Dr. Heller is developing as CSO of synAgile Corp. www.synAgile.com a continuously orally solid drug delivering delivering system, OraFuse. Its initial application is in the management of Parkinson's disease, where the synAgile's DopaFuse continuously delivers into the mouth a combination of solid Levodopa (L-DOPA) and solid Carbidopa, of which the patient requires typically between 0.5 g and 2.0 g per day, OraFuse is the first and only system delivering into the mouth a solid drug. Continuous oral delivery reduces concentration fluctuations of the drug in the targeted organ. Fluctuation reduction is of particular importance when the drug is short-lived because it is rapidly metabolized or excreted, as is Levodopa.
Dr, Heller also consults to Abbott Diabetes Care on continuous monitoring of glucose by subcutaneously implanted electrochemical sensors.
At the University of Texas in Austin his research focuses on inflammatory, disease-associated crystalline nanoparticles, exemplified by ingested particles of the commonly used white pigment of foods and medications , anatase phase titanium dioxide of about 100 nm diameter, which he has shown to accumulate in the human pancreas where their concentration exceeds the liver and spleen concentrations by more than an order of magnitude. He also showed that in obese type 2 diabetic humans their concentration scales with the body mass index, meaning with the obesity. In the substantia nigra of human brains of deceased Parkinson's disease patients he found evidence for the presence of calcium oxalate dihydrate crystals, long known to cause inflammatory diseases of the kidneys and the urinary system.