Drs. Shibani Pati, Dr. Clifford Lowell, Huimin Geng, and Mark Looney have received a Department of Defense (DoD) award (BA240278) titled: “Development of a Dried Platelet-Derived Biologic (FPH) for the Acute and Prolonged Casualty Care of Patients With Polytrauma and TBI.” This grant supports the advancement of a novel freeze-dried platelet hemostatic (FPH) product that is currently progressing toward clinical translation. The award amount is $3,000,000 over the three years.
The dried platelet-derived biologic is being developed to address two critical challenges in trauma care: mitigation of blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption and reduction of intracranial hemorrhage following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Beyond traditional hemostatic function, Dr. Pati’s group, and lead scientist Dr. Alpa Mahuvakar, demonstrated that FPH attenuates blood-brain barrier permeability, thereby reducing cerebral edema and improving survival in preclinical models.
Platelet shortages remain a persistent global challenge due to short storage times and risk of bacterial contamination. A lyophilized platelet-derived product offers a stable, deployable alternative particularly suited for remote, austere, and prolonged casualty care environments. The current DoD award will support further evaluation of FPH in a polytrauma model and explore additional applications, including wound healing.
This work was recently accepted to Blood titled: “Unlocking the Therapeutic Potential of a Dried Platelet-Derived Biologic for Blood-Brain Barrier Repair in Murine TBI.”