Trauma Solutions Research Highlighted in Scientific American

• Trauma Solutions

Trauma Solutions, the award-winning startup company founded by Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE) professor Peter Kofinas and members of his research group, was featured in the December 2009 issue of Scientific American. The young company and its synthetic blood-clotting product was described in the cover story, "World-Changing Ideas."

Trauma Solutions has designed a biocompatible hemostatic polymer hydrogel that can be used to quickly staunch heavy bleeding and is also capable of delivering therapeutics to a wound. The company is in the process of developing a commercial product that can be used in general surgery, emergency rooms, and especially on the battlefield, where suturing may not be possible and the patient may be a long way from an operating room.

In addition to Kofinas, the company's team members and collaborators include BioE graduate student Brendan Casey, undergraduate research assistant Adam Behrens (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering), and University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon Dr. Bartley Griffith, the hospital's chief of cardiac surgery and director of heart and lung transplantation.

Published December 8, 2009