I-Corps: Translation potential of a wound care technology that combines hydrogel-like biomaterial with specific protein binders to accelerate healing and tissue repair

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a new therapeutic strategy to treat non-healing wounds. Some wounds fail to heal without intervention due to an unfavorable wound environment created by disease-specific factors along with systemic contributors like age and obesity. This technology selectively captures and localizes native regenerative factors within the wound environment to stimulate tissue regeneration. This technology can be paired with existing wound care strategies to improve wound healing outcomes. This approach may help relieve the time and cost burden for both clinicians and patients. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of protein binders called affibodies for sequestering regenerative growth factors in the wound healing environment. Current biomaterial therapeutics are not able to control what is being localized within the site of injury. This technology uses affibodies to selectively bind to growth factors secreted endogenously in the wound environment while maintaining growth factor bioactivity for sustained release with both high specificity and tunable affinity. Affibodies can be engineered to have varying affinities for their specific target and this can determine how quickly specific proteins are released back to the wound to overcome its highly proteolytic environment. Users may benefit as affibodies are relatively inexpensive to produce, can be readily adapted to current treatment workflows, and harness an individual patient’s secretome rather than exogenously delivered protein that requires additional regulatory scrutiny. This personalized medicine strategy may improve wound care strategies in the clinic and pationt outcomes. 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.