Even as biomedical engineer Anirban Sen Gupta refines artificial platelets to stem traumatic bleeding, he and his colleagues are seeking new uses for their synthetic solution.
The latest application to show promise involves providing synthetic platelets to treat a genetic condition that prevents blood from clotting, Von Willebrand disease (VWD). The most common of all bleeding disorders, VWD is found in up to 1% of the U.S. population (roughly 3 million people),
“There simply hasn’t been any study yet using our technology for treating genetic blood disorders, although it’s something we’ve wanted to explore for some time,” said Sen Gupta, the Leonard Case Jr. Professor of Engineering at the Case School of Engineering. “Almost all our work so far has been in heavy traumatic bleeding, but we often ask ourselves, ‘Who else could we help?’”
“There is a lot of work ahead on this, but it’s very exciting,” Sen Gupta said. “We’ve shown that it can work, but we’ll have to continue to work it out in appropriate animal models and someday human clinical trials.”
Treating VWD requires injecting patients with a lab-created form of the protein, or a drug to stimulate the protein’s production. In healthy people, VWF allows platelets to attach to a bleeding injury site to help them clot.
Sen Gupta’s collaborators include and , directors of research at INSERM (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale) in Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in France; and , associate professor of cardiovascular sciences at the University of Birmingham, England.
The research recently appeared.
Platelet-inspired tech
For more than a decade, Sen Gupta has pioneered research in artificial platelet systems and various platelet-inspired therapeutic technologies.
Those efforts include the licensing of a synthetic platelet technology known as SynthoPlate, by Sen Gupta co-founded in 2016.
Earlier this year, ǿմý announced Sen Gupta’s role in being led by the University of Maryland School of Medicine and involves multiple academic institutions and industry partners.