SBIR-STTR Award

Enhancing the soldier's tissue responses to injury may lead to battlefield resilience and medical independence. Counter-measures to chemical, biological and radioactive weapons exposures, which are based on biostimulation of natural tissue regeneration mechanisms, could be more universally safe and effective than conventional drugs and surgical modalities. Regeneration of wounded organs and limbs may also be possible if biostimulation could reawaken molecular events leading to re-growth of tissue. We are now investigating applications of LED wound healing technology for self-care of the soldier. Several uniquely military situations and indications could be addressed, optimizing near-IR parameters for wound healing via LED's during extended missions, under conditions in which the soldier is separated from medical personnel. This DARPA funded SBIR will begin work to dramatically enhance biostimulation using this LED-technology with a project focused on rapid healing of retinal laser-injury. There is no doubt that this type biostimulatory enhancement, once demonstrated, can be immediately applied to military applications and will have profound economic implications for the health care industry. With the development of a low cost LED source, this technology will no doubt find its way into rural area medical facilities thereby making the technology readily available to everyone. The world wide commercial implications for this device technology are enormous.

Previous Phase I work by the QDI Engineering and the MCW PhotoBioModulation (PBM) teams has demonstrated the feasibility of rapid healing of acute eye injuries caused by military lasers. The WARP I, a proof of concept, prototype, LED healing device, was constructed by QDI, during the Phase I activity and will be the model for 10 additional units to be constructed during the Phase II activity. These units will be used in an MCW developed clinical trial protocol to develop a database and to validate the LED device healing technology during the Phase II activity. MCW will further their research efforts to optimize the wavelength or combination of wavelengths, power density and dosimetry for accelerated healing of laser injury to the eye. QDI will compile the clinical trial data with the MCW dosimetry data and develop a device design master file in support of the fabrication of a prototype device that can be mounted in a pilot's face shield or soldier's field goggles. The primary design goal of the Phase II device will be to provide immediate accelerated first aid for eye tissue surviving the initial laser assault.

Keywords:
Laser Eye Injury, Light Emitting Diodes (Led), Wound Healing, Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, Gene Expression, Photobiomodulation