Former BMS Professor and GeniPhys Founder Sees Continued Success in Development of Wound Management Product

October 25, 2024

Sherry Harbin, founder and chief technology officer of GeniPhys and Purdue University researcher with ties to the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Basic Medical Sciences Department and the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, shows a high-strength collagen sheet fabricated from the proprietary collagen polymer technology that GeniPhys is commercializing. (Purdue Research Foundation photo/Vincent Walter)

GeniPhys, a preclinical-stage company founded by a Purdue University researcher with ties to the College of Veterinary Medicine, is expected to commercialize a wound management product in the second quarter of 2025 that involves developing regenerative collagen polymeric biomaterials for soft tissue restoration. The company has been awarded a $500,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase IIB supplemental funding grant to support regulatory and commercial readiness of its flagship product, Collymer Self-Assembling Scaffold (SAS). The Phase IIB grant supplements a nearly $1 million NSF SBIR Phase II grant awarded to GeniPhys in 2022 and will support completion of manufacturing scalability and necessary testing to achieve 510(k) clearance of Collymer SAS for the wound care market.

“Hard-to-heal soft tissue defects and voids due to injury, disease, congenital birth defects or tumor removal are a major burden to both patients and the health care system,” said Andy Eibling, GeniPhys CEO. “GeniPhys is answering a longtime need for novel options for rapid and effective soft tissue restoration. This grant helps bring us into the homestretch of offering patients the potential of a more cost-effective treatment with more predictable outcomes and shorter healing times.”

Collymer SAS was developed by Sherry Harbin, a Purdue professor of biomedical engineering and former professor (now professor by courtesy appointment) in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Basic Medical Sciences. Harbin founded GeniPhys and serves as the company’s chief technology officer. The patented technology is licensed to GeniPhys by the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization and is the cornerstone of the company’s broad intellectual property portfolio. Harbin also is part of Purdue’s collaborative One Health initiative.

Collymer SAS is a novel flowable collagen biomaterial based on a validated and proprietary technology platform that immediately restores tissue continuity via a rapid-forming, self-assembling collagen scaffold. Unlike traditional implantable materials, this collagen scaffold promotes regenerative remodeling — facilitating integration, cellularization and restoration of tissue characteristics without causing an inflammatory response. Its structural and signaling characteristics replicate those of natural collagen for faster healing and restoration of tissue defects and voids affecting soft tissues such as skin, breast, skeletal muscle and adipose.

While Collymer SAS has a wide range of applications across various surgical specialties, GeniPhys will initially enter the advanced wound care market, where more than 10 million patients are affected with nonhealing, chronic wounds. Simultaneously, GeniPhys will pursue additional indications, including breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) where preclinical study results have shown Collymer SAS excels as a first-in-kind regenerative breast tissue filler with potential to improve both oncologic and cosmetic outcomes.

Click here to view a complete news release with more information about GeniPhys and the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization

Writer(s): Steve Martin | pvmnews@purdue.edu

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