Stratatech Receives $4 Million Federal Grant

Madison, Wis. — The National Institutes of Health has awarded Madison-based Stratatech Corporation a $4 million Fast-Track SBIR grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Under this grant, Stratatech will work to develop a genetically engineered therapeutic human skin substitute with enhanced antimicrobial and angiogenetic properties for use in the treatment of type-1 diabetic skin ulcers.

Chronic diabetic skin ulcers, a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes that afflicts an estimated 800,000 patients in the United States alone, exhibit poor blood flow and typically become infected resulting in impaired wound healing and amputations. Stratatech is developing human skin substitutes that secrete enhanced levels of biologically active antimicrobial peptides that healthy skin normally produces.

Stratatech's products are based on a patented, unique source of pathogen-free human skin cells that was identified at the University of Wisconsin as being able to multiply indefinitely.