Description:
Antibacterial Peptides
NJIT Case No. 18-030
Inventors: Vivek A. Kumar, Peter K. Nguyen, Biplab Sarkar, Shivani Jaisinghani
Intellectual Property & Development status: Patent protection is pending.
NJIT is currently seeking commercial partners for the further development and commercialization of this opportunity.
Technology Brief: Researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering have invented a unique self-assembled, biodegradable, and biocompatible antibacterial peptide-based formulation system. The formulation can be delivered to sites as an injection or as a topical antibiotic and can be incorporated into existing medical grafts, devices, and prostheses, to prevent formation of microbial colonies.
Bacterial contamination and colonization of medical devices and prostheses cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. The first line of defense against such bacterial threats is physiologic antimicrobial peptides. Cationic amphiphilic self-assembled peptides developed at NJIT employ high-charge density to disrupt bacterial membranes. However, there is an inherent trade-off between the nanofibrous self-assembly and bactericidal efficacy for these peptides. The invention is a self-assembling peptide hydrogel (SAPH) that is optimized for both fibrillar self-assembly and antibacterial efficacy. Self-assembled nanostructures have higher local density of functional bactericidal domains and therefore have higher antimicrobial efficacy compared to the corresponding unassembled peptide. Additionally, SAPHs are readily injectable, can persist in vivo, and sustain localized efficacy for prolonged periods.
Applications
• Wound healing
• Diabetic foot ulcers
• Medical device coating
• Catheters coating
• Drug delivery
• Tissue engineering
• Regenerative medicine
• Wound healing
• Diabetic foot ulcers
• Medical device coating
• Catheters coating
• Drug delivery
• Tissue engineering
• Regenerative medicine
Advantages
• Intrinsically anti-microbial
• Injectable
• Effective against bacterial biofilms
• Non-biological microbicidal effect
• Biocompatible and biodegradable
• Non-toxic
• Prolonged effect
Inventors Bio: Vivek Kumar is an assistant professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Materials Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Before that, he was a NIH F32 postdoctoral fellow at Rice University and BIDMC, Harvard Medical School. He completed his Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology under the supervision of world-renowned surgeon-scientist Elliot Chaikof, MD, PhD. He received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. Dr. Kumar’s research focus is the development of novel biomaterials and composites for a variety of tissue engineering applications including, drug delivery, regenerative medicine, therapeutic angiogenesis and inflammation modulation. Materials developed in the KumarLab (kumarlab.njit.edu) are being explored for treatment of a variety of indications including cholesterol lowering (PCSK-9) inhibitors, novel hemostats, chemotherapeutic delivery, treatment of aberrant vasculature in diabetic retinopathy, stem cell delivery, vaccine adjuvants, microbicides, neurogenic peptides for neuroprotection and regeneration after stroke/ TBI, dental pulp regeneration, and tissue engineered blood vessels. Dr. Kumar is a prolific author with over 14 years of experience in the synthesis, characterization and translation of a range of biomaterials with over 30 peer-reviewed research articles, over 30 conference presentations/ abstracts, 8 issued/pending patents, and 2 University technology driven start-ups. His publications have been cited nearly 1000 times, with a h-index of 17. Dr. Kumar has received multiple awards for both his academic and entrepreneurial work – including the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service F32 Award, American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship, & numerous awards at scientific meetings and pitch events.