RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — A new medical technology stops traumatic bleeding without requiring wound compression for Soldiers on the battlefield. Hemorrhaging is a leading cause of preventable death for Soldiers in combat.

The simplicity, potential for deployability and proposed affordability of this technology under development allows Soldiers to carry a life-saving solution in their pocket.

Through a project funded by the Defense Health Agency Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, program, Hybrid Plastics, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Vanderbilt University and Ichor Sciences developed StatBond, which treats uncontrolled bleeding from noncompressible areas of the body that include the groin, trunk, armpit, neck and internal organs. Currently, there is no battlefield treatment for such bleeding because these injuries are not responsive to the compression dressings currently carried by Soldiers and medics.

The Defense Health Agency supported the research and development of this device as a part of an SBIR contract, with technical oversight provided by the Army Research Laboratory, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM.

“This technology provides a new capability to stop bleeding under austere conditions,” said Dr. Robert Mantz, a chemistry branch chief with ARL at its Research Triangle Park location. “It’s encouraging to see the potential applications of breakthrough basic science research being put into the hands of Soldiers.”

The research team identified that visco-liquid hemostatic agents could be an alternative treatment to compression. The liquid characteristic provides for deep penetration into a wound channel, and the immediate suppression of fluid loss.

“The breakthrough nature of the device lies in the ability of the hemostatic gel to flow deeply into penetrating wounds, and immediately seal against fluid loss, thereby allowing the natural blood clotting cascade to happen against the surface of the gel,” said Dr. Joe Lichtenhan, vice president of Technology, Hybrid Plastics, a Mississippi-based nanotechnology company. “It is really remarkable this device works without compression. It offers the potential for Soldiers to self-treat or to provide non-medic buddy care.”

The technology behind the development is based on proprietary silicon-like formulations developed by Hybrid Plastics. The Royal Society of Chemistry journal Dalton Transactions (2017) published preliminary findings of their research.

In addition to treating traumatic bleeding injuries, StatBond can also be used to treat lung punctures, eye injuries, burn wounds and prevent infection. Bleeding may not be associated with these types of injuries, but they all commonly have a need to prevent fluid loss and maintain tissue viability. For these injuries, Statbond seals the damaged tissue against further fluid loss while retaining oxygen transport to the injury, which aids in tissue preservation and supports the natural healing process and tissue regeneration.

Statbond is undergoing FDA registration and packaging development. For civilian use, it will be packaged in syringe form while warfighters are anticipated to be provided the device in the form of a durable pocket carry squeeze pack.

In contrast to the basic research programs managed by ARO, this program focuses primarily on feasibility studies leading to prototype demonstration and productized testing for specific applications. The SBIR program funds research and technology development with small businesses using a three-phase process.

With the success of Phase I and II, the Army awarded the research team a Phase III contract to the team to further mature the technology. As part of the award, the team will advance the device’s manufacturing readiness level to pilot line capability and the Department of Defense will conduct medical investigations on its performance and potential for deployability for treatment of battlefield polytrauma.

“We are committed to bringing advanced medical technology and devices to the wounded warfighter,” Lichtenhan said. “We anticipate the technology will become available for use by physicians in 2022 and potentially carried by soldiers by 2025.”

By U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — New Army-funded synthetic biology research manipulated micro-compartments in cells, potentially enabling bio-manufacturing advances for medicine, protective equipment and engineering applications.

Bad bacteria can survive in extremely hostile environments — including inside the highly acidic human stomach—thanks to their ability to sequester toxins into tiny compartments.

In a new study, published in ACS Central Science, Northwestern University researchers controlled protein assembly and built these micro-compartments into different shapes and sizes, including long tubes and polyhedrons. Because this work illuminates how biological units, such as viruses and organelles, develop, it also could inform new ways to design medicine, synthetic cells and nano-reactors that are essential for nanotechnology.

“These results are an exciting step forward in our ability to design complex protein-based compartments,” said Dr. Stephanie McElhinny, program manager at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory. “Being able to control the size and shape of these compartments could enable sophisticated bio-manufacturing schemes that are customized to support efficient production of complex molecules and multi-functional materials that could provide the future Army with enhanced uniforms, protective equipment and environmental sensors.”

Further down the road, these insights potentially could lead to new antibiotics that target micro-compartments of pathogens while sparing good bacteria.

“By carefully designing proteins to have specific mutations, we were able to control assembly of the proteins that form bacterial micro-compartments,” said Dr. Monica Olvera de la Cruz, professor of materials science and engineering and chemistry at Northwestern who led the theoretical computation. “We used this also to predict other possible formations that have not yet been observed in nature.”

Many cells use compartmentalization to ensure that various biochemical processes can occur simultaneously without interfering with one another. Made of proteins, these micro-compartments are a key to survival for a wide variety of bacterial species.

“Based on previous observations, we have known that the geometry of micro-compartments can be altered,” said Dr. Danielle Tullman-Ercek, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern who led the experimental work. “But our work provides the first clues into how to alter them to achieve specific shapes and sizes.”

To study these crucial compartments, the Northwestern team turned to Salmonella enterica, which rely on micro-compartments to break down the waste products of good bacteria in the gut. When the researchers genetically manipulated a protein isolated from Salmonella, they noticed the micro-compartments formed long tubes.

“We saw these weird, extended structures,” Tullman-Ercek said. “It looked like they used the varying building blocks to form different shapes with different properties.”

By coupling the mechanical properties of the compartment with the chemicals inside the compartment, Olvera de la Cruz and her team used theoretical computation to predict how different mutations led to different shapes and sizes. When six-sided proteins assembled together, they formed long tubes. When five-sided proteins assembled together, they formed soccer ball-shaped icosahedrons. The team also predicted that proteins could assemble into a triangular samosa shape, resembling the fried, South Asian snack.

Understanding this process could lead to bio-inspired building blocks for various engineering applications that require components of varying shapes and sizes.

“It’s like building with Legos,” Tullman-Ercek said. “It’s not desirable to use the same shape block over and over again; we need different shapes. Learning from bacteria can help us build new and better structures at this microscopic scale.”

In addition to the U.S. Army, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Sherman Fairchild Foundation supported this research.

By U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs