Developing multifunctional gels for absorption of blood and detection of pathogenic bacteria inside menstrual cups

每年有超过450亿个一次性女性卫生用品被丢弃，给我们的环境带来了相当大的负担。月经杯代表了一种更环保的替代品，最近越来越受欢迎和采用，减少了垃圾填埋，并提供了基本无味的附加功能。然而，月经杯的广泛使用在某种程度上受到了限制，因为用户担心清空杯子的过程，报告指出，这个过程很混乱，限制了公共厕所的处置。该项目建议开发一种解决方案，通过开发一种可生物降解的无毒干燥凝胶来吸收月经杯内的月经液，从而提高月经杯的易用性。同时，我们建议开发一种二级凝胶，能够报告由阴道细菌失衡引起的某些健康状况。使用生物基材料，这些凝胶插入物将是完全可生物降解的，可以通过典型的城市垃圾系统处理。此外，用于细菌检测的凝胶将为用户提供一种监测自己健康状况的工具，理想情况下可以减少潜在的危险健康状况。通过开发这个多功能平台，我们打开了通过检查经血来监测妇女健康的新途径的大门。在这个项目中，我们将与女性全球健康创新组织（WGHI）合作，该组织是Bfree杯的创造者，这是一种月经杯，其设计采用了在自然界中发现的策略，具有防止细菌积聚的排斥表面。利用他们现有的生产能力和在市场上的现有地位，我们计划创造一种可以迅速进入市场的产品，理想情况下，将现有的卫生棉条用户转变为月经杯用户，最终减少经期管理造成的浪费。

Each year, over 45 billion single-use women's hygiene products are disposed, presenting a considerable burden for our environment. Menstrual cups represent a more environmentally friendly alternative that have recently increased in popularity and adoption, reducing landfill waste, and providing the added feature of being essentially odorless. However, widespread uptake of menstrual cups has been somewhat limited by user concerns with the process of emptying the cup, with reports noting that this process is messy and limits the disposal in public restrooms. This project proposes to develop a solution to increase ease-of-use for menstrual cups through the development of a biodegradable non-toxic dried gel to absorb the menstrual fluid inside the cup. Simultaneously, we propose the development of a secondary gel that will be capable of reporting certain health conditions that develop from a bacterial imbalance in the vagina. Using biologically based materials, these gel inserts will be completely biodegradable and can be disposed of through typical municipal waste systems. Furthermore, the gel for bacteria detection will provide users with a tool to monitor their own health, ideally leading to a decrease in potentially risky heath conditions. By developing this multifunctional platform, we open the door to new routes of monitoring women's health by examining menstrual blood.For this project, we will be partnering with Women's Global Health Innovations (WGHI), creators of the Bfree Cup, a menstrual cup that is designed using strategies found in nature to have a repellent surface that prevents bacterial buildup. Using their established manufacturing capabilities and existing place in the market, we plan to create a product that will quickly be ready to enter the market, ideally converting existing tampon users to menstrual cup use and ultimately reducing waste created by menstrual period management.