Thesis Defense Announcement

The Herff College of Engineering announces the final thesis defense of

Joel Berretta

for the degree of Master of Science

June 22, 2016 at 9:00 am in 302, Engineering Technology Building

Major Advisor: Warren Haggard, PhD

Characterization And Functional Evaluation Of An Adhesive And Injectable Chitosan Paste Blended With Polyethylene Glycol For Bacterial Infection Prevention

ABSTRACT: Surgeries to treat musculoskeletal wounds need to inhibit or prevent contaminating bacteria and infection for optimal wound healing. Current local drug delivery biomaterial systems do not fully degrade and/or do not offer full wound coverage which does not optimize antibiotic treatment. We used modified chitosan-polyethylene glycol (PEG) pastes to develop improved biocompatibility and provide efficient and effective elution of the locally delivered antibiotics. 1%:1% and 1%:0.5% chitosan pastes were developed with lowered acidity to aid biocompatibility and to decrease the fabrication time. The modified chitosan/PEG pastes were shown to be biocompatible while also releasing active antibiotics to prevent musculoskeletal infections.