DSM, a biomedical materials sciences company, has inked an agreement with University Medical Center, Utrecht. DSM’s Dyneema Purity fiber technology will be provided to UMC Utrecht in order to enable the development and appraisal of a non-biological supportive scaffold’s prototype for treating the vascular and valvular diseases.
This partnership has initially aimed to combine fiber processing knowledge and new fiber technology of DSM with cardiovascular device testing knowledge and clinical capability of UMC Utrecht. UMC selected Dyneema Purity fibers in order to specifically design the blood vessel and heart valve wound closure equipment, as those fibers have resistance to high flex fatigue, less elongation, tear resistance and minimal profile properties.
This collaboration aims at building up knowledge and analysing the preclinical feasibility of a heart valve based on fiber. UMC Utrecht and DSM will reach out to medical device companies in order to explore the further development options, when feasibility is achieved.
DSM Biomedical’s Business Manager for Dyneema Purity fiber, Carola Hansen stated the company is delighted to provide Dyneema Purity fibers for UMC Utrecht. This fiber technology will offer durable and strong material to surgeons in order to bear the severe mechanical forms, when a heart valve leaflet is open. The company is committed to explore innovation and search for opportunities that link the technology to the new research. The company can find new ideas and make solutions, by this collaboration, offering better results for patients.
According to UMC Utrecht’s Principal Investigator, Paul Gründeman, UMC has considered that usage of Dyneema Purity fibers in the heart valves with scaffolding have lead to a new solution and provides less replacement of invasive transcatheter heart valve for heart disease. Dyneema Purity fiber is considered to be an interesting material to be used for this feasibility study.
Frans L. Moll from UMC Utrecht’s Department of Vascular Surgery stated that Dyneema Purity fiber has high potential to newly approach the minimal invasive vascular surgical therapies.
Source: http://www.dsm.com/