With an innovation that could advance brain and spinal surgeries, a Virginia Commonwealth University startup has received an $800,000 state grant to support development of its infection-fighting gel.
Pascal Medical Corp. is one of four grant recipients to receive awards from Virginia Catalyst, a nonprofit created by the General Assembly and funded by the state’s general fund and seven public research universities, including VCU. The goal of the Catalyst, says CEO Mike Grisham, is to provide funding that helps industry partners and academic investigators raise follow-on investments.
Pascal was co-founded by Barbara Boyan, Ph.D., the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the College of Engineering. She served as dean of the college from 2013 to 2022. The company says its antibiotic-releasing “hydrogel’” can safely seal and heal surgical wounds created during brain and spinal procedures.
“Normal surgical sealants have limitations. What we’ve created is a material that conforms to the surgical site, doesn’t interfere with healing and can also deliver antibiotics to prevent infection,” Boyan said. “We have an opportunity to change the way surgeries are done. That’s what makes this work so exciting.”
Pascal’s core innovation is a biocompatible material based on “click chemistry” — a concept that won the 2022 Nobel Prize — to create a fast-setting, highly adaptable gel. This is especially useful in brain and spinal surgery when a neurosurgeon either intentionally or accidentally cuts through the dura, a layer of tissue that protects the brain and spinal cord.
Pascal’s “ClickGel” hydrogel is injected into the body, and molecules within it “snap” together and form a strong, stable gel during surgery. The sealant sticks to tissues and can deliver antibiotics.
“This is particularly important in neurosurgery, where infections are difficult to eradicate and antibiotic delivery via hydrogels needs to not only provide sufficient levels of antibiotics, but also to not impact the function of the neural tissues,” Boyan said.
Boyan is one of nine VCU faculty researchers honored as a National Academy of Inventors fellow, a program that is considered the highest professional distinction for academic inventors.
“Barbara is a serial entrepreneur and one of VCU’s most inventive minds, and has spent her career trying to improve quality of life or prevent pain in patients, especially those facing orthopedic injury or surgeries,” said Ivelina Metcheva, Ph.D., assistant vice president for innovation at VCU TechTransfer and Ventures, which helps commercialize VCU innovations and has helped the Pascal team protect their intellectual property and connected them to business advisors.
Boyan also is executive director of VCU’s Institute for Engineering and Medicine, which fosters collaboration among the College of Engineering, VCU Life Sciences and the School of Medicine.
“This type of translational research exemplifies VCU College of Engineering’s commitment to our Human Health & Medicine research pillar,” said Rebecca Heise, Ph.D., the Inez A. Caudill Jr. Distinguished Professor and Chair at the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “When our faculty develop innovations in the lab that can directly improve patient outcomes and bring them to market through startups like Pascal, they’re fulfilling our ‘Engineering for Humanity’ mission. The Institute for Engineering and Medicine was created precisely to foster these collaborations between engineering and medicine that address real clinical challenges.”
Boyan and the Pascal team are collaborating with George Mason University microbiology professor Monique van Hoek, Ph.D., and they cite ClickGel’s potential to treat the culprit in many infections: MRSA, the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacterium. “Being able to prevent MRSA infections with ClickGel will greatly benefit surgical patients,” said van Hoek, who runs GMU’s Center for Infectious Disease Research, which specializes in developing and testing novel treatment approaches for difficult. The center will test the antibiotic ClickGel “against many different strains of relevant bacteria.”
Michael Mancini, Ph.D., a former staffer with TechTransfer and Ventures, joined Pascal as director of research and development in January 2024.
“Pascal has the right team, technology and a plan in place to bring their ClickGel and more neuromusculoskeletal products to market as quickly as possible,” Metcheva said.
With the new funding from Virginia Catalyst, Boyan said, Pascal can complete crucial studies for its submission of ClickGel to the Food and Drug Administration to approve human clinical trials.
“The Catalyst grant program is a game-changer for Pascal and provides validation of the commercialization plan for a young company developing a novel technology,” Boyan said. “This also tells investors their matching funds are supporting research and commercialization approaches that are sound.”
The development of the ClickGel technology was supported through funding from the FDA, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, as well as funding from VCU. Pascal is housed in the VA Bio+Tech Park in Richmond.
Virginia Catalyst says its grants have totaled over $36 million, resulting in over $54 million in matching funds and over $700 million in follow-on funding.
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