# Engineering a naturally derived and highly adhesive surgical sealant

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2022 · $606,741

## Abstract

Contact PD/PI: Annabi, Nasim
Project Summary/Abstract
Approximately 114 million surgical and procedure-based wounds occur annually worldwide, including 36 million
from surgery in the U.S. Damages to delicate soft tissues, such as lung, liver, land blood vessels, are particularly
challenging to repair. When these tissues are punched for biopsy or injured during procedures, they must be
reconnected surgically using sutures, staples, or implantation of surgical meshes. Despite their common use in
clinics, these mechanical methods are associated with inevitable tissue damages caused by deep piercing and
ischemia. These methods are also time-consuming, demand surgeon's skills during the surgeries, and might
cause post-surgical complications such as infection. To resolve these issues, various types of surgical materials
have been used for sealing, reconnecting tissues, or attaching devices to tissues. Despite the emergence of
several surgical sealants, the biomaterials used as sealants/adhesives often have some drawbacks that limit
their applications, such as low mechanical properties, toxicity effects or toxic degradation products, and poor
adhesive strength; therefore none of them meet all the necessary needs to replace sutures and staples. An ideal
surgical sealant is required to be flexible to be able to adapt with dynamic movement of native tissues, have
excellent biocompatibility and controlled biodegradability, and provide high adhesive strength and burst pressure
particularly in the presence of body fluids. In this proposal, we aim to engineer a novel and highly adhesive
surgical sealant with tunable adhesion strength from a light-activated naturally derived hydrogel, gelatin
methacryloyl (GelMA), for surgical applications (e.g. lung surgery). We will chemically modify the engineered
GelMA hydrogels with catechol to form gelatin methacryloyl-catechol (GelMAC) with enhanced adhesion to the
native tissues. We will then evaluate the function of the engineered surgical material as a lung sealant in both
small and large animal models. Our preliminary data suggests that this material is superior to the existing
products in the market and may generate a paradigm-shifting surgical material that may not require sutures due
to its superior mechanical and adhesive properties. The engineered highly adhesive surgical sealant can be
potentially used to stop air leakages after lung surgery and also support new tissue formation to repair the
defected sites. Due to its high adhesion to the native tissues and biocompatibility, the engineered adhesives in
this proposal have potential to be used in various procedures such as anastomoses, cardiovascular surgeries,
and wound closure.
Project Summary/Abstract Page 7

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10072052
- **Project number:** 5R01EB023052-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Nasim Annabi
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $606,741
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-12-01 → 2025-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10072052

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10072052, Engineering a naturally derived and highly adhesive surgical sealant (5R01EB023052-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10072052. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*