Persistent wounds are a serious medical problem, burdening well being care methods with billions of {dollars} in prices yearly. Pioneer Fellow Börte Emiroglu is creating a brand new product: a selective, sponge-like hydrogel that reduces inflammatory indicators and actively promotes therapeutic.
The work is printed within the journal Superior Healthcare Supplies.
Emiroglu’s educational profession has taken her from Turkey to Zurich, after a grasp’s diploma, and straight into the interdisciplinary world of biomedical engineering at ETH Zurich. “Again then, I did not even know what a hydrogel was,” she remembers, pondering again to the early days of her doctoral analysis on the Macromolecular Engineering Laboratory underneath the supervision of Professor Mark Tibbitt.
However the unknown was exactly what fascinated her, and it was this that turned the launchpad for a brand new know-how. Emiroglu’s objective was to develop an clever wound dressing that would actively affect the therapeutic course of in persistent wounds. Her resolution is predicated on granular hydrogels that seize pro-inflammatory indicators from the tissue whereas concurrently supporting regenerative processes.
Persistent wounds—corresponding to these related to diabetes or circulatory problems—are a widespread medical drawback. Many victims have open pores and skin lesions that hardly heal for months and even years. That is usually as a result of an exaggerated immune response: as an alternative of progressing to regeneration, the physique stays trapped in a steady loop of overactive inflammatory exercise.
That is the place start-up Immunosponge discovered its distinctive worth, based by Emiroglu and Apoorv Singh, a fellow researcher in Tibbitt’s laboratory. Their wound dressing targets the molecular indicators that perpetuate the loop.
“We wish to information a wound out of the inflammatory state and provides it the appropriate directions for therapeutic,” says Emiroglu. “We wish to support the tissue to sign that now’s the time for regeneration.”
How precisely does the wound dressing work? “Think about a sponge,” says Emiroglu, “a cloth with a excessive absorption capability.” Technically talking, the sponge consists of tiny gel particles—referred to as microgels—which are invisible to the bare eye. When mixed in giant numbers, they create a comfortable, sponge-like construction.
“Within the laboratory, the fabric seems like jelly,” explains Emiroglu.
This construction might be geared up with so-called ligands—floor molecules that concentrate on and bind particular signaling molecules. This allows the sponge to differentiate between helpful and dangerous indicators.
“We do not wish to simply take up something and every little thing, like a kitchen sponge does; we have to selectively take away the pro-inflammatory molecules that wreak havoc within the native tissue, whereas on the similar time initiating processes that promote therapeutic,” says Emiroglu.
The idea is closely impressed by nature. “Mass transport is environment friendly at quick distances in nature, particularly in unicellular organisms,” explains the researcher.
“However as quickly as extra complicated organisms come up, there’s a want for constructions that manage the trade of matter extra effectively—that is how cells inside a tissue perform and talk with one another.” It’s exactly these rules that impressed Emiroglu and served as a mannequin for the clever wound dressing.
The know-how depends on plenty of small constructing blocks to create an adaptable, practical construction.
“We’re in a position to develop this library of constructing blocks which sooner or later will permit us to customise our know-how for numerous affected person teams and underlying ailments,” says Emiroglu.
Which means they’ll equip the gel beads with numerous different floor ligands in order that completely different inflammatory messengers might be captured relying on the kind of tissue defect.
Whereas the researchers are presently specializing in persistent pores and skin wounds, the know-how might additionally assist with inner tissue injury, corresponding to within the therapeutic of bones, cartilage or tendons. “These tissues can have restricted blood provide and thus usually require environment friendly mass trade throughout regeneration,” explains Emiroglu.
In distinction to present strategies, corresponding to mechanical suction gadgets or non-specific wound dressings, which dry out a wound utterly, Emiroglu’s wound dressing targets a root trigger and is meant for use at an early stage.
The younger researcher didn’t got down to enter the world of enterprise. It was solely in the direction of the tip of her dissertation that she and co-founder Singh started to consider taking the challenge one step additional. Emiroglu formally started her Pioneer Fellowship at ETH Zurich in the beginning of April 2025.
Unofficially, she has been engaged on the interpretation of the know-how for over a 12 months. A job that includes rather more than conducting analysis within the lab: “We’re studying how the market works, what clinicians want and the way we are able to flip our analysis into an efficient product,” explains Emiroglu.
That is additionally altering her perspective. “We come from a pure analysis background, the place we hardly ever come into contact with customers,” she says. “Now, we’re speaking to docs, nurses, market leaders and different professionals and attending to know their perspective.”
Emiroglu states, “We’re intentionally taking our time with the event. It is not about getting one thing onto the market as rapidly as attainable; it is about creating one thing with long-term worth.”
And in 5 or 10 years? “Perhaps by then we’ll have a market-ready resolution with our start-up Immunosponge,” she says. “Perhaps we’ll nonetheless be engaged on growth. The vital factor is to remain open, continue to learn and never surrender.”
Extra data:
Dilara Börte Emiroglu et al, Granular Biomaterials as Bioactive Sponges for the Sequestration and Launch of Signaling Molecules, Superior Healthcare Supplies (2024). DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202400800
Quotation:
Clever wound dressing controls irritation (2025, July 4)
retrieved 5 July 2025
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