A Pittsburgh-based startup is hoping to use zebrafish to revolutionize wound care. Zegenex, co-founded by University of Pittsburgh researchers, is developing a product that could advance the treatment of chronic wounds based on heart regeneration research.
Zebrafish have been used in biomedical research for decades. The minnow, native to South Asia, is genetically similar to humans, sharing 70% of the same genes. The vertebrates have long been used to study regeneration. That’s because zebrafish embryos are transparent, allowing for a clear view of every cell during development.
Michael Tsang, director of Pitt’s Integrative Systems Biology graduate program, was screening for molecules that could affect growth factors in Zebrafish when he — alongside Zegenex co-founder Manush Saydmohammed — discovered a molecule that better stimulates heart regeneration and scar-healing in the fish.
“Our molecule sort of enhances that stimulation,” Tsang said. And since heart muscles repair themselves much the same way that skin lacerations heal, his theory is that the molecule could be used to innovate wound care.
“The idea is that if it works in heart regeneration, it'll probably work in wound care and wound healing,” he said. That theory has been tested in a Chinese lab, Tsang said, and the results were promising.
“It can translate from a zebrafish to now mammals and rats,” Tsang said. “And we hope that these trends hold when we test in human patients in the distant future.”
With help from LifeX, Pitt’s life sciences capital growth program, the duo are developing their molecular research into a viable product. Saydmohammed said the goal is to deliver the same technology in multiple formats.
“We want to [create] as many different forms as possible,” he said, which includes creams, sprays and a biomedical patch that dissolves into the skin.
Zegenex next plans to introduce a version of their product for use in veterinary hospitals. The duo said they are in talks with several veterinary care companies and hope to refine their product over the next year.
Though the product is a long way from human use, Zegenex already sees an opportunity to make a significant impact on how diabetes patients treat their chronic foot ulcers. Saydmohammed said many with diabetes are not able to properly treat their chronic foot ulcers because advanced treatments are costly even with insurance.
Because of that, the wounds persist.
“What happens with these non-healing wounds [is that they] increase the chance of infections that get into bones and it leads to amputation,” he said.
More than 1.6 million people in the United States suffer from diabetic foot ulcers. And each year about 150,000 people undergo amputations because their wounds failed to heal. And with diabetes cases skyrocketing around the world, those figures are likely to increase.
With small animal testing underway, Zegenex is raising capital to scale up operations and accelerate its product development.
“We know that it’s a long road and regulatory process,” Saydmohammed said. “[But] this idea can be made into a product and it can benefit a lot of people. We can avoid a lot of amputations in this country and we can improve patient lives.”
