A restless businessman and a bioengineer
Wayne Bacon wasn’t an expert in knee replacements or medical devices. But he was a veteran businessperson – he owned Mills Welding & Specialty Gases in Buffalo for 24 years before selling it in 2007 to Praxair. After the sale, he dabbled in real estate and thought he would coast into semi-retirement, but he couldn’t shake his lifelong interest in building companies.
So in 2014 – at age 66 – Bacon started exploring an infection-fighting bandage. He recruited Peterson, who was working in Boston for Greatbach Medical, a device company based in Alden. Later that year, Bacon and Peterson co-founded Garwood Medical Devices.
In early 2016, while Bacon, Peterson and UB researchers were using UB supercomputers to model how energy flowed through the body with the infection-fighting bandage, Jeffrey Dunbar, director of the university Technology Transfer office, suggested the company owners might be interested in BioPrax.
Bacon was sold. Peterson worked from outside Boston as the new company developed, trying to help find the best combinations of metals and electrical current.
“Electrochemistry is very dependent on the metal you’re attaching to, so we have done a lot of work,” Peterson said. “Our electronics have simplified a very complex science, so you just hit a button and the device handles the control parameters.”
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