Reheal is developing a flexible and transparent polymeric glove that offers an effective wound dressing therapy for hand injuries.
Reheal, a US-based medical device maker based on University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and University of Washington research, is set to commercialise a flexible polymeric glove that acts as wound dressing.
The spinout’s commercialisation efforts will be driven by a $227,000 grant provided by the US government-backed Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC), which aims to bring treatments to market that have the potential to aid wounded military personnel.
MTEC’s grant will enable Reheal to develop a manufacturing process in preparation for pre-clinical and clinical stage trials.
Reheal is developing a flexible polymeric glove made from transparent silicone that acts as wound dressing on hand injuries to improve and accelerate the recovery process, allowing for more hand movement during healing.
The glove’s transparency would enable continued wound monitoring and a lack of adhesiveness means it can be easily applied and removed.
Reheal hopes the device will be able to clean the injured area, administer topical therapies and apply negative pressure wound therapy, a procedure involving vacuum sealed dressing that is used to trap air within the isolated area.
The project is being led by Muthu Wijesundara, a principal research scientist at UTA’s Research Institute, which will oversee the design of the manufacturing process.
Wijesundara’s partner, Christopher Allan of University of Washington’s Hand, Elbow and Shoulder Center, will direct sterilisation and packaging development.
Reheal was launched with support from University of Washington’s commercialisation arm, UW CoMotion, which helped the spinout secure an undisclosed sum of prototype funding from philanthropic organisation Wallace Coulter Foundation.
