Pioneering Nanopatch likely to have Global Impact

Dr. Anand Gadre, Assistant Professor of Nanobioscience at CNSE, has developed a groundbreaking nanopatch that has important implications for addressing a critical health challenge related to organ transplantation.

Dr. Anand Gadre and Dr. James Castracane

Dr. Gadre, principal investigator and lead researcher for the nanopatch project, has developed a disposable polymeric patch to address the shortage of viable harvested organs available for transplant surgery. With the support of Dr. James Castracane, Professor and Head of the Nanobioscience Constellation at CNSE, and the partnership of BREONICS, Inc. and the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR), Dr. Gadre successfully created a nanopatch that continuously monitors the health of harvested organs that are awaiting transplant.

The nanopatch is likely to have a significant impact on organ transplant surgeries.  "A small percentage of organs survive from the time that they are harvested to the time the transplant surgery occurs," says Dr. Castracane. "It is necessary to find a way to continuously, and with minimal invasiveness, monitor the health of a harvested organ to increase the organ survival rate.  By crossing bioscience with integrated circuit fabrication, we were able to create a device that could help ease a national problem."

The nanopatch - which has been in development for five years, beginning with the use of biocompatible polymers -

Two samples of the groundbreaking nanopatch.

has developed into a small, band-aid-like square patch that is about 2.5 cm.  The nanopatch contains a series of microheaters and electrochemical sensors which can continuously monitor various analytes, such as glucose and lactate, from the organ.

"The nanopatch can continuously monitor the viability of the organ through its minimally invasive ablation techniques," says Dr. Gadre. "After the first sensor tests the analyte levels, the second sensor situated in the same patch can continuously monitor the analyte levels in the same fashion. This process can be repeated a number of times, depending on the availability of the microheaters situated in the nanopatch.   We have seen many successes in our tests of the nanopatch so far."

"The nanopatch is a cutting-edge, nanotechnology-enabled application that when interfaced with BREONICS proprietary viability test opens the door to an immense pipeline of new applications for organ and tissue regeneration," says Dr. Lauren Brasile, Scientific Officer at BREONICS, Inc.  "Our partnership with the UAlbany NanoCollege has given us access to the world-class intellectual excellence of its researchers and the unmatched technological capabilities of CNSE's Albany NanoTech Complex. As we work to solve the world-wide shortage of organs for transplantation, our partnership with CNSE helps to accelerate the development of BREONIC's unique proprietary technology."  

Before the nanopatch is brought to the medical market, however, it needs many more tests.  Dr. Gadre is continuing to use the patch on test organs to gauge the results.  In a final step to bring the nanopatch to market, it will need to receive FDA approval.

When the final steps are complete, Dr. Gadre will have helped to relieve a problem that should result in many more successful organ transplant surgeries.