Hydrogels Formulated for in situ Gelation Effective for Drug Delivery and Wound Healing

The high water content and soft consistency of hydrogels make them similar to natural living tissue with numerous applications across the medical field. Under certain conditions it is desirable to prepare a hydrogel at the site of use; unfortunately most polymers must be preformed due to the extreme reaction conditions, which would not be compatible with the environment of use. Kiser and Roberts have overcome this problem with the creation of in situ gelling hydrogels. Two liquid-state prepolymers are mixed together under mild aqueous conditions to form a gel at room temperature and or body temperature.

This system is ideal for injectable drug delivery vehicle application, and it is also possible to use this system in the presence of cells to make tissue scaffolds for wound healing.

Benefits
The market for drugs employing advanced drug delivery technologies is expanding rapidly. The sustained release (oral, injectable and topical) dosage form market is rising at a nearly double-digit clip. The market for wound care products is a billion-dollar market annually.

Stage of Development
A provisional patent application has been filed with the USPTO. This technology is part of an active and ongoing research program and has been demonstrated to work in proof-of-concept experiments. It is available for licensing under either exclusive or non-exclusive terms.

Additional Info
See also related University of Utah inventions
*U-3815: Noninvasive Thermal Triggering of Hybrid Hydrogels
*U-3405: Ligand-responsive Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel (Extracellular Matrices)
*U-2616: Micellar Dispersed LCST Hydrogels: Novel Temperature-Responsive Drug Delivery Systems

Inventor(s): Patrick Kiser, Meredith Roberts

Type of Offer: Licensing



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