Proposed Technologies
2023: Potential Technologies
1. Generation of Dynamic Profiles to Model Pharmacodynamics in Cell Culture
Summary: A device and method for creating models of how cells react to and break down molecules using a semi-automated system. The main application is modeling the pharmacodynamic profiles of drugs.
2. Development of Small Molecules that Inhibit the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance
Summary: Therapeutics that combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which rapidly develops against almost all available therapeutics in many problematic microbes. The main application is to use anti-evolution drugs during treatment of infections as a new strategy to prevent AMR development.
2021 Selected technology:
Cad Biomaterial
- Field: Regenerative Medicine
- Summary: Healthy tissues require sufficient blood flow for oxygen and nutrient delivery. In aging and disease, arteries become blocked, leading to ischemia in downstream tissue beds. Likewise, a significant number of transplanted organs are rejected due to ischemia-causing blood clots Over two million hernia surgeries are conducted in the US every year, and 30% of those fail due to lack of vascularization of the surgical mesh. This requires patients to be readmitted to surgery to replace the mesh. Similarly, of the 8,000 liver transplants in the US every year, 5-10% fail because of hepatic artery clogs due to poor vascularization. This failure can sometimes be life-threatening, and it is also a waste of precious transplant tissue. Many biomaterials have been developed to promote blood vessel growth, which could theoretically be delivered to these problematic areas to combat ischemia. However, all previous biomaterials have been designed to grow capillaries, the smallest and most fragile vessels in the body. Capillary growth is very slow, which limits tissue penetration of newly formed vessels. In addition, since capillaries lack smooth muscle, they cannot handle high pressure outflows from arteries. Thus, current biomaterials are insufficient for therapeutic interventions that require collateralization of host blood flow around occluded vessels. This material has been shown to grow thicker vascular beds in vitro compared to the current standard and is relatively cheap to make. This technology relates to a new class of biomaterials that promote growth of arterioles, which are larger vessels that contain a lining of smooth muscle and can handle high pressure flow. Extensive unpublished work has shown this biomaterial variant is a potent inducer of arteriole growth in vitro and in vivo.
- Inventors: Ethan Lippmann
- Potential applications: Surgical support