Wet Binding Bioadhesives Inspired by Barnacle and Spider Web Glue

Innovation: Industry

SanaHeal, Inc.

Image: Aleria Jensen / NOAA Photo Library / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Protect From Dirt/solids

When dirt and other small solids adhere to living systems, they can slow them down, create blockages, reduce their ability to carry out vital functions, or cause surface wear and tear. Due to electrostatic forces, it’s easy for dirt and other solids to adhere to surfaces, so living systems must overcome those forces. An earthworm, for example, uses a small electric current to keep soil particles from adhering to its body as it moves through the soil. This enables it to move more efficiently by reducing drag.

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SanaHeal’s novel hemostatic tissue sealants rapidly stop bleeding by promoting blood clotting.

Benefits

Heals wounds rapidly
Creates a contamination-resistant seal
Minimizes preparation time

Applications

Healthcare
Trauma care
Military medicine

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 3: Good Health & Wellbeing
Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities

The Challenge

The human body is full of densely packed large and small blood vessels from the heart to our fingertips. As a result, bleeding is an inevitable part of all injuries and surgical procedures. Excessive loss of blood, or hemorrhage, can cause substantially higher rates of mortality, as well as greater clinical and economic burdens from the increased cost of treatment. Hence, stopping bleeding, or ‘hemostasis’, is one of the most critical requirements in the treatment of patients during both emergency situations and in controlled surgical operating rooms.

Despite long-standing medical research and clinical advancements, managing hemorrhages from failed mechanical connections (e.g. sutures or staples) remains a significant and potentially fatal challenge in healthcare. To date, no biomaterial innovations have been able to fulfill the clinical requirements needed to solve this challenge, such as rapidly and reliably sealing wet tissue surfaces.

Biological Model

Spiders and barnacles have each evolved unique glues that serve distinctive purposes. Spider web glue in humid environments contains both adhesive and hygroscopic (water-loving) s, which are able to absorb the environmental water on contact while adhering to their prey. Barnacle glue has a different chemistry with adhesive suspended in an oil-rich lipid matrix. This matrix cleans contaminants from the surface, enabling barnacles to attach to rocks, other sea creatures, ships etc.

Innovation Details

Inspired by the unique capabilities of spider web glue for rapid wet adhesion and barnacle glue for fouling-resistant wet adhesion, researchers at SanaHeal have developed a full line of novel bioadhesives. The versatility of their products is enhanced by both their range of accessible forms, including patches and spray powders, and their adaptability to be used as drug delivery agents or even as electronic adhesives.

SanaHeal’s novel hemostatic paste, a medical product that stops bleeding by promoting blood clotting, is manufactured using bioengineered polymers and silica nanoparticles to mimic the strong, water-resistant adhesion of barnacle glue. Applied directly to wounds and activated by light compression, the tissue sealant forms a tight seal in about 15 seconds.

Unlike traditional agents, SanaHeal’s biocompatible and biodegradable healing products offer an efficient way to achieve rapid, robust, contamination-resistant seals in severe and actively bleeding tissue, and perform independent of blood clotting ability, moisture levels, and without the need for physician preparation.

The Human Factor

Dr. Hyunwoo Yuk’s path to founding SanaHeal began with a relentless pursuit to solve a medical challenge: creating adhesives that could bond quickly and securely to wet, bleeding tissues. As a world-renowned researcher in bio-inspired biomaterials, Dr. Yuk knew this wasn’t just a scientific puzzle but a survival challenge mirrored in nature. Spiders, for example, spin webs capable of trapping prey even in rain, while barnacles cling stubbornly to wet, grimy surfaces like rocks and ship hulls.

Inspired by these natural masters of adhesion, Dr. Yuk and his team sought to decode their secrets and translate them into groundbreaking biomaterials for medical applications. This vision culminated in SanaHeal’s revolutionary bioadhesives, which offer life-changing potential for wound care and surgery.

With prestigious accolades like Forbes 30 Under 30 and MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35, and groundbreaking work published in journals like Nature and Science Translational Medicine, Dr. Yuk’s expertise forms the backbone of SanaHeal. This venture is yet another evidence that we can learn so much more from nature in solving our challenges.

Ray of Hope Accelerator

The Ray of Hope Accelerator supports an annual cohort of ten high-impact nature-inspired startups representing various sectors and regions addressing the world’s biggest environmental and sustainability challenges. The accelerator builds upon years of experience as the Ray of Hope Prize (2020-2023), which was created in honor of Ray C. Anderson, a business and sustainability leader and founder of Interface, Inc. SanaHeal was a participant in the 2024 Ray of Hope Accelerator.

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