Moisture-Resistant Adhesive Polypeptides
Tech ID: 10105 / UC Case 1998-072-0
BACKGROUND
Surgical tissue adhesives provide an alternative to suturing, packing, or stapling planes of tissue together. Use of adhesives for wound closure is desirable since adhesives can be very fast acting and assure complete closure. Marine adhesives (such as those used by barnacles) can function over wide temperature ranges, fluctuating salinities, humidities, and under strong currents. These glues are able to rapidly form permanent bonds to a wide variety of substances with complex and often irregular coatings. In contrast, the success of synthetic adhesives in wet environments requires carefully cleaned adherents that must often be chemically treated or partially dried or both.DESCRIPTION
Scientists at the University of California have developed a method of synthesizing copolypeptides that contain side-chain functional groups present in natural marine adhesive proteins. The copolypeptides are able to form moisture-resistant adhesive bonds to a variety of substrates.APPLICATIONS
The materials can be used in numerous biomedical and industrial applications involving moisture-resistant adhesion, such as:
- Surgical tissue adhesives;
- Dental adhesives;
- Bone cements;
- Hemostatics.
ADVANTAGES
The new UC technology offers a number of benefits:
- Adhesive components are water based and therefore do not
require the use of hazardous or expensive organic
solvents for their application;
- Polypeptides are derived from biological sources and may
be biocompatible/bioresorbable;
- Polypeptides show exceptional bonding capabilities toward
wet materials (including biological tissues) where most
commercial synthetic adhesives fail to form strong bonds;
- Materials are easily prepared and production can be
scaled to large quantities;
- Adhesive is inexpensive compared to recombinant or natural marine adhesive proteins with similar properties.
Patent Status
| Country | Type | Number | Dated | Case |
| United States Of America | Issued Patent | 6,506,577 | 01/14/2003 | 1998-072 |
Inventors
- Deming, Timothy J.
- Yu, Miaoer
Other Information
Categorized As
Related cases
1998-072-0
Contact
Daniel M. Sweeney / dsweeney@tia.ucsb.edu / tel: View Phone Number. Please reference Tech ID #10105.
