I-Corps: Injectable, Highly Sticky, Antimicrobial, and Hemostatic Adhesive for Cornea Injury Repair

该I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力针对眼外伤的治疗，特别是角膜损伤。眼外伤治疗需要先进的手术设备和专业的手术中心。角膜移植市场目前在美国每年有40000例，预计从2017年到2023年将增长10.8%。该项目的目标是伤口护理市场为182.2亿美元（2016年），预计将达到262.4亿美元（2023年）。社会影响需要为患者（如战斗中的士兵）、创伤患者、老年人和儿童患者提供快速护理，并降低手术和术后成本。该技术可以扩展到修复肺，肝，心脏或肾脏等组织，将其覆盖范围和医疗效益扩大到更大的人群。这种新的化学平台旨在实现组织粘附，但化学性质可以稍微改变，以使材料用于更广泛的生物医学应用。这种新型材料平台的研究，如结构-性能关系的理解，提供了许多教学和推广机会，涉及从化学，材料科学，化学，机械和电气工程到生物学的学科的学生。 这个I-Corps项目开发了一种改性水凝胶，用于制造外科应用的抗菌，止血和高粘性胶水。这是一个材料平台，可制造成本效益高、无需缝合且用户友好的粘合剂，以愈合生物组织损伤并节省手术和术后时间和成本。目前眼外伤手术的主要需求是减少手术和术后时间和费用。目前，没有这样的食品和药物管理局批准的材料平台来有效地取代目前使用的生物技术。该材料预期具有生物相容性、生物降解性、无毒和对组织的优异粘附性，即使在体液存在的情况下也是如此。该平台还可以帮助血液凝固，促进愈合并抑制细菌生长。这一创新将潜在地规避目前角膜修复手术和术后方法的局限性，并且在未来可能扩展到其他人体组织的修复。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project targets treatment of ocular trauma, in particular corneal injuries. Ocular trauma treatment requires advanced surgical equipment and specialty surgical centers. The Corneal Transplant Market, currently at 40000 per year in the US is expected to grow at 10.8% from 2017 to 2023. The project targets the wound care market of $18.22 billion (2016), expected to reach $26.24 billion (2023). The societal impact entails enabling rapid care provision to patients like soldiers in combat, to trauma and elderly and pediatric patients, as well as reduction of operative and post-operative costs. The technology can be extended to repairing tissues such as lung, liver, heart or kidneys, expanding its reach and medical benefits to larger populations. This novel chemistry platform aims toward tissue adhesion, but the chemistry could be slightly altered to make materials for a broader range of biomedical applications. Study of such novel material platforms, like understanding of structure-property relationships, offers numerous teaching and outreach opportunities involving students from subject disciplines spanning chemistry, material sciences, chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering to biology. This I-Corps project has developed a modified hydrogel to make antimicrobial, hemostatic and highly adhesive glue for surgical applications. This is a material platform to make cost-effective, sutureless, and user-friendly adhesives to heal injury to biological tissue and save operative and post-operative time and cost. The current primary needs for ocular trauma surgery entail operative and postoperative time and cost reduction. Currently, there are no such Food and Drug Administration-approved material platforms to replace the presently used techniques of suturing effectively. The material is expected to enjoy biocompatibility, biodegradability, no toxicity and excellent adhesion to tissues, even in the presence of body fluids. The platform may also aid in blood coagulation, facilitate healing and inhibit bacterial growth. This innovation will potentially circumvent the limitations of current surgical and post-operative approaches in corneal repair, and in the future may be extended to repair of other human tissues.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.