Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Title: Cellulose biomaterialsCosmetics and reconstructive surgery growth is being driven by demographics and an increasing acceptance and normalization of several procedures. This trend is projected to continue as economic fortunes of high growth populations of the world increase, and as the population in the developed world continues to age. Procedures experiencing the highest level of growth include breast augmentation, tumour removal and minimally invasive soft tissue fillers.A soft tissue filler is a non-toxic substance injected in the body for uses such as body sculpting, wrinkle remediation or filling of tissue voids. One of the challenges making of this product is to eliminate possible side effects caused by variability in the shape and size of the particles constituting the filler.Spiderwort is a company that specializes in developing novel biomaterial intended as a scaffold for regenerative medicine. It uses plant-derived cellulose structures that possess a natural pliability and softness enhancing its biocompatibility when grinded into particles. This particularity could give Spiderwort a significant competitive advantage in many soft tissue filler markets. The project aims at establishing standard operating procedures for the biomaterial processing to obtain particles, which will then be characterized in terms of chemical composition, morphology and size. Ultimately, Spiderwort would like to scale up the procedure to an industrial level.