Research Project
10075090
SUMMARY / ABSTRACT This supplement is submitted under the parent grant ?MAP: a flowable, precision-engineered, and tunable tissue scaffold leveraging hyper-porous geometry to control inflammation and promote regenerative healing in diabetic wounds? and is for Oliver Viyar B.S., who will be the diversity investigator as a Filipino American minority on the application. Mr. Viyar is a post-baccalaureate researcher, who has demonstrated an interest in and wish to pursue research training in health-related sciences while applying for admission to graduate school. Mr. Voyar wishes to enroll in a PhD program for biomedical engineering with the ultimate goal to pursue his career as a lead scientist in the biotechnology industry. He seeks additional research training prior to applying for admission to PhD programs. Mr. Viyar received his Bachelor of Science degree in May 2019 in Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia. After his graduation, Mr. Viyar began working as a research assistant at Tempo Therapeutics, Inc. The overall goal of the parent grant is to continue the development of the Microporous Annealed Particle (MAP) biomaterial technology for the treatment of impaired diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). Our MAP materials are flowable (ease of application) and fill wounds of multiple shapes and sizes and convert to a hyper-porous sponge-like network in the wound site after exposure to LED white light. The hyper-porosity geometry promotes fast tissue ingrowth, early vascularization, and faster wound re-epithelialization when compared to leading decellularized tissue-based matrices, with minimal inflammatory response. We are employing specialized models of impaired wound healing in diabetic pigs to test a suite of three formulation variants already demonstrated in a preliminary healthy swine study. The optimal formulation of MAP that performs in slow healing environments and stimulates tissue regeneration will be selected for safety profiling and an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) will be submitted at the end of the proposal. In this supplement and in regard to this parent grant, Mr. Viyar will be working directly under Dr. Deshayes? supervision with the main goal to optimize one step of the manufacturing process for the fabrication of the hydrogel microspheres that compose the MAP product. The current manufacturing process faces some challenges of scalability and sterility. Therefore, Mr. Viyar will investigate the use of a static mixing method rather than a mechanical stirring method to fabricate the hydrogel microspheres in order to enhance the production scale and ease the aseptic process. Dr. Deshayes will provide him with both research mentorship and career guidance. In addition, Mr. Viyar will receive exposure to pre-clinical studies on large animals and regulatory process.
