Dr. Lilit Garibyan Develops Treatment for Chronic Pain

She has more than proved this. Garibyan has attained many patents, did all of the pre-clinical work and published 14 papers in high impact journals to show the various applications of the injectable ice she invented. This invention can be used to treat pain, sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, visceral fat removal, and subcutaneous fat removal. Testing has been done on many animals, and it has been proven that it is safe and effective in targeting nerves to treat pain and to selectively remove fat.

In the beginning, funding was hard to come by. The government does not like to fund risky projects, but interestingly the Department of Defense became her biggest supporter. The DoD funds projects that can help treat soldiers and Neural Ice holds the possibility of being a useful tool for the latter.

Right now, the Neural Ice device is in human pivotal trials to specifically treat knee pain. Garibyan said that it has the potential to “completely revolutionize the pain treatment industry.” One injection provides over three months of pain reduction and helps patients avoid the danger of opioids.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave it the designation of a “Breakthrough Device,” which is given to potentially more effective medical devices to expedite their development, assessment and review. The ice is easy to use, as it is injected through the same syringes that doctors already use for other purposes. If it receives FDA approval, the product must be launched through a salesforce, Garibyan noted, in order to have providers buy and use it.

Garibyan is also a founder of EyeCool Therapeutics, which uses a similar approach to target pain in the eye. This company has completed initial human trials with positive results and will soo launch pivotal trials. While doing all of this, Garibyan is still an active physician. Garibyan does one day of clinical dermatological work a week with four days of research and teaching. She is an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and a physician-scientist at Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

She believes that it is important to be a physician-scientist because patients provide the inspiration and insight required to make discoveries. For example, Garibyan had many patients who suffered from itch, which originate from cutaneous nerves, which do not have devices to target them. This was an inspiration to continue searching and learning, allowing her to better help people.

She exclaimed that “this is so cool – you can actually discover something… and see it benefiting patients in your lifetime.” Garibyan’s dream, as for many physician-scientists, was to solve a problem and create something that helps patients in real life. To encourage this type of research and problem-based innovation for clinicians, she and Dr. Anderson founded in 2013 the Magic Wand Initiative.

Back to the Homeland

Garibyan never forgot about her homeland of Armenia. In 2013, she helped create the Face of Angel Project, which had the goal of treating patients with scars, port-wine stains, and vascular anomalies. According to the project’s website, it aims to “help people with life-altering skin diseases to have a better chance at life.”

Aside from several trips Garibyan and her colleagues from Harvard made to Armenia, bringing donated lasers, and the establishment of laser clinics in Yerevan, they virtually train Armenian physicians in laser dermatology. They are actively continuing this project and at some point would like to also improve education in Armenia medical schools, Garibyan said, by integrating laser training and the understanding of lasers into the medical school curriculum.

More support and resources are necessary to achieve this. If anybody wishes to help, she would love to hear from you at LGARIBYAN@mgh.harvard.edu or you can donate directly at the website https://www.faceofangel.org/.

Garibyan is particularly invested in this project because she said that “education empowers people.” Throughout her life, education is the one thing that allowed her to succeed and she now uses her education to help others. She said she hopes that everybody else has the same opportunities she had and can “change the future in the way they want to.”

Garibyan’s message to any young reader is: “Do not let fear stop you from doing what you are passionate about.” Over and over again, Garibyan faced obstacles, yet these challenges, through the ups and downs of life, met by hard work are what lead to success. You may encounter haters, she concluded, but never be afraid to “be a trailblazer” and chart your own path.