Axis Research & Technologies is growing its footprint, starting with the July opening of a 10,000-square-foot facility in Columbia, Md.
“This is part of our national expansion,” said Founder and Chief Executive Nick Moran.
In addition to the East Coast location, the Irvine-based bioskills lab plans to add 10,000 square feet in Austin, Texas, next year. “We will [continue to] grow from word of mouth.”
Moran said the East Coast reach is backed by a strategic investor that he didn’t reveal. The project cost is approximately $2.5 million, and the company is seeking to raise $1 million to $5 million for operations and further growth.
Bioskills Lab
Axis said it’s one of California’s largest independently operated bioskills labs. Bioskills uses human cadavers to simulate medical environments for a variety of applications, including medical research, surgeon training and educational workshops for medical schools, and medical device and pharmaceutical companies.
Moran said that while using human cadavers isn’t new in the industry, there are few independent labs because most facilities are in-house divisions of medical device companies dedicated only to their operations.
Its Irvine facility takes up 12,000 square feet and employs seven. Both the West Coast and East Coast locations offer private operation room suites, a 100-plus-seat amphitheater, lab space that can hold up to 12 stations with large imaging devices or up to 20 stations without the imaging devices, and a large multipurpose room.
Clients include Alpharetta, Ga.-based device maker Halyard Health Inc. (NYSE: HYH), Columbia, Md.-based biotech company ACell Inc. and musculoskeletal implant maker Globus Medical Inc. in Audubon, Pa.
“Cadavers are used in many industries beyond medical devices,” said Moran, pointing out that they’re used in Botox injection training to help doctors understand the underlying facial musculature and nerve system.
Axis uses unembalmed, or “fresh frozen,” cadavers for surgical skills training that Moran said allow “more movement in the joints” and tend to better replicate the feel of living humans.
Bulking Up Tech
Chief Operating Officer Jill Goodwin said Axis is co-developing an in-house platform with Irvine-based company Meridiun to enhance its education and training capabilities.
Meridiun describes itself as a “cognitive mixed-reality” platform company that takes augmented reality on a connected mobile device and mixes it with artificial intelligence to create virtual experiences. It raised $1.2 million last July, the Business Journal reported earlier.
Moran, whose background is in martial arts and professional fighting, started the company in 2013 as a nonprofit organization to teach people to fight obesity through cadaver training that explained how the body moves. The organization moved into the bioskills lab model two years later.
Axis already provides patient privacy-compliant global broadcasting of educational content from any of its locations.
Cadaver training is used to prepare doctors to perform various procedures, including aesthetic plastic surgery, various arthroscopic procedures, particularly those on the knee and shoulder, and a variety of laparoscopic procedures. It’s also used to help companies with clinical trials.
