October 2004

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

New Military Biomaterials R&D Center to hold first meeting

NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY – The new Center for Military Biomaterials Research (CeMBR) has been set up by the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials. The CeMBR will hold its first open meeting on Oct. 20, 2004 at 10 a.m. in the Hyatt Regency, Two Albany Street, New Brunswick, N.J.

The inaugural meeting agenda will include a summary of the science and technology roadmap created by the National Research Council to guide the Center, and discussion of potential R&D projects for the program's second year.

The CeBMR was established through the award of an initial $827,000 contract from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The award is renewable for at least two years with increasing funding already provided by Congress to enable expansion of the program. This initiative will provide rapid and effective pathways for identification, development and utilization of biomaterial-based technologies and products for the military's most urgent healthcare needs on and off the battlefield.

One of the first technology platforms the CeBMR is supporting is a sprayable wound dressing designed to enable soldiers to treat their own small gunshot wounds, burns, abrasions or cuts, so that they may complete a three-day mission and rapidly return to duty. The sprayable dressing technology will then be expanded to provide pain relief, mitigate bleeding and reduce infection. Biocure, Inc. of Norcross, Ga., is developing this technology.

The CeBMR is unique among organizations active in the field because of its network of academic, military and industry leaders working to speed the introduction of biomaterial products to meet the military's requirements. This center is pursuing a "market focused" strategy of applied research, product development and commercialization of prototype products leveraged from industry and academia. When there are no existing enabling technologies that meet the military's requirements, the CeBMR will form research partnerships to develop the necessary technologies.

The U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center at Fort Detrick, Md., is the program office for the CeBMR. The new center has already established partnerships with the U.S. Army Institute for Surgical Research, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Disease, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Chemical Defense and Picatinny Arsenal.

Professor Joachim Kohn, director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials – CeBMR's parent organization – has appointed Dr. David Devore as chief operating officer of the CeBMR. Devore was formerly vice president for Coatings Research at Ciba Specialty Chemicals.

The New Jersey Center for Biomaterials is a cooperative research initiative sponsored by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and New Jersey Institute of Technology. For more information, call 732-445-0488, or visit http://www.njbiomaterials.org/cmbr/index.htm.