Casey Interviewed About Blood-Clotting Polymer

• Trauma Solutions

Fischell Department of Bioengineering graduate student Brendan Casey, advised by Professor Peter Kofinas, was interviewed for two recent news stories about work he presented August 23 at the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) fall meeting.

CNET News and ScienceNews covered Casey's work on a synthetic, biocompatible, hemostatic (blood clotting) polymer hydrogel that can be used to quickly staunch heavy bleeding and is also capable of delivering therapeutics to a wound. The gel contains a fibrous polymer called acrylamide, which stimulates the effects of a factor VII, a protein crucial to the blood-coagulation process in humans and animals. It is capable of stopping bleeding in deep wounds within minutes, and is less costly to produce than similar, biological-based products.

Casey, Kofinas and their colleagues, including University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon Dr. Bartley Griffith and graduate student Adam Behrens (B.S. '10, chemical engineering), have formed an award-winning startup company called Trauma Solutions to commercialize the product, which they feel could save lives of soldiers and others wounded under extreme circumstances in which surgical care may not be immediately available.

Read the News Coverage Online:

ScienceNews: "New gel seals wounds fast" »
CNET: "New hydrogel stanches blood flow fast, cheaply" »

Published August 26, 2010