Fette Podcast ===

[00:00:00] Oh, yeah.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Well, hello, hello guys. You're listening to Beauty Bites with Dr.

K, Secrets of a Plastic Surgeon. And today on the podcast, we're introducing Danielle Fetty. She's the co founder and chief executive officer of FedTech. And this is a pioneering medical device company. They specialize in regenerative medicine, and I can't wait to teach you guys about their MTP, multiple tissue platform, and multi tissue platform.

She has a background in nursing and healthcare, and she's been in this industry of helping people regenerate their tissues for the last 20 years. She and her husband, Clay Fetty, have been trailblazers really in tissue engineering. And I met her through the Genesis meeting and [00:01:00] the Octane meeting, and I think she has so much voice to bring into regenerative aesthetics.

So welcome to the podcast. Thank you. So tell us a little bit about, um, FET Tech and what do you guys do? What? It's a multi tissue platform, MTP.

Danielle Fette: Well, when we started FedTech, we'd come from industry, and so I have to give the audience a little bit of history so it makes sense. My husband would develop most of the predominant tissue products used in hospitals to date.

Some for mechanical strength, for breast augmentation or hernia repair, and others powder that they would use in trauma or wound care. And his teams would invent all the products that my teams would educate to the doctors after medical school. train them on how to use it in the hospital. And through the evolution of working with various tissues and scaffolds and devices, we saw a need to create a more potent product that could deliver more biomolecules to patients and help in a variety of disease states.

So we just kind of took the [00:02:00] products we had been exposed to or made in the past and figured out a way to make them and by taking more than one tissue, we were able to make a custom blend, giving the body and the injury site more of the good stuff it could potentially use to heal. So the multi tissue platform is really the first product to incorporate more than one ECM into a device.

And then from that technology, we invent products to give the body and deliver MTP platform in a variety of ways. So right now we have an FDA cleared powder and a liquid version.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: So ECM for our audience that's listening, that's maybe not in the medical industry. Um, extracellular matrix. This is kind of the foundation and support and the housing that allows our healing cells like fiberglass to take up, you know, house and start producing healing growth factors and excreting, um, cytokines and all kinds of things that [00:03:00] stimulate platelets and collagen producing cells to come back into wood.

So that's the ECM. So you guys are taking, um. Products that are, are, they're animal derived products, right? And extracting specific resources from there and using that as a wound treatment. Correct.

Danielle Fette: Um, it's basically through the evolution of technology. We realize usually tissues and extracellular matrix, they were used for the mechanical strength.

So, The plastic surgeons and other surgeons listening, you may be familiar with various grafts that they would use and they were developed to replace synthetic mesh, so the body did not recognize as foreign when you take out the living cells and you are left with just the scaffold of the extracellular matrix.

It's not recognized as foreign in the body and all of us as mammals have similar ECM structures. So even though it comes from animal animal tissue, it directs the body and gives the tools and instructions as if it was native. To the human body [00:04:00] and really not all extracellular matrix are created equal.

That was the whole goal of combining more than one. If you think about our bodies, it's, it's fascinating. I mean, each organ has a different function and different purpose. So to think that all ECMs are the same is crazy because what makes up our tissues and what makes up our organs are a different, um, substrate of like, biomolecules or what's in the ACM causing that organ to function the way it could.

Some are more regenerative than others. Some have more cleansing properties than others. So we just looked at all different tissues and came up with the two that we thought were going to be the most potent for the body to signal healing.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: That's fascinating. So if you're in the aesthetics or plastic surgery, maybe you're familiar with products from the very beginning of regenerative treatments.

Um, and we were treating burn patients with kind of a skin graft type of material or alloderm you might've heard of, or allograft material [00:05:00] where they do take, These structures from animals, irradiate them, remove all their cellular components and leave behind this just lovely padded scaffolding. And then your own body, the cells, fibroblasts and platelets and other tissues come in and integrate into that foundation and start to give Rebirth and regrowth of your own natural tissues by using the scaffolding as a housing, basically.

So that's super fascinating, but you've taken that concept beyond what we see in burn surgery where we're using sheets of skin graft or alloderm or, you know, allograft material. So now what have you done, um, to change or innovate that for aesthetics?

Danielle Fette: Yeah, and I've had these conversations with multiple people in aesthetics and some in residency or early on we're exposed to a product that some referred to as magic pixie dust.

It was a powder product that they used. I got a lot of media attention to regrow fingers. We helped develop that product and made this basically [00:06:00] a 2. 0 more potent better version of that.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: how you, you, we started, you started in, um, wound care and like treating non healing ulcers and lesions that, you know, people who are diabetic who just have difficulty with their vascular circulation.

So longstanding scars we sometimes treat with, um, you know, wound care topically, we're putting on sheets. of acellular dermis or, um, this kind of, these products that are scaffolding material. And now you've taken that concept and made it into something we can use in aesthetics, the ReaGel concept. Yeah.

Talk about that step of innovation or what it's, how does that even work?

Danielle Fette: To rewind, in the wound care market, a lot of sheets existed, but there were 90 percent collagen and only 10 percent of the other good stuff that could actually signal and help facilitate true wound care. Repair or remodeling of the wound site.

So the goal, and we saw this with the evolution of products in the hospital and the burn market is if you can decrease the amounts of collagen and increase more of the other good stuff the [00:07:00] body could use, you'll, we get better healing. Patients with comorbidities or poor little blood flow, you know, or post radiation burn were magically healing really well.

And that's because the body, the cells to thrive need more than just collagen structures. So the thought behind it is like remodeling a house. If your house was, this is a horrible example right now, but this is usually the example I give it house fell down to the ground. You would need more than hammer and nails and like walls to rebuild your house.

You would need electrical, you would need plumbing. There's so much tools, you need instructions, you need a crew. You need a lot of things to rebuild and remodel the house. Well, your body's the same way and our cells thrive in an. incredible environment that we naturally can give to them by putting all this good stuff from the extracellular matrix at the injury site.

And then it signals to your body, Hey, wait, don't go through inflammatory response, which is the pain and the redness that you feel after you've had like CO2 laser. [00:08:00] And let's not remodel by forming scar tissue. You know, a lot of people poo poo scar tissue, but really it's just our body's natural way to protect us from getting an infection and by putting all these biomolecules in one area at the injury site and signaling to your body to heal differently, we're able to repair very quickly, minimize the pain and then get soft, supple tissue instead of Harder scarring.

And that's, that's the mission of what our multiple tissue platform is. It's to, how do we give the body less collagen and more of the other good stuff to let the body pick and choose what it needs and to remodel in a completely different way. And I knew the product would be good. In concept, but after we got clearance in 2018 and since we've used this on tens of thousands of patients in the hospital setting, I walk away from each patient like blown away.

Like I cannot believe how well this product works. Patients I never thought in my wildest dreams we'd be able to heal with like massive infections or [00:09:00] crazy autoimmune stuff going on. We're able to heal. And it's such a blessing that. Somewhere along the way. I'm like, well, if we're going to make our powder into a liquid form for to help with other disease states, I want to use it on my skin.

Our skins are biggest organ. I want to keep it healthy from within. And it was during COVID. I started microneedling my skin and, um, just exploring and I don't naturally have nice skin, but people would say, why, how do you have a glow? Like you're not getting Botox it's COVID. And I would just be in awe of how much better the texture of my skin appeared.

And that kind of took us to the conversation of should we be launching this liquid ECM into aesthetics because there is a need. I think a lot of companies. Get funding and form a board with the goal of like, I'm going to cash in the aesthetic market. It's huge, but we didn't work like that. We're, we're really trying to help grow organs in a lab and help with a variety of disease states.

It just so happened that we saw a need. We think our [00:10:00] products incredible and could add a lot of value and aesthetics. So here we are now with the FDA cleared product that will be launching this winter for aesthetics.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Super exciting. Um, When you say multiple tissue platform or multi tissue platform, can you go over like what are the multiple tissues?

So we talked about having less focus on just pure collagen products, so what are the other tissue, um, tissues in this MTP?

Danielle Fette: So we use spleen and lung and for anyone in the industry like you you've seen like Integra, that's a Achilles of a calf there's other products like SIS that take the intestine others that take the bladder and these are all used in the OR But when we analyze all the various tissues, if we come from the spleen and the lung, and I'll never forget my husband's so excited, he's like, these are really different tissues than anything I've ever seen.

They're the only tissues I can find that are not 90 percent collagen. They're only 45 percent collagen and more of all the other good stuff like [00:11:00] exosomes, hyaluronic acid, growth factors. I mean, I can name the list. Elastin, fibronectin, laminin. And the goal was let's give the body the widest range of biomolecules that all contribute to helping cells thrive and all contribute to regenerative medicine.

And therefore we should have better outcomes. So we're super excited that we found the spleen and the lung being so different than other tissues. And that's why we use those two. And then we make a custom blend out of the two.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Interesting. Um, do you suppose the spleen with its immune function is possibly like giving some immune benefit and bringing in those healing cells, you know, immune cells that will secrete cytokine specific to wound healing?

Danielle Fette: Yes, I do. I think there's a lot to the spleen and the lung. We're just now scratching the surface and exploring, um, like a fun fact right before COVID broke out, we were trying to get our first FDA clearance and you have to show that. The tissue that you're using, if it was [00:12:00] infected with a virus, would that transmit to a human?

Because there's a whole slew of safety studies you have to do to get FDA clearance. And we have done this with all the other products we've brought to market from other, for other companies in the regenerative medicine space. Never had a problem. Um, but it's interesting you say that the, yeah, the function of the spleen and the lung are really unique and we couldn't pass the darn test.

And this was a time like we were desperate for money because we didn't take outside funding, funding and. I was like, why can't we pass the test? And we found out that our material was inactivating envelope viruses. So it wasn't letting envelope viruses, um, live. It was killing them. And at the time we Googled, I mean, I don't know anything about viruses and I.

Found herpes and shingles. And I was super excited. I get a fever blister once a year. I'm like, okay, I'll add that to the whiteboard of where we could take this product one day. But right now we're focused on launching our wound and trauma product. And then COVID broke out and my husband was [00:13:00] like, do you know what an envelope virus is?

I'm like, yeah. A fever blister herpes shingle. He's like, and COVID and Ebola and hepatitis and some of the world's most deadliest diseases. So through COVID, we were trying to partner with the government and the NIH and rushing to try to see what our product could do from like a lung inhalation perspective to help reverse fibrotic tissue, which is scarring in the lung.

And we since have worked with the NIH on herpes and shingles. Projects and Ebola projects. So it will be interesting to see what we unfold and just develop through this. We're just now scratching the surface, but it is exciting because with confidence I can say we've never had an adverse reaction. I know it can't hurt someone, but the possibilities of how it can help is so inspiring.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Yeah, that's going to be fascinating. I can't wait to see the results of that type of research. Um, in aesthetics, you're thinking of this as a [00:14:00] recovery product like post laser, post microneedling or peels or surgery, I guess. It would be applied topically. Are you planning for anything injectable use or right now is it primarily topical post procedural?

Danielle Fette: Right now, our approval is for topical indications. It's indicated for almost every wound you can think of, from tunneling wounds to surgical incisions, post laser treatment, and I've seen it used in an infected field. I am not, this won't treat the infection, but it can be used simultaneously to treating infection.

Typically, you have to wait to heal a wound before you can go after it. Typically, you have to heal the, or treat the infection before you start healing. the wound because the bacteria will eat through the sheet, but our material actually thrives in an infected field. Um, I envision doctors, clinicians using it in a variety of ways.

I would say the game changer is going to be the, the bigger the [00:15:00] trauma and burn you're creating the better results. So for me, I personally used it post CO2 and I told Dr. Shino Bay to go as hard and aggressive as possible, which sounds crazy to me as I am a burn nurse by trait. And one of the last procedures I swear I would ever do is CO2 because that just scares me to my core.

But you know, you treat thousands of patients with your product and they all say it helps with pain. So I wasn't as afraid. But I did use it post CO2. I'm usually the guinea pig for everything first. And it worked like a dream. And eight days later, I was at a black tie event with my husband. So, I do see CO2, um, maybe along the incision lines, after cosmetic procedures, I've seen great results with like facelifts, tummy tucks, uh, especially if a patient has a comorbidity like diabetes or like a autoimmune condition.

I see it less used because of price point at first, like after a BBL or a less invasive laser. I don't have [00:16:00] enough clinical evidence to say, Hey, you're going to get the long term result that you want. But it will be interesting to see like feedback from clinicians like yourself and where you like it.

And, you know, micro needling in the scalp on the face, like I think there's a lot of potential there.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Yeah. We did some, um, just like three patients split face to see how they felt after CO2 laser. And then lighter like a fraxel type laser and like uniformly all three patients the deep, the deeper co2 for sure they felt that the reagel application side was much more soothing like instant almost instant relief the moment that you put it on the skin.

When we were comparing that to some of the other products on the market, like some of the exosomes or the growth factors or the different, um, post recovery healing type of gels. So I thought that was the one remarkable thing. Like they all were like, Oh, this feels, this side feels so much better. And they were blinded and I was blinded.

Um, but that was the reagel [00:17:00] side. So that was interesting. And I would agree with you. It's probably much more noticeable for aggressive wounds versus lighter like proxal or microneedling, but I think either way, um, I wonder if there are, you know, growth factors that later down the line show histologic change or increased collagen or dermal thickening, that kind of thing.

Danielle Fette: Yes. And it will be really interesting. We have a grant right now from the government where we're injecting raya gel into bladders to see if we can. Strengthen the bladder wall and help with incontinence. I think that study will give us a lot of information. I can only speak from what I've seen using it on myself long term after a laser or micro needling and I absolutely love, love the way my skin looks.

But now that we're actually going to be used on the market, it will be interesting to see how other people feel as well long term.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: So you mentioned the price point was a little higher. Do you know exactly what the price point is going to be like or is that still to be determined? [00:18:00] It's a very new product.

So

Danielle Fette: yeah, it is a new product. So we will be selling it to the clinician for 500. It comes in a sterile syringe. Um, there is no problem at all diluting that. Um, I have seen in wound care, you know, I don't. Promote or tell people what protocols to use because we just legally can't but I have seen in the hospital setting People get very creative with how to apply it Depending on how deep a tunneled wound is or how shallow or what the goals are But our product was designed to be the most potent product possible.

How do we fit as much good stuff and nothing else in the syringe so that we can use it for clinical studies, like injecting into a heart muscle or injecting into a bladder. So that's how the pure, um, hospital grade product that the consumer would be getting. I don't, unfortunately, because of price point and that's how much it costs to make, we, you know, probably won't be available [00:19:00] for everyone.

But if you are able to splurge, and this ends up from a sales perspective, but there's a lot of products that pop up in the aesthetic world. Like now that I'm in this space and I was new to it, I'm shocked. Like there's a new buzzword every year of like, this is the new thing. Like whether it's hyaluronic acid, exosomes, it used to be collagen.

Now it's polynucleotides. And it is interesting because we're all excited about learning. These news products and these new biomolecules, but it is important to keep in mind that the body really is fascinating and needs a huge network of support to really thrive and have the cells do what you need to do.

So that was the goal. Give the body everything it could potentially use that's naturally occurring. Let the body pick and choose what it needs because Dr. K your body is different than mine and every patient is different. We don't really know what each body needs or when it needs it in the healing cascade So that's why some patients reply well to certain products and not maybe they have comorbidities which is keeping [00:20:00] them, you know Having a less than desirable result with Sculptra.

So we know that people metabolize and use products differently, which is again, why we made it as concentrated as possible. And we've yet to see any harm from that because we've used this in neonates with open abdomens to geriatric patients that are like you could put their fists unfortunately in their sacral area because they have a bed sore.

So I know it's safe and it's just exciting to know you can use this to minimize pain and to help with recovery and and also see a longer term benefit.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: And how do you kind of see this regenerative medicine influencing us in terms of the future of longevity and wellness and what the body can do to repair and heal itself?

Danielle Fette: I think it's going to change medicine completely. I'm a, I'm a firm believer in there's A time and place for Eastern and Western medicine, but here in the U. S. We are so quick with [00:21:00] chronic disease to just more pandas on top of problems instead of get to the root cause I'm super excited that we can start exploring here healing people in an all natural way and the government actually just gave 160 million dollars to the Piedmont Triangle area near Wake Forest in North Carolina This is going to be a game changer.

They're developing The Wake Forest area is a hub for regenerative medicine and really incentivizing companies to pull together. So the stem cell companies, the tissue companies, we can all come together and play in the same sandbox. I think in the past it was stem cells are on one side, tissues are on another side.

There's a lot of Uncertainty and not understanding, but now we can all play together to how do we expedite 3D printing of organs? I mean, that's what we're working on right now. How do we expedite helping Organoids grow because I don't know if the average person knows this but we're trying to get away from [00:22:00] animal testing for a lot of different reasons But using organoids are like little organs on like a peach tree dish that we can create so we can test new products on these organoids without going to an animal study.

Not only is that more humane, but a lot of animal studies, like we don't get to phase three. So there's a lot of wasted money because you can't go from like a rodent to a human and think that that's always gonna. work. So I do think we're going to be able to expedite medicine and there's a lot of different ways we're going to be helping people heal.

The challenge is with the FDA and the different pathways and, and how we're set up to approve products or not. So that's the biggest hiccup I would say right now that needs to change is how we're approving these products, because that will dictate what. People have access to, and then once you get approval, that doesn't always align with reimbursement.

So that's the next headache. But as far as advancing medicine, more like rocking and rolling in the, in the wake [00:23:00] forest area.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Amazing. Um, what are some of your own like personal wellness practices that kind of align with the mission of that tech and what you're, what you want to bring into aesthetics?

Danielle Fette: I think it's important to look at the overall.

Patient and no, there's not like a magic bullet. Like I can heal any wound. I am not just saying this I have yet to heal a wound. However, there's ways we could prevent some of these wounds from happening in the first place So I can't tell you how many times loved ones call me and they're they'll say you're my only hope my mom's gonna lose Their leg and like I need your powder and I would love to be able to have an hour conversation with that person on the phone and be like, a lot happened before we got to this point.

So how do we prevent that from happening again? Whether it's nutrition, sunlight, putting down our devices. I mean, I just think that there's such a bigger picture that we need to be having conversations with our patients about. As clinicians, you know, you can't just expect to [00:24:00] look good. And I've heard you talk about this on our podcast, but you can only look as so good as you're eating and drinking and sleeping and taking water.

I mean, I can give you the best products for your face as possible and it will help as we lose collagen with age. But if you really want to look vibrant, you have to change your lifestyle and no one wants that. We all want to first one. I want to sign up for a quick and easy fix, but all the little things do add up.

Yeah,

Dr. Kay Durairaj: it really does. What are you doing? Are you doing some yoga? Are you doing some, you know, more early morning light? Do you have a special? I

Danielle Fette: had a really bad bout of melanoma a couple of years ago, and it was the same year my sister, who's my best friend, had breast cancer. So I had to do some soul searching.

And for me, I think that the chronic stress that I, I didn't realize I was putting myself under was causing my body to be in a constant state of inflammation. So I tried to eat differently to bring down the inflammation, obviously products like mine will help at [00:25:00] like the local level, bring down inflammation in the body.

But I had to look at it as like, okay, I know from regenerative medicine, our cells thrive and it, and it. A great environment. So what am I doing to contribute to that environment? And it's more than just medicine. So whether I have a vibration plate at home, I'm a little psycho, I'm not going to lie, but this didn't happen overnight.

This was like the evolution through years. I have a sauna in my house, a red light sauna. I do whatever I can to have a couple minutes and just ground myself. I mean like right now I'm holding these, I don't even know what they are in my hands, like just whatever I need to do to take a couple moments and.

Have a reality check that we're all here on roundtrip tickets, and it's really easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of life and the visions of what a roundtrip

Dr. Kay Durairaj: or one way. So when we take it, I always

Danielle Fette: say roundtrip is I'd like to believe that we get to come back, but everyone has their own belief.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Yeah, I believe I mean,

Danielle Fette: the only thing for sure is we're all heading out. We do know that factually, right? And it's And I struggle with this as a trauma nurse [00:26:00] versus now like an entrepreneur, you know, everything can be taken away instantly, but yet you're so excited to like move on to the next best thing because you want to make a difference in the world and we're all trying to live out our purpose and figure out what that is.

I've learned that you have to feel good inside because no matter what else you do in life or how much money you have or what products I'm bringing to market, if I don't feel good, I'm not gonna be of service and be able to help more people. So I've really gone inside since my little cancer scare and tried to merge my outside wellness, like what, versus like how I feel inside and who I surround myself with.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: I think that's so true. Like the daily chronic stress, you don't even realize that your body's at this high cortisol level. It's sustained long term cortisol because of your hypervigilant, you're trying to like get to your deadlines, you're multitasking and you're, you don't realize the cortisol effect that it puts on your, on your body until [00:27:00] you take a break from it.

Almost all of us, the first week of vacation, you barely just start to relax and you're like, hopefully you're someone who can get like more than five days of vacation at a time. Cause it takes, I know it takes me a full week to unwind and to be able to start relaxing.

Danielle Fette: It really does because we're so programmed to live off of that adrenaline, but yes, and that's what right, but that's what causes inflammation in our body and then could be detrimental long term.

And so it's a fine line between not making yourself go cuckoo in the head and you don't want to put more pressure on yourself like I'm feeling stress. That's not good for my body, but you can only control what you can control. And so for me, my husband and I will brainstorm. We work together. We don't answer to a board.

Decided not to take outside funding for many reasons. We wanted to do things the right way. We wanted to always put patients first. And we wanted to be able to get products to patients faster. So when you have a board and then you have a lot of red tape and a lot of employees, that slows that process down.[00:28:00]

But with that being said, we do a lot of planning strategic meetings. Which we can attempt to do but I always say like you plan God laughs And it's so true because I can't tell you how many times I've been in the clinical field using our product and a physician's like I think your products a game changer for this kind of one a deep tunneled undermined wine um, mind wound because it's infected and no product out there can get to the base of the bed.

And I may have been going into the hospital saying, Hey, I think this would be great to jumpstart healing. So you can do a skin graft faster, but it's always interesting. Like if I don't have an ulterior motive and I just go to add support, which makes me feel good to help patients. Sometimes our products or how we want to sell them or how we want to discuss them or.

Um, even study them changes based on me being open and not having an agenda, which is, you know, when we spoke, you're like, how, you know, if I, if I work with you guys, [00:29:00] where would you like me to explore this? And yes, I have my mind, like I know CO2, it's great, but a clinician may have a better idea that I wouldn't have thought of.

So I try to leave myself very open minded and be able to pivot and adapt and not be so rigid because I feel better when I'm. In less control, I guess. I feel better knowing that the universe has a better plan, and if I just do the right thing and feel right by the people I'm surrounding myself with, it will naturally take off.

Just like our cells. If you want to tie it back to regenerative medicine, put cells in a good environment and give them what they need to feel good and supported, and they're going to perform better.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Yeah. I think so. How do you kind of balance, um, the scientific rigor that you and your husband are very invested in with the product development and the business side of kind of launching a startup?

How do you balance that? Well, it's really

Danielle Fette: hard.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Yeah.

Danielle Fette: I'm like an immediate gratification kind of gal. And on the science side, things take forever. [00:30:00] So I have learned, my husband's taught me great patience. No, it's not easy. Um, and I paid him on here

Dr. Kay Durairaj: too. We should have brought him. Yeah,

Danielle Fette: he, he literally hides from any media or attention.

Although he's wonderful. He's like the best speaker ever. Uh, I get to hear his thoughts morning, noon, and night. So sometimes I have that imposter syndrome where I'm like, gosh, like I'm coming on Dr. K's podcast. I hope I can answer all her questions. And then I have to remind myself that on a daily basis for 12 years, I've talked to the most ingenious partner that knows more about regenerative medicine and tissue engineering than most.

And usually when I go into a room, people want to speak with me just to get closer to his brains and intelligence. So. That balance is, you know, doing networking, going to Octane, speaking on stage in front of a various audience, and that kind of helps me feel good in the immediate while we're working on a longer term projects.

And I [00:31:00] always try to have one foot in clinically, like I like to be a part of patients success stories and still educate. On the floor once in a while. So I don't lose that sense of patient care because as you know, it can get hard when you're involved with social media and magazines and podcasts and speaking, there's something really grounding about seeing a hard to treat patient get out of the ICU and be discharged.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: That is so true. Can you kind of describe, um, kind of a pivotal moment like you guys. I dreamed up this wound product that's so effective for really bad wounds in the hospital and now decided to transition to a gel, topical gel for aesthetics. Like, was there a pivotal, pivotal moment or breakthrough that kind of pushed you in that direction to decide to come into aesthetics and perhaps look at the regenerative or, you know, properties of the gel that maybe can have anti aging benefit?

Danielle Fette: Mm hmm. [00:32:00] Well, prior to us creating the. The first and only liquid ECM, all the other products were in scaffold form, so sheet form and there's a couple that are powder. And the reason being is because the other companies had tried to make liquid, but in doing so, the biomolecules were compromised. So when we first created the liquid version, which is ReaGel, and then we tested it, we were so excited because it not only worked, it worked actually faster than the powder.

which was the most exciting news ever. That was my husband's vision from the get go is if we know our material recognizes injury and then it signals to your body how to repair that injury. What else can we do with this technology and why is every single company only trying to help treat wounds or hernia repair or breast augmentation or recon like that's where every single other company is playing.

Um, But we could potentially inject the heart muscle after a heart attack. We could potentially inhale into [00:33:00] the lungs. Like maybe we can inject a cancer tumor. So we were on a mission all along to create the liquid version to see how else we could advance medicine with our material. And now in aesthetics, you know, it is hard for me because our FDA clearance is as a wound care.

So there's not, I have to be very careful legally, like what I say, what I don't say versus my own experience longterm now that I've been using it for like two years on my face factually, what I can legally say is that we're indicated post CO2 laser with microneedling with a surgical incision, or that's all an indication.

And I have case studies from helping so many thousands of patients in the hospitals. And it's not just like, It's kind of, Oh my gosh, we've healed a wound. It's like volumetric tissue loss, a chunk of the patient's legs on the side of the road. And we're able to fill in the whole deficit, get tissue. And my biggest challenge is it works so fast that [00:34:00] instead of getting pictures of it epithelial izing over where that's the skin growing over the injury site, they are so quick to graft or flap it because they want to get the patient discharged from.

So I'm seeing incredible results. I don't have as many pictures as I would like to complete, like. epithelialization of the skin. So a lot of the trauma before and after pictures that I share in aesthetics, it's not the way you'd like to see them because it doesn't show. No scar at all because patients were skin graft right over our product and then discharged from the hospital, but I have seen like burn Patients we use the product and then their hair grows back On their legs.

So I mean there's definitely evidence of so much more our material Can do and needs to be explored in certain areas that are exciting.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Well, this is fascinating. I'm, I'm personally very excited to use the ReaGel in our practice, and I'm going to most certainly use it after lasers and microneedling, but we might [00:35:00] even try microneedling with the hair or other areas.

Since I can use it off label like that, but, um, but I, I really think you guys are bringing some exciting innovation into aesthetics, new tools that we haven't had in the past. And, um, the science of it is just excellent and amazing. So where can people find you if they want to get more information on the multi tissue platform and reagel?

Danielle Fette: So our company's name is FetTech and that's the parent company. And underneath there, we have a wound care division, which is StemSys. Rayagel is our aesthetic. So if you go to FetTech, you can find all of our companies there. I'm on social media and LinkedIn, just Google Danielle Fette, F E T T E. And if you ever have any questions and message me, I try to do my best getting back to everyone.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Yeah, she's great. Um, and. For those of you who have other questions about clinically how I'm using it in practice, we're starting to take some pictures before and after, so I'm definitely going to post those on [00:36:00] social. But I'm someone who's always trying to try things as they first come out and really vet them scientifically first before putting them into use.

And I think this is going to be an exciting, um, hopefully long lived product and aesthetics.

Danielle Fette: I mean,

Dr. Kay Durairaj: you're,

Danielle Fette: you're such an innovator and just for people wondering, we got clearance in April, but we took our time launching the product because we really wanted to learn more about the aesthetic injury industry.

We're not, we're new to aesthetics and we wanted to work with people like yourself, Dr. K, that we would trust your opinion, your, your, Your trailblazers, but we wanted to make sure only elite group of clinicians had access to the product before making it available. So if someone out there listening is interested, I would go to the rage L website and you can sign up and if.

If you're a provider or a patient, when we do launch this, it won't be like a full blast to every clinician. We're going to make it really specialized because we want to learn from each other and grow effectively. We're different than most companies that are like sell, sell, sell. We really [00:37:00] want to take our time and Understand best practices, best protocols and get incredible results before we roll it out all over the world.

So I'm saying that for the audience, don't get frustrated if it's not available yet in your backyard, but if you sign up, we can certainly send you more information. But Dr. K will be one of the first to offer it.

Dr. Kay Durairaj: Yay, so excited. Yeah, we tried it already. It's really super, um. Effective. I can't, I mean, patients were dramatic and it was impressive.

Like the instantaneous reliefs, you know, when we put it on the skin of the deeply lasered CO2 laser side, like instant relief, they were just like, Oh, so, I mean, for me, I found that impressive. And, um, that's it for now, guys. This has been fun chatting, Danielle. I wish you guys so much luck and success and keep on with your mission.

You really come across as having such a big heart and being so patient driven. That's what I really like [00:38:00] about you. When I talk to you, I don't feel kind of sales. feeling at all. It's really all about like how can we help this patient who has a deep injury and a wound and how can we recreate an environment of healing and it's it's comes from you as a person as well as scientifically so that that means a lot to know a founder and know their Their, their passion is real.

So that's it for now guys. Don't forget to find me on my Instagram. It's beauty by Dr. K D R K a Y. And our website is the same beauty by drk. com. That's where you can find our amazing skincare line, our collagen, internal radiance, collagen powder, which you need to take every day to help your body stay healthy and well.

And I'm going to teach you all the things that you need to know about longevity and regenerative aesthetics, wellness, and how to project outer beauty from your inside beauty. That's it for now, guys. Stay beautiful. [00:39:00]