Keratin Bioceramic Antibiotic Putty (KBAP) for Bone Regeneration

Infection in areas of bone injury are a serious consideration in the field of trauma surgery and orthopaedic medicine. The combination of regenerative medicine and controlled drug delivery offers great potential to improve on the current standard of care. Presently, bone infection secondary to osteomyelitis and non-union are treated in a two-stage protocol wherein the first step requires placement of antibiotic impregnated beads, followed by a second step involving removal of the beads and bone grafting. We propose to validate the use of a new bioceramic graft that features controlled delivery of antibiotics and that would require only a single stage operational protocol. In preliminary tests, we have shown that keratin biomaterials are biocompatible, osteoconductive, and able to function as a drug delivery matrix. By further developing this technology into a keratin bioceramic antibiotic putty (KBAP), we endeavor to create a bone graft substitute that is biocompatible, antibiotic, osteoconductive and osteoinductive, as well as moldable, formable, inexpensive, and able to be stored at room temperature. In this Phase I program, we will use an optimized drug delivery system to develop the KBAP and validate its efficacy in cell and microbial culture models.