Mehta pointed to Pochan and Schneider’s approach and intellect around peptide design as critical to Gel4Med’s ability to advance such an industry-disrupting solution.

“It’s not just an innovation problem that they solved from a broad-spectrum antimicrobial perspective, but also other aspects from a commercialization standpoint, such as the ability to produce the hydrogels economically at-scale and the ability to build a simplified supply chain due to this innovative materials science approach,” Mehta said. 

Peptides and proteins typically degrade and break down under high heat, but the UD-developed peptides fold appropriately and are thermostable, allowing them to resist degradation at very high temperatures, an advantage over other materials in the marketplace. This allows them to be sterilized using steam as a final step in manufacturing, which enables a potentially safer and more environmentally friendly manufacturing approach, as well as the ability to use the product in various settings of care from operating rooms to the bedside.

Gel4Med is currently piloting the promising products in the U.S. hospital setting with the goal of demonstrating infection-free wound closure for conditions such as pressure ulcers, venous leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers and surgical wounds. The products are effective on both small and large wounds, including hard-to-access wounds, which are particularly challenging to heal. The company also is exploring the use of the UD-developed hydrogels in materials for the treatment of other conditions, including spinal cord injury, corneal diseases and other surgical applications.

The right timing 

Looking back, Pochan said he and Schneider recognized right away that the hydrogels they created had tremendous market potential. So much so that they formed a startup company shortly after filing the patents for their biomaterial’s discovery in the early 2000s, with OEIP’s help. They called the company Del-a-gel, but it never quite got off the ground. 

“In hindsight, it was way too early to do it. We explored some avenues, but it just didn't go anywhere,” recalled Pochan. “Years later, when we had more papers published and a lot more evidence that these materials are viable for real biomaterials, that's when Gel4Med came calling.”

In between, there were false starts, ongoing research, even a short-term, limited licensing opportunity that looked promising but went nowhere. That’s the nature of invention. 

OEIP Technology Transfer specialists, however, continued building relationships with companies that might want to take the technology forward, knowing that it takes the right idea but also the right combination of support and people to advance an invention through the commercialization pipeline.

Now, Gel4Med’s products offer an extremely original  approach for the advanced wound care space, one more example of UD discovery making its way beyond campus borders to positively impact society.

“It's extremely gratifying to see Gel4Med and Manav take the fundamental ideas that we were very optimistic about and work hard over several years to get them approved,” Pochan said. “His success shows the work and the time needed to do it.”

New approaches in drug delivery for brain cancer

At UD, Pochan continues to explore new uses for the UD-developed biomaterials, from immunotherapy to tissue engineering. In one project, his research team is conducting fundamental studies exploring ways to use the patented hydrogels in drug delivery for medulloblastoma, a type of cancerous brain tumor in children. 

The NIH-supported work is collaborative with Sigrid Langhans, head of the cancer epigenetics laboratory at Nemours Children’s Health, which includes Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware. It’s a project that is close to the heart of Haozhe Zheng, a second-year doctoral student studying materials science and engineering at UD. 

“When I was in primary school, my grandfather died of brain cancer,” said Zheng. “He was a very kind person, and he suffered bad side effects from treatment. That’s the reason I want to study materials science, to help people find good therapies for disease.”

In the Pochan lab, located in the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center on UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus, Zheng’s daily work involves making and testing the novel biomaterials. The research team is investigating ways to encapsulate brain cancer cells in a three-dimensional hydrogel, then apply different drug combinations to better understand how drugs diffuse into the gel and interact with the cells. 

“It's a way to discover drugs, drug doses or drug combinations that can impact chemotherapy by mimicking how the cells behave in the brain,” Pochan said.