BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Each Monday, we feature a Buffalo City Shaper - someone who is working to make our community a better place.
This week, 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik takes us to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus where a Western New York native wants to make sure no family ever has to go through the heartbreak he went through about 15 years ago.
"My wife passed away a little over 15 years ago from two ruptured brain aneurysms," said Jeffrey Harvey.
Harvey's wife, like many who suffer from brain aneurysms, showed no symptoms. Even if she had, Harvey says there aren't many detection options.
"A physician probably would not recommend you get an MRI unless there were two people in your family that had a brain aneurysm," says Harvey.
According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, 30-thousand people experience a brain aneurysm rupture in the United States each year. And, 1 in 50 have an unruptured brain aneurysm and don't know it.
Harvey got involved with the Foundation and helped fund research projects, but he wanted to do more.
"I saw one project that happened to be here in Buffalo with Vince Tutino and Dr. Meng, and it was for a blood test to detect brain aneurysms," explained Harvey.
The trio formed the start-up Neurovascular Diagnostics with Harvey joining as the CFO. The goal is to give people an inexpensive, non-invasive way to see if they have an unruptured brain aneurysm.
Tutino says Harvey's passion is invaluable.
"He's been kind of a driving force behind our efforts to commercialize this, and so it's really been great. It's really been a great collaboration between the University and people like Jeff who are entrepreneurs. It's been awesome," says Vincent Tutino.
Right now, they're working with a more $200-thousand grant from the National Science Foundation. They're applying for more grants, and eventually, the start-up will need outside investors.
Once they come up with the blood test, they'll have to start a clinical trial and go through the regulatory approval process, which ultimately - the team hopes - will lead to FDA approval.
"It's a real thrill to be able to develop a blood test that we think could save lots of lives around the country," says Harvey.
The start-up is looking for other scientists to potentially work with and people who are interested in learning more about the research the team is doing. (http://www.nvdiag.com/get-involved/)
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