SBIR Phase I: Cure-in-Place Extracellular Matrix Replacement Scaffolds for Wound Healing

第一阶段 SBIR 项目将研究用于填充和稳定开放性伤口以促进愈合的就地固化材料。慢性伤口给患者带来了沉重的负担，仅在美国就有超过 650 万人受到影响。随着肥胖和糖尿病发病率的增加，慢性伤口的发生率预计也会上升，但目前的治疗方案显示临床疗效有限。为了解决这一未满足的需求，必须开发刺激身体愈合机制的新材料。该项目将评估一种有前途的新材料，该材料可以液体形式应用于伤口，并在与伤口接触时固化成固体。这种就地固化过程有望通过确保促愈合材料与创面床之间的紧密接触、机械稳定伤口区域并刺激身体的愈合反应来促进愈合。临床使用的原位固化材料很少，因此该项目还将产生有关这些材料及其在人类健康中的潜在应用的新的基础工程知识。先进伤口护理市场目前价值超过 80 亿美元，并且还在不断增长。因此，该领域的创新技术代表着创造经济增长的重大商机。该项目将研究一种新颖的原位固化工艺，用于生成多糖生物材料，该材料模仿天然细胞外基质的机械和结构特性，以刺激伤口愈合。该材料是通过固化两种前体水溶液形成可生物降解的固体水合聚合物基质而产生的。该项目将研究就地固化工艺，将前体溶液以液体形式施加到伤口上，并在与伤口床接触时固化。如果细胞外基质替代生物材料可以在创面床内固化，那么它的促愈合作用可能会被放大，因为它能够填充不规则形状的伤口并与组织完全接触，并且具有机械稳定创面床和刺激促愈合生物化学的能力。这项工作的范围将包括开发原位固化前体溶液的优化配方，确定与组织接触的生物材料的固化条件，评估原位固化产品的材料特性，以及评估猪切除伤口模型中的原位固化应用和伤口愈合功效。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Phase I SBIR project will investigate cure-in-place materials for filling and stabilizing open wounds to promote healing. Chronic wounds represent a significant and debilitating burden to patients, affecting more than 6.5 million people in the US alone. The incidence of chronic wounds is expected to rise with increasing rates of obesity and diabetes, but current treatment options show limited clinical efficacy. To address this unmet need, new materials that stimulate the body's healing mechanisms must be developed. This project will evaluate a promising new material that can be applied to a wound as a liquid and cured to a solid in contact with the wound. This cure-in-place process is expected to promote healing by ensuring intimate contact between the pro-healing material and the wound bed, mechanically stabilizing the wound area, and stimulating the body's healing responses. There are few cure-in-place materials in clinical use, so this project will also generate new fundamental engineering knowledge about these materials and their potential applications in human health. The advanced wound care market is currently valued at more than $8 billion, and it is growing. Therefore, innovative technologies in this space represent significant business opportunities that create economic growth.This project will investigate a novel cure-in-place process for generating a polysaccharide biomaterial that mimics the mechanical and structural properties of native extracellular matrix to stimulate wound healing. The material is generated by curing two aqueous precursor solutions to form a biodegradable, solid, and hydrated polymer matrix. This project will investigate a cure-in-place process by which the precursor solutions will be applied to the wound as liquids and cured in contact with the wound bed. If the extracellular matrix replacement biomaterial can be cured inside of a wound bed, then its pro-healing effects may be amplified due to its ability to fill an irregularly-shaped wound with complete contact with tissue and its capacity to mechanically stabilize the wound bed and stimulate pro-healing biochemistry. The scope of this effort will include developing an optimized formulation for the cure-in-place precursor solution, determining curing conditions for the biomaterial in contact with tissue, evaluating the material properties of the cure-in-place product, and evaluating cure-in-place application and wound healing efficacy in a porcine excisional wound model.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.