ASU Featured Nano Research: Laser-activated Nanosealants (LANS)

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering featured ASU researcher Kaushal Rege, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Engineering in the following article:  https://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/laser-activated-silk-sealants-outperform-sutures-tissue-repair

Dr. Rege’s comments on this work clarify some of the ground breaking advances their research results provide. Rege said that “Our results demonstrated that our combination of tissue-integrating nanomaterials, along with the reduced intensity of heat required in this system is a promising technology for eventual use across all fields of medicine and surgery.” He went on to say that, “In addition to fine-tuning the photochemical bonding parameters of the system, they are now testing formulations that will allow for drug loading and release with different medications and with varying timed-release profiles that optimize treatment and healing.” This is important because sutures made of these nanaoselants have increased biocompatibility meaning they are less likely to be seen as a foreign, irritating substance, which reduces the chance of a damaging reaction from the immune system.

Arizona State University chemical engineer Kaushal Rege (left) is giving graduate students the opportunity to help develop a technique that uses lasers to seal body tissue that has been separated by surgical incisions or torn by injury. Photographer: Nora Skrodenis/ASU.

According to Arizona State University this kind of tissue-repair technique emerging from Professor Kaushal Rege’s research has been compared to the fictional device that healed damaged flesh by simply being passed over a wounded body part. In this very non-fictional work, the heated laser light essentially welds together silk molecules and tissue molecules to close an open wound or incision.