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| Moving ideas from academia to market |
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| The University is engaged in moving ideas from mind to market and creating real value. A notable example of the University’s capacity to channel technology into the marketplace is the result of the joint efforts of Chemistry Professor Dr. Dan Smith and Polymer Science Professor Dr. D. Reneker, who are pioneering new applications for the production of nanofibers created through a process called electrospinning. |
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| Among their inventions is a nanofiber bandage that releases nitric oxide. Exploring the use of this application for treating slow healing wounds, the researchers stumbled upon leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of sandflies that affects 12 million people living in tropical and subtropical countries, and is a bane for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The disease can cause open sores that often take several months to heal and may be disfiguring. |
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| Smith and Reneker joined with the Colombian Cardiovascular Foundation to begin clinical trials using the nanofiber bandage for treating leishmanisis in Bucaramanga and Tolima, Colombia. Smith says the success of the research team’s clinical trials could lead to dramatically improved healing times for leishmaniasis. “The disease’s traditional treatment is grueling, requiring a cocktail of harsh drugs delivered by intravenous therapy,” he explains. “Through the use of electrospun nanofibers, wounds that took months or years to heal are now showing improvement in weeks.” |
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| Marcos Lopez-Casillas, a UA chemistry graduate student who has worked on the project in Colombia, says the results have been impressive. “In the first clinical trial, the patients, on average, were completely healed in about 12 days with no secondary effects,” Lopez-Casillas says. Smith adds that the technology also could help to treat a variety of other skin ailments. “The benefits of this type of bandage could reach across all medical disciplines where the treatment of wounds is a concern,” he says. |
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