Description:
Biodegradable and Intrinsically Photo-luminescent Injectable Hydrogel
NJIT Case No. 17-010
Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology in the Department of Chemical, Biological & Pharmaceutical Engineering have invented an innovative process to develop amino acid containing Polyester based dopant free fluorescent hydrogels which are safe, biodegradable, biocompatible, and injectable.
Hydrogels based on naturally derived polymers display biodegradability and biocompatibility. However, these natural hydrogels are difficult to modify owing to their fragile nature and complex structures. Hence, synthetic hydrogels are in high demand as they have higher water absorption capacity and can be synthesized from a wide range of raw chemical resources. Photo-luminescent hydrogels can be prepared by conjugating a hydrogel matrix with a variety of organic and inorganic luminescent materials. However, all the previously known methods have some drawbacks, including photo-bleaching, toxicity, and potential environmental hazards. This new approach used innovative processes to prepare a safe, biodegradable, biocompatible and injectable photo-luminescent hydrogels, which have potential biomedical applications in many fields such as bioimaging, drug delivery and tissue engineering.
Applications
• Drug delivery
• Bio-imaging
• Tissue Engineering
• Regenerative Medicine
Advantages
• Biodegradable
• Auto-fluorescent
• Injectable
• Non toxic
Inventors
Xiaoyang Xu Xiaoyang Xu is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Before that, he was a joint NIH postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Professors Robert Langer (Dr. Langer is the youngest person in history to be elected to all three National Academies) at MIT and Omid Farokhzad at Harvard Medical School. He completed his Ph.D. in Material Chemistry at Northwestern University under the supervision of Prof. Chad Mirkin (only chemist to be elected into all three branches of the National Academies and a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology, Obama Administration). He received his B.E. in Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology in China. Dr. Xu’s research focus is the development of novel biomaterials and nanotechnologies for a variety of medical applications including diagnosis, bioimaging, drug delivery, and regenerative medicine. He is also interested in developing synthetic biomaterials and processing techniques to fabricate hydrogels and scaffolds for use in drug delivery and tissue engineering. Dr. Xu has over 12 years of experience in the synthesis, characterization and testing of a range of biomaterials and nanoparticles for medical applications, leading to over 30 peer-reviewed research articles and 9 issued/pending patents. His publications have been cited over 3,000 times. Dr. Xu has received multiple awards including Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, AACR Scholar-in-Training Award, Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Chinese Students Study Abroad, and 1000 Plan Professorship for Young Talent.
Intellectual Property & Development status
Patent protection is pending.
NJIT is currently seeking commercial partners for the further development and commercialization of this opportunity.