Jungmok Seo: A Quinone-Activated Hydrogel for Second-Scale Hemostasis and Suture-Free Surgical Sealing
Jungmok Seo, Associate Professor at Yonsei University, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article he and his colleagues co-authored, published in Nature Communications, adding:
“Thrilled to share that our work is now published in Nature Communications!
‘Quinone-mediated, tissue-adaptive double-network hydrogel for instant hemostasis and wet-tissue adhesion’
Stopping bleeding fast, and sealing wet, moving tissue without sutures, remains one of the hardest problems in surgery and trauma care.
Sutures and staples are invasive and slow, and most tissue adhesives need a separate chemical activation step that can take over an hour.
That is simply not workable in an emergency.
Our team developed STAT (Strong Tissue-adhesive And Thrombostatic), a double-network hydrogel that bonds to wet tissue in about 10 seconds with no activation step. Briefly kneading the gel oxidizes its catechol groups into reactive quinones that covalently bond to tissue on contact.
Built-in polyphenols (tannic acid) accelerate clotting and add antibacterial protection at the same time.
In our models, STAT delivered:
- Hemostasis in seconds in a mouse liver model, and control of massive liver and spleen bleeding in rabbits
- Endoscopic sealing of a gastric perforation in a porcine model
- Suture-free skin closure with faster healing and minimal scarring
- A tough, self-healing material that works as an injectable sealant or as a conformal patch
- Performance beyond an FDA-approved fibrin glue in adhesion, hemostatic speed, and antibacterial activity
Because it skips the toxic carbodiimide activation chemistry, STAT is genuinely suited to time-critical trauma and emergency surgery.
Looking ahead, I am especially excited about where this goes next.
A material that bonds instantly and conformally to living, wet tissue is, at its core, a stable interface between the body and engineered systems.
I believe the most meaningful next step is to merge this adhesive interface with flexible electronics, turning a passive sealant into an active, smart interface that can sense the wound, monitor healing in real time, and deliver electrical stimulation in a closed loop.
That convergence of tissue-adaptive materials and soft bioelectronics is exactly the direction our lab is heading.”
Title: Quinone-mediated, tissue-adaptive double-network hydrogel for instant hemostasis and wet-tissue adhesion
Authors: Tae Young Kim, Kayoung Son, Chang-Hwan Moon, Keun-Young Yook, Soo A. Kim, Hyein Ham, Yurim Lee, Soo In Lee, Yejin Jo, Yunlong Yu, Dae-Hyun Kim, Jungmok Seo
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