I-Corps: Light-Activated Anti-Infective Coatings: Photosensitizer-Embedded Nanofibrillated Cellulose

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将提高我们对推动抗菌材料需求/使用的市场力量的理解。在美国，每年约有170万例与医疗保健相关的感染导致99，000人死亡，每年增加约300 - 450亿美元的医疗保健费用，这项拟议活动产生的潜在社会影响包括更好地了解控制抗菌材料需求/使用的市场力量。了解这些力对于创造下一代抗菌材料非常重要，并将通过提供材料特性，物理特性和抗菌功效方面的性能指南来影响材料和聚合物科学，纺织工程，包装和传染病（微生物学，病毒学）领域。食品加工、包装和服务业、废水处理、日托设施和个人家庭是将从该项目中受益的其他潜在领域。因此，鉴于平台抗菌技术的潜在商业应用，缩小可能产品的数量并确定几个关键市场对其商业化至关重要，这项工作将更好地确定最可行的产品，使平台抗菌技术商业化。决定是否将抗感染材料商业化：包括纳米原纤化纤维素（NFC），其中嵌入光敏剂（PS，与光反应并释放杀生物氧的化合物），这种光活性材料，称为NFC-PS，能够快速，有效，以及对包括耐药细菌和病毒在内的各种感染因子的低成本灭菌，使其成为开发自灭菌材料的平台技术。建议的客户意见研究的知识价值将确定市场对抗菌材料的需求，包括：i）确定客户和/或潜在许可证持有人在抗感染材料特性方面的需求（例如，寿命、耐化学性、与现有产品的集成、最高成本或价格点、EPA和/或FDA监管批准）; ii）帮助确定可以通过添加抗菌特性来改进的潜在产品;以及iii）完成NFC-PS技术的商业模式画布。基于NFC-PS平台技术的初始产品构思将从更广泛的市场类别中缩小到1-2个主要产品，并将用于确定在商业化道路上应开发的原型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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而被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be to improve our understanding of the market forces that drive the need/use of antimicrobial materials. With ~1.7 million healthcare-associated infections causing upwards of 99,000 deaths annually in the United States, and adding about $30-45 billion to health care costs every year, the potential societal impact stemming from this proposed activity include a better understanding of the market forces that govern the need/use of antimicrobial materials. Understanding such forces will be important for the creation of the next generation of antimicrobial materials, and will impact the fields of materials and polymer science, textile engineering, packaging, and infectious disease (microbiology, virology) by providing performance guidelines in terms of material characteristics, physical properties, and antimicrobial efficacy. Food processing, packaging and service industries, waste water treatment, daycare facilities, and personal households are other potential areas that will benefit from this project. As such, given the potential commercial applications of platform antimicrobial technologies, narrowing the number of possible products and identifying a few key markets will be important for their commercialization, and this effort will be to better define the most viable products from which to commercialize platform antimicrobial technologies.This I-Corps project aims to help the research team arrive at a go/no-go decision on whether to pursue commercialization of an anti-infective material: comprised of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) into which are embedded photosensitizers (PS, chemical compounds that react with light and emit biocidal oxygen), this photoactive material, termed NFC-PS, is capable of the rapid, efficient, and low-cost sterilization of a wide range of infective agents, including drug-resistant bacteria and viruses, making it a platform technology from which to develop self-sterilizing materials. The intellectual merits of the proposed voice-of-customer research will establish the market-driven need for antimicrobial materials, including: i) to identify what customers and/or potential licensees would need in terms of anti-infective material properties (e.g. longevity, chemical resistance, integration into existing products, maximum cost or price points, EPA and/or FDA regulatory approvals); ii) to help identify potential products that could be improved by adding antimicrobial characteristics to them; and iii) to complete a business model canvas for the NFC-PS technology. Initial product ideation based upon the NFC-PS platform technology will be narrowed to 1-2 main products from a much broader number of market categories, and will be used to identify what prototype(s) should be developed along the path to commercialization.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.