in several
venture funds. He is the founder and Managing Director of InCube Ventures, a medical device venture fund.
InCube Ventures
InCube Ventures is an early stage life science venture capital fund. Imran co-founded InCube Ventures with Andrew Farquharson and Wayne Roe. The fund invests in both InCube Labs’ companies as well as external companies. The fund primarily invests in novel therapies that have the potential to dramatically improve patient care.
Awards and recognition
References
External links
InCube LabsInCube VentureseeTimes Magazine – 7 November 2005 – featuring Mir Imran podcast of Mir Imran speaking at Stanford
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071113143742/http://biomed.utdallas.edu/program-k.html UT Dallas, Engineering in Medicine and Biology – 12 November 2007 – Keynote presentation by Mir Imran.br>
Patents with Mir Imran listed as Inventor – USPTO.gov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Imran, Mir
1956 births
Living people
Businesspeople from Hyderabad, India