Mir A. Imran (born 1956,

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

), is an Indian medical inventor,

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

. 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 non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach). Defibrillation delivers a dose of electric current (often called a ''count ...

. In 2017, Imran was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

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 U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

in 1973 to attend

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. 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 that 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 applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

. 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 h ...

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 control, motor and/or Sense, sensory function in the Cervical vertebrae, cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weak ...

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, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

children, so I built a machine for one severely afflicted girl. The unit translated her

facial expression Facial expression is the motion and positioning of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers and are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying ...

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 the study of the heart. 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 di ...

. Intec Systems was acquired by Eli Lily, spun out to form Guidant, and acquired by

Boston Scientific Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC), headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts and incorporated in Delaware, is an American biotechnology and biomedical engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional ...

in 2006 for $27.5 billion. In 1992, Imran invented a cooled RF

ablation Ablation ( – removal) is the 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, including spacecraft material for as ...

catheter In medicine, a catheter ( ) is a thin tubing (material), 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. ...

for the treatment of

ventricular arrhythmias Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, are irregularities in the cardiac cycle, heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. Essentially, this is anything but normal sinus rhythm. A resting heart rate that is too fast – ab ...

. 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 Aspirator may refer to: * Aspirator (medical device), a suction device used to remove bodily fluids from a patient * Aspirator (pump), a device producing vacuum by the Venturi effect in a constricted stream of fluid * Aspirator (entomology), also k ...

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 (amniot ...

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 Vascular can refer to: * blood vessels, the vascular system in animals * vascular tissue Vascular tissue is a complex transporting tissue, formed of more than one cell type, found in vascular plants. The primary components of vascular tissue ...

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 tract is the largest of the body's systems, after the cardiovascular system. T ...

wall, allowing the drug to be absorbed quickly into the

bloodstream In vertebrates, the circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the body. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, that consists of the heart an ...

. Imran’s research interests are wide-ranging and include

tissue engineering Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biolo ...

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, sometime ...

nephrology Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

neurology Neurology (from , "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 conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

orthopedics Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics (American and British English spelling differences, alternative spelling orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgic ...

, congestive

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

and

artificial organ An artificial organ is a human-made organ device or Tissue (biology), tissue that is Implant (medicine), implanted or integrated into a humaninterfacing with living tissueto replace a natural Organ (anatomy), organ, to duplicate or augment a spec ...

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 application of the scientific method and scientific knowledge to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines, such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted with basic science, ...

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, ...

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 to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible de ...

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 Labs

InCube Ventures

eeTimes 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