Out-licensing

A novel source of collagen manifested as fibers derived from certain species of soft corals has been isolated.  The New Collagen fibers are strong and flexible compared to commercial collagen.  The fibers have a high reversible extensibility...

Principal Investigators
Prof. Y. Benayahu, Dept. of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences
Prof. Y. Kashman, School of Chemistry, Faculty of Exact Sciences
Prof. D. Benayahu, Dept. of Cell & Develop. Biology, Faculty of Medicine

The Invention
A novel source of collagen manifested as fibers derived from certain species of soft corals has been isolated. The New Collagen fibers are strong and flexible compared to commercial collagen. The fibers have a high reversible extensibility compared to mammalian collagen fibers and can be reversibly stretched to a strain 2-3 fold greater than known collagen fibers.The fibers extend without collapsing up to 20% of their original length as opposed to other collagens that may reach up to only 8-10%.

Potential applications
• Tissue engineering
• Dental therapy
• Ligament  repair (ACL)
• Artificial blood vessels
• Orthopedics repair for bone

Advantages
• Strength and mechanical properties    
• Non-mammalian source
• Biocompatible
• Production 

Stage of development
• Chemical features and mechanical properties studies are on-going.
• Establishment of a protocol for mass propagation and farming and tissue cultivation.
• In vivo: biocompatible properties as scaffolding material for tissue engineering studies are on-going.

Tech transfer officer
Irit Ben Chlouch, Tel: 972-3-6406601, Fax: 972-3-6406675, irit@ramot.org
Web Site: www.ramot.org

Early Stage

Provisional 61/064,792 filed 27/3/2008