M2D2 is a UMass Lowell – UMass Medical School Worcester initiative that helps entrepreneurs move new medical device and biotech ideas from patent to production and offers early-stage inventors and established companies easy, affordable and coordinated access to world-class researchers and resources at both the Lowell and Worcester campuses. UMass Lowell and UMass Worcester extend use of engineering and scientific resources to M2D2 companies. These core resources are available to researchers by using the research services agreement. The use of UMass Lowell and UMass Worcester interns and faculty is an enormous benefit to an emerging medical device or biotech company. UMass Worcester’s campus offers access to core research supports and highly trained personnel to efficiently conduct animal or clinical studies across the life cycle of projects. UMass Lowell has two M2D2 facilities with private and shared wet lab space, equipment, office space and conference rooms. It offers business and medical feasibility assessments, product development, medical and clinical pathway assistance, SBIR and STTR research partnerships and access to capital. M2D2 was established with seed funding from the UMass President’s Office, the Mass Life Sciences Center and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Using the delayed healing model of diabetic (db/db) mice, we evaluated the ability of a novel silk based dressing to facilitate healing of full-thickness excisional wounds. Silk protein from Bombyx mori was used to create wound dressings via a proprietary electrospinning technique. The resulting dressing is vapor and air transmissible. Eight millimeter diameter full-thickness wounds were created on the backs of diabetic mice and covered with either a standard (n=12) telfa-gauze or the silk (n=12) dressing. At 2 day intervals, the telfa dressings were removed, the wounds photographed, measured and fresh dressings placed. For mice receiving the silk dressing, it was allowed to remain in place unless it became dislodged. In that case, a fresh dressing was placed into the wound bed. Wound healing was followed for 21 days at which time the mice were sacrificed, the wound areas excised and subjected to H & E and Trichrome staining. Wounds covered with the silk dressings developed an eschar encompassing the silk whereas wounds dressed with gauze remained moist and without eschar throughout the study period. Upon histologic examination, 1 of the gauze dressed wounds developed a complete epithelial layer across the wound. The remaining 11 wounds had large areas remaining without an epithelial cover. In contrast, 5 of 12 mice receiving the silk dressing developed complete epithelial layers, 2 additional mice had very small areas remaining without a complete epithelium. The remaining 5 had modest areas without an epithelial covering. The ability of silk dressings to permit the formation of an eschar versus gauze in which the wounds remained wet may contribute significantly to the healing response observed. These results suggest that the breathable, vapor transmissible nature of the silk dressing may be an effective dressing for difficult to heal wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers.