As Melissa Krebs was in the lab working on the biopolymer that would become Cleragel, it quickly became clear that the stretchable wound dressing, which improves healing in chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers, was working so well that she could see a clear path throughFDA submission, approval and beyond.
“We’re trying to solve a big problem that needs a solution, and maybe this is the time to push it all the way through from the academic lab and into the commercial side,” recalled Krebs, Mines associate professor of chemical and biological engineering and founder of GelSana Therapeutics. “We had really good data and a really clear path to market.”
Diabetic ulcers are difficult to heal and lead to 80 percent of the non-traumatic limb amputations in the U.S. A solution that lets these chronic wounds heal will literally save limbs, but first, this novel gel needed to move beyond the lab and into a company that could take it all the way to market.
