Tech Spotlight: Using Nanotechnology to Treat Ear & Hearing Disorders: Interview with Otomagnetics CEO, Abhita Batra

In this week's technology spotlight, Dr. Bob Traynor speaks with Abhita Batra, CEO and Director of Otomagnetics. The company, a University of Maryland College Park spin-out, is developing a non-invasive method to deliver drugs and other therapeutic payloads to inner and middle ear compartments, to the eye, and into the skin. 

The inner ear is behind the blood-labyrinth barrier – vessels that supply blood to the inner ear have walls that are impermeable to most drug molecules, and thus it is a challenge to deliver therapy to treat inner ear diseases.  Otomagnetics is developing and commercializing a magnetic injection delivery system that will be able to  safely, effectively, and non-invasively deliver therapy to targets in the body that are currently not effectively reached by the standards-of-care, or that may otherwise require surgery to reach.