On June 14, 2012, a Taliban sniper shot Marine Corps Captain Derek Herrera in the back during an ambush in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Herrera had been leading a patrol in the area when his Marines came under attack. He continued to give orders during the firefight, even after getting shot.
Herrera's quick thinking moments after suffering the battlefield injury contributed to the safe evacuation of his team and a fellow Marine who was wounded alongside him. The act of valor earned Herrera a Bronze Star.
The wound left Herrera a paraplegic. He's been spurred on by his experience, and by the leadership skills that he learned in the Marine Corps during his service from May 2006 until November 2014.
After leaving the Marines, Herrera enrolled in UCLA's executive MBA program at the Anderson School of Management, which he graduated from in the summer of 2015. Towards the end of his enrollment, he co-founded Spinal Singularity, a medical startup focusing on potentially groundbreaking spinal health research.
Spinal Singularity proposes what the company believes to be a revolutionary new model for biomedical research. Herrera founded the for-profit company with two friends from UCLA, Alex Shen, who has a PhD in mechanical engineering, and Zach McKinney, who will soon complete a PhD in biomedical engineering. At the moment, Spinal Singularity is aiming to create a smart catheter system for people dealing with neurogenic bladder dysfunction— a condition in which an individual lacks bladder control for reasons ranging from spinal cord injuries to extreme ADHD. Spinal Singularity's main project now is the creation of what they call the Connected Catheter — an alternative to the roughly eight to 10 catheters a day currently used by patients with spinal cord injuries.
"We haven't followed the traditional model of biomedical research within the industry," Herrera told BI. "We're the opposite. I went out, found a problem, tried to find a solution, and we went out and built it."
There's more to Spinal Singularity than just its individual projects. The company wants to change the way the medical devices are developed. Herrera notes that while traditional industry research can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and expensive, Spinal Singularity is making quick strides towards creating a product that is accountable to the public, and that's developed through through feedback from a range of doctors, engineers, and potential users.
Herrera launched an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign for Spinal Singularity which reached its goal of $50,000 in contributions on October 27. Fundraising through this campaign has allowed the company to make quick strides. It's helped that it's already racked up awards from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Knapp Business Plan Competition, and the UCLA Institute for Technology Advancement (ITA) Student Engineering Venture Competition. The company was also a semi-finalist in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator program.
"The money from this fundraiser will help us build a prototype and test the device," Herrera said. "It's critical, but it allows us to not just sit on our hands for a year fundraising and waiting for grants and research money."
Herrera wants to move quickly once the catheter is past the prototype stage. "The goal is to have a clinical trial for the first iteration, which will have the plastics but not the full electronics, in the next six months or less."
He's encouraged by the response to far — especially from people whose lives have also been impacted by spinal injuries. "We have plenty of people who reached out unsolicited saying that this project is great," Herrera told BI. "They said that their aunt or uncle would love this product, or even people saying that this could change their lives.
"So many people are talking about the problem, either validating the need or offering feedback," he adds.
Herrera has earned an MBA and launched a medical research company from nothing. He says his drive and motivation is rooted in his experience as a Marine.
"I've spent my adult life leading people towards a goal, so that's the easy part," says Herrera. "Now that I've got a team, the background that I have is essential to any success to moving forward."
Herrera is quick to credit others for Spinal Singularity's success. "We didn't get anywhere by ourselves. We've had a lot of help from the military, UCLA, doctors, clinicians, and supporters," Herrera said. "Hundreds and hundreds if not thousands have helped us achieve what we have so far."
You can learn more about Spinal Singularity and become a financial backer of the campaign here»
You can watch Herrera discuss Spinal Singularity and the Connected Catheter below:
SEE ALSO: This man takes WWII relics and turns them into baby carriages and bathtubs