Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Fleas study provides insights for surgical sealant

A long term study of fleas, ticks and other insect pests in the livestock industry has led to the development of a new and highly efficient wound sealant following soft tissue surgery. Dr Chris Elvin, from CSIRO Livestock Industries, outlines how this medical breakthrough evolved. The sealant, known as PhotoSeal™, was developed through recent research by Dr Elvin and Dr Alan Brownlee, who revealed a unique way of gluing together some naturally occurring proteins.
This work evolved from previous studies concerned with the synthesis of resilin, the elastic protein which allows fleas to jump and improves the flight efficiency of flying insects.
The blood protein fibrinogen is used to make protein adhesives and hydrogels with super-fast bonding and sealing characteristics.
PhotoSeal™ has been trialled on animals with encouraging results, and the next step is the operating theatre.
Read more about Photomedical technologies
These images demonstrate surgical application of PhotoSeal™ in repairing a 16G needle puncture wound to the common left iliac artery in an anaesthetised pig. The upper image shows xenon light (endoscope light source - illumination for 20 seconds) of the wound site following addition of liquid PhotoSeal™. The lower image shows the repaired wound site 30 minutes after repair. There was good pulsatile flow and no loss of blood.
Here's how they define the Market opportunity
The fundamentals of the biomedical materials market are excellent with substantial patient populations, and growing need for surgical sealants, haemostat adjuncts and tissue engineering solutions:
PhotoSeal™ market
Deficiencies (confirmed by surgeons) in existing products have constrained market growth.
There is interest from the industry to partner on product development.
This will generate medium term cash flow for PhotoSealTM and provide a path to market.
The tissue sealant market is estimated to be A$600 million of which A$400 million is fibrin sealants, and growing at 10-15 per cent.
PhotoSeal™ will require a strong distribution network as the key purchasing decisions are made by surgeons.

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