Synthetic Biodegradable Materials for Biomedical Applications

Background: More than 8 million surgical procedures performed each year involve replacement organs or tissues and more than 10 million Americans have at least one medical implant. Many of these implants are made from classic materials such as stainless steel chromium ceramics plastics and other metal alloys. These materials often cause the immune system to tag the implant as a foreign body thereby resulting in an unintentional immune response. Biocompatible materials which reduce or remove this response are needed. Technology Description: UCF inventors developed homogeneous nanofibers of pure synthetic polypeptides. These materials have physical chemical and biological properties that make them advantageous for replacing traditional materials in medicine and tissue engineering. The polypeptide structure offers not only the advantage of a reduced immune response but also is biodegradable when combined with the proper enzymes. Applications: 1) Surgical structures 2) Wound dressings 3) Tissue engineering 4) Medical textiles