Prevention of biomaterial-induced thrombogenesis without interference of coagulation system by modulating the protein activity on material-blood interface

When the blood-contacting materials are applied for specific applications such as hemodialysis, blood transportation and etc., our body will regard them as an “invader”, and quickly activate the coagulation system to “protect” itself. The activation of coagulation will induce thrombosis, resulting in early treatment termination or lead to other complications such as pulmonary embolism. In clinical practice, the use of anticoagulants to temporarily block the coagulation system to perform such medical procedures, however, significant challenge arises as normal hemostasis is impaired in anticoagulant action. Many patients treated with anticoagulants have to be repeatedly hospitalized due to life-threatening bleeding. In fact, there is no material currently available which is truly antithrombotic. Building on a new concept, in this project, we will focus on developing a universal surface modification approach that can be applied to any device to avoid the surface-induced thrombus generation without interfering the normal hemostasis. The benefits of this research are immeasurable, nearly 2.6 million patients worldwide will be benefited from it annually in the field of hemodialysis alone, not to mention the other areas mentioned above.