An internal organ retraction device that will benefit patients who must undergo abdominal surgery such as gall bladder removals and appendectomies is well on its way to becoming reality due in part to Connecticut Innovations (CI) (ctinnovations.com), the state’s quasi-public authority responsible for technology investing and innovation development.

CI announced today that it has made a $250,000 investment in NovaTract Surgical LLC (novatract.com) of New Haven, CT through CI’s Seed Investment Fund. This investment is part of a $500,000 investment round also involving other investors.

NovaTract, a Yale University spin-off, is the first company to “graduate” from CI’s Pre-Seed Fund to its Seed Investment Fund. NovaTract is developing medical devices that will be used in minimally invasive surgery.

The internal organ retraction device now being developed will allow surgeons to reduce the number of incisions required to perform the surgery laparoscopically and to more easily use the single-port and natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) methods, which currently require such a high level of skill that they are used by only about a dozen surgeons in the United States. The NovaTract device is expected to make such surgeries easier to perform.