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Dr. Christine Schmidt develops detergent to promote nerve healing; 100 patients treated successfully in first year of use.
A
detergent solution developed at The
University of Texas at Austin that treats donor nerve grafts to circumvent
an immune rejection response has been used to create acellular nerve
grafts now used successfully in hospitals around the country. Research
also shows early promise of the detergent solution having possible
applications in spinal cord repair.
The
solution – combined with an enzyme treatment conceived at
the University of Florida
in Gainesville – is licensed by
AxoGen, an Alachua, Florida-based
company, and is used to create
an acellular nerve graft from human cadaver tissue, called AVANCE
Nerve Graft. Nationwide, nearly 100 patients suffering nerve injuries
have received AVANCE grafts, all involving peripheral nerves which
transmit sensory information between the brain and muscles.
Christine
Schmidt, a biomedical engineering professor, developed the detergent
solution in her lab with Terry Hudson
and Curt Deister, chemical engineering graduate students at the
time, who are now with Genentech in California and with AxoGen,
respectively.
 “Surgeons are reporting some early successes,” she
says.
These grafts are being used to treat
people with traumatic injuries potentially
resulting from lacerations, gunshots
and everyday accidents, but it also has been used to treat cavernous
nerves after the removal of the prostate. The AVANCE product has treated
wounded soldiers and can treat the nerves in hands, arms, legs and
the face.
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