August 22, 2025 • 24 mins
The secret to revolutionary medical adhesives might be hiding in your garden. Benjamin Freedman, PhD, and Phoebe Kwon of Limax Biosciences have developed a groundbreaking hydrogel technology inspired by slug slime. It's designed to adhere strongly to wet, dynamic tissues while staying flexible and stretchable.
Unlike traditional medical adhesives that focus on stickiness but turn brittle, Limax’s innovation combines powerful adhesion with remarkable cohesive properties. The result? A hydrogel that’s 90% water yet sticks firmly to actively moving organs like a beating heart—something no other material has achieved. The breakthrough moment came when the team successfully applied their creation to a pig’s heart during testing.
From their work at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering to the founding of Limax Biosciences in 2021, their journey exemplifies biomimicry—using nature’s time-tested designs to solve human challenges. After winning the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge in 2022, the team has been refining their technology, tackling key considerations like resorbability, handling properties, storage, and sterilization.
What makes this hydrogel particularly promising is its versatility. Beyond sealing wounds or joining tissues, it can function as an advanced drug delivery system, holding up to 500mg/ml of medication (50x more than traditional hydrogels) while maintaining adhesive strength. That means localized drug delivery that stays in place for weeks instead of dispersing through the body.
As Limax works toward FDA approval, the focus is on completing pre-clinical trials in surgical models before moving into human clinical studies. Their goal is simple yet profound: putting this slug-inspired technology into the hands of clinicians to improve patient outcomes across a wide range of specialties.
Curious about how nature’s solutions might transform healthcare? Follow Limax Biosciences at limaxbiosciences.com or connect with them on LinkedIn to stay updated on their journey.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steven Ruffing (00:01):
Welcome to the Four Worlds podcast from
Tomorrow's World.
Today we're diving into thelatest in tech, science and
sustainability, from nature'smysteries and the world of
inspiration to the hands-oncrafts of creation, the bold
breakthroughs of innovation andthe scaled-up wonders of
production.
This is your ticket to thestories shaping tomorrow, and
(00:24):
welcome back everyone.
Have you ever heard ofbiomimicry?
So it's a design approach thatviews nature as a mentor, model
and measure for creatingsustainable solutions.
With us today is BenjaminFriedman and Phoebe Kwan from
WeMax Biosciences to discusstheir slug inspired hydrogels.
(00:44):
Before we get into all of that,thanks so much for joining us.
How are you guys Doing?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (00:49):
well, how are you?
Steven Ruffing (00:49):
doing Great.
You know, this is another onewe're excited for.
We're really looking forward tothis because it is an
interesting concept.
So what I will ask is if youjust kind of introduce
yourselves and tell me a littlebit about LEMAX before we really
get into what you guys do.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (01:03):
Sure sounds good.
Well, thanks so much again forhaving us here.
I'm really excited to sharemore about our story with you.
So I'm Ben Friedman.
I'm a founder of LEMAXBiosciences.
I'm a bioengineer by training,and it's a technology that I've
been working on for a number ofyears now, which is really the
culmination of much of the workthat I completed during my
postdoctoral fellowship in DaveMooney's lab at the Wyss
(01:23):
Institute at Harvard University.
Steven Ruffing (01:26):
And Phoebe what's your background, how did
you get involved in WeMaxBiosciences and kind of a little
bit about your story.
Phoebe Kwon (01:32):
So I have a background in biology and
material science and I startedworking as a research tech at
the Wyss Institute and throughthat I met Ben and started
working on this project.
Steven Ruffing (01:48):
No, that's great .
So you meet at the WyssInstitute and then, in 2021,
that's where LEMAX Biosciencesstarted hitting the ground
running.
So what inspired?
What was that inspirationbehind getting this off the
ground and that early visionfrom your time at the Wyss
Institute?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (02:07):
So I came and started in the lab as a
postdoc with a strong interestin tendon ligament biomechanics
and at the beginning we werereally focused on applying these
materials to augment tendon andligament healing.
And those studies wereprogressing.
And when everything started toshut down during the pandemic we
had essentially applied to oneof these NSFI core grants which
(02:28):
enabled us to start to exploremany other applications of the
technology beyond orthopedics.
And through those customerdiscovery interviews we started
talking to experts inneurosurgery and dermatology and
general surgery and plasticsurgery and with those calls we
started to realize the trueplatform potential of the
technology.
So when the pandemic started towind down, when we returned to
(02:52):
the lab we started undertaking anumber of studies to really
investigate the full platformpotential of the technology and
through those discussions andthe data that we started to
collect it became clear thatthere was some interesting
commercial opportunity for thetechnology.
We started getting involvedwith many different accelerators
and incubators right on theHarvard campus, the Harvard
(03:12):
Innovation Labs and others inthe Boston ecosystem and through
each of those engagements welearned more about the
translational potential of thetechnology and it really
motivated us to want to form acompany in this space, to try to
take the technology andtranslate it to ultimately
impact patient care.
Steven Ruffing (03:30):
And so when we're thinking about this
HydroGel technology and I sayslug-inspired, give me a little
bit of background about that.
When people hear slug-inspired,where does that inspiration
come from?
How did you land on slugs asthe foundation for this
innovation?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (03:48):
Yeah, so we're coming from the Institute
for Biologically InspiredEngineering.
We try to turn to nature forinspiration to try to engineer
new materials and systems.
So when we take a historicallook back at existing
bioadhesives and sealants,oftentimes researchers have
focused primarily on generatingstrong adhesion under lung
(04:09):
surfaces.
You may have heard aboutmuscle-inspired adhesives and
other types of biopolymers, butthese are confronted with one
common limitation of thematerials themselves have poor
cohesive properties.
The matrix that comprises themis essentially weak and brittle
and they fracture.
Even though they may interferestrongly, the overall matrix or
(04:30):
hydrogel that supports them isweak and brittle.
What we tried to do was turn toa different type of inspiration
.
We came across the slug,particularly the dusty marion
slug.
It's actually a reallyinteresting, cool garden
creature.
Slug slime has highstretchability.
You can take slug slime andstretch it about 10 to 15 times
(04:52):
its length without breaking.
It's a hydrodial system.
It's about 90% water.
It's composed of ions, proteinsand sugars which give it these
interesting tough properties.
So we said, hey, this is muchmore of a stretchable, tough
material.
Maybe this would have differentfeatures if we tried to
recapitulate them in our ownmaterials.
So, without using any slowcomponents, we tried to create
materials that behave in asimilar way In the lab.
(05:13):
What we did was we basicallycombined an existing hydrogel
system that had been developedyears before by some other
former postdoctoral fellows inthe laboratory, and we basically
combined this dual-networkhydrogel with a liquid-based
adhesive surface which containsprimary anemones that work as
float slime and, lo and behold,the system stuck pretty strongly
(05:36):
to wet tissue surfaces and wewere surprised by how robust
that adhesion was and it reallydrew us down and led us down the
path of many interestingstudies and collaborations.
And here we are today.
Steven Ruffing (05:49):
No, that's great .
And with all of that backgroundand coming up with that idea,
taking the inspiration from slugslime, what was that maybe
personal or clinical or evenscientific moment that really
sparked the need for thisstretchable, wet, adhesive
biomaterial?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (06:07):
Yeah, I mean we tried to test these
materials in all sorts ofextreme conditions and you know,
one fun case for this is we.
You know we had some activecollaborations going on in some
large animal studies.
We stuck it to the surface of afeeding part of a pig and that
image and video still, I think,strikes everybody today when
they see it for the first time.
Steven Ruffing (06:28):
A material that's 90% water.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (06:30):
That's highly stretchable sticking to
an actively beating organ.
You don't see that with anyother material system that's
been developed to date.
So you know that I think hasbeen a big aha moment for us as
we look ahead towards what thesematerials can do and how they
may potentially transformpatient care.
Steven Ruffing (06:47):
Right and Phoebe with your background.
What was that moment like foryou when you, as Ben said that
aha moment?
What was going through yourmind when something finally
clicked with this technology?
Phoebe Kwon (07:00):
I've always been interested in improving patient
lives and just because thecurrent standard of care is very
lacking and you know, you couldimagine like a Band-Aid being
stuck on what services like,that doesn't really work well.
So you can imagine like havingour hydrogel system stick in
(07:21):
that environment and last, andyou know, move with this
dynamically moving tissue.
Steven Ruffing (07:27):
that was, that was just like sorry, no, you're
fine, just a big moment for youguys, I'm sure yes, it's a big
moment for us so let's take itback.
You know, lemax, biosciences2021 when things really started,
(07:47):
get to get rolling the fastforward to 2022, the harvard
president's innovation challenge.
How did that winning that awardshape your belief and really,
you know, set the standard forthis mission?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (08:02):
Yeah, we were there.
We were on the stage.
There were hundreds oftechnologies that were being
initially pitched as part of theinnovation challenge, and then
we were sitting on the stagewith four other amazing teams in
the Boston Harbor to give us aWinning.
The challenge was huge for usto rocket and really kickstart
our progress.
(08:23):
The time that we were justcoming out of the laboratory and
having the support of theBurger Lake Foundation enabled
us to start to take on some ofthose challenges.
We were incredibly grateful forthat initial financial support,
as it really kicked off theinitial product development for
the technology on the startupside.
Steven Ruffing (08:41):
Right, no, that's great.
That's again another huge featfor you guys and winning that
going into those earlyprototypes of the HEMA-MAX in
this adhesive.
How did those early prototypeskind of evolve from concept to,
you know, a physical adhesivethat can have practical use?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (09:00):
I mean, there's a lot of iterations in
material science.
You know the initialformulations that we worked with
years ago.
We've been taking active stepsto simplify, you know.
Do we need this component?
Do we not need that component?
How does this, you know, viewedin the eyes of the FDA?
We've made a number ofiterations over the years.
So, for example, the initialformulation wasn't resorbable.
We've made it resorbable andwe've done other modifications
(09:22):
to the system to sort of make iteasier to handle core
clinicians, whether it be.
What size or shape should be?
How long it's going to take toget it to set up?
How should it be stored?
What's the shelf life?
There's all sorts of variablesthat come into play as we try to
take it from an academicexercise into a viable product.
Steven Ruffing (09:39):
And I think that leads kind of seamlessly into
my next question and I'd love tohear both of your thoughts
because I'm sure there might bedifferent answers from you, ben,
and from you, phoebe.
Some of those challenges indesigning the hydrogel, you know
, that adheres so strongly butremains stretchable, and going
through all of those variables,I'd love to hear some of those
(10:01):
challenges that you know both ofyou have faced throughout the
development process.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (10:06):
Yeah, so where to begin?
I mean, let's talk about makingthe materials to grade.
There are different ways tomake them to grade.
Do you want them to go fast ordo you want them to go slow and
kind of the bench size?
What do the clinicians want?
How is this very currentvacation?
All these areas are importantpoints that you need feedback
(10:27):
from end users, you needfeedback from the FDA and then,
of course, there's scientificconstraints.
So I think, as we kicked outthat arm of the product, all
those variables came into play,continue to come into play, and
we want to make sure you'redesigning the product around the
right form factor.
Steven Ruffing (10:51):
And what about you, phoebe?
Was there any maybe differentchallenges that you may have
faced that might be a littledifferent from Ben's, or did you
kind of feel those same hurdlesas this process moved along?
Phoebe Kwon (10:59):
I think it's similar, I think, coming from an
academic research, totranslating it out into actual
benchside use product definitelytakes a lot of iteration and,
as Ben mentioned, needs a lot ofuser input.
So that could completely changethe design that us scientists
(11:20):
and engineers need to come upwith.
Yeah, it's like balancing thestrength and the stretch and
safe degradation.
You know fda is always lookingto make sure about like we're
not putting toxic chemicals inour bodies, which are luckily
ours is like bio-inspired, verybio-friendly, but other other
(11:42):
standard care materials strugglewith that a lot as well.
Steven Ruffing (11:52):
So, being able to balance all of these
different aspects of what goesinto a medical device and when,
just talking about all of thosethings that kind of go into it,
I mean, let's say, guess what,it's not easy, it's not an easy
process.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (12:20):
So some of those challenges and getting
over those hurdles is incredible.
And when you're going throughall of that, what were those
design is that?
You know you must be able tocut it to any size or shape
without it breaking orfracturing right.
Oftentimes clinicians may wantto do that on the operating
field.
That's a must-have.
Another must-have, you know, isit's not requiring any sort of
cold chain or refrigerationchain of refrigeration.
(12:43):
A lot of existing materialsthat have been commercialized
require cold storage To overcomesome of those limitations.
For transport, I might haveapplications both for civilian
use as well as military.
Dfd Removing cold chain is amust-have.
Shelf life Some materials thathave been commercialized contain
human dry products.
(13:03):
They have shorter shelf lives.
We don't have that problem.
We can have extended shelf lifeand maintain performance.
Another one could involvesterilization.
There are some materials outthere that can't be terminally
sterilized, but ours can, andthat enables new applications.
So there's all sorts ofmust-haves when you design it.
Of course, the materials haveto perform well and they have to
(13:26):
be superior to standard of careand they have to be in demand
by clinicians.
So we balance all those areasas we look towards new
indications and applications.
You know the list of must-havesor our target product profile
is generated for those types ofapplications.
Steven Ruffing (13:44):
Yeah, absolutely , and you know, throughout this
process again, it's like ahands-on, all hands on deck kind
of situation.
You know, with amultidisciplinary team, you know
from material science toclinical advisors.
You two come from, you knowdifferent backgrounds and what
you focus on.
How did all that shape thedevelopment journey?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (14:03):
Yeah, so I think it's all about the team
, about the team, and we lookfor folks to come on the team
that share, you know, of course,common interests and you know
collegiality, you know creatingcomfortable work environment and
passion for what we're doing.
But we also look for folks thatcan bring key skill sets and
expertise.
We like folks to feel validatedas they bring those different
(14:26):
areas to the team.
So, you know, we have a core ofmaterial science and
bioengineering, I'd say, but wealso see clinicians that have a
variety of different experienceareas and different indications
and dealing with differentpatient populations and may have
an eye for translation, for howto design trials.
We go to top regulatory folks.
We go to top folks that cansupport us in animal studies and
(14:48):
reimbursement and qualitymanagement.
So we're always looking for thebest talent.
As we built the team so far andI look forward to building it
even more in the future.
Steven Ruffing (14:58):
Yeah, absolutely , and that team, I'm sure had a
lot of hands in some of thosekey scientific breakthroughs,
when we're talking about anadhesive that could be stronger
than traditional sealants, thatcan stretch even more and work
in wet and dynamic biologicalenvironments.
So what were some of those keyscientific breakthroughs as you
(15:19):
explored all of that that canstretch even more and work in
wet and dynamic biologicalenvironments.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (15:23):
So what were some of those key
scientific breakthroughs as youexplored all of that?
Oh man, there's been a number.
I mean.
They seem to happen everycouple of years or so.
Knock on wood, they'll keepcontinuing that way.
I mean, the first one was astretchable hydrogel.
We won't take credit for that.
That was developed previouslyby other members of the
laboratory, but just creating ahydrogel that was stretchable
was previously not demonstrated.
So traditional hydrogels areweak or brittle.
You don't stretch them morethan a couple times their length
.
So back in 2012, when thestretchable tough hydrogel was
(15:46):
developed, here's a systemthat's developed.
You can stretch it 20 times itslength without breaking.
That was a step function, thefact that you could.
Then it took another five yearsbefore we discovered that that
material could be sticky totissues, and since then we've
seen an explosion in the fieldon developing tough hydrogel
materials that can adhere.
(16:07):
Such as us, there's others thatare working in this space, all
built on this same foundationalprinciple.
Since then, we've hadmilestones where we've made
these systems work as integrateddrug delivery systems, where
we've shown that they can notonly attach to wet surfaces but
be able to deliver payloadslocally for extended periods of
time.
(16:27):
We've made milestones to makethese materials absorb ever wet
away.
We've created milestones tomake them attach to each other
in other areas instantly, aswell as simplifying the
formulation to remove the needfor the addition of any other
coupling agents added to thesystem during its attachment to
the tissue.
So I'm not sure what the nextbig milestone will be, but these
(16:49):
tend to happen with many andsmaller breakthroughs along the
way, and so we're eager to seewhat we come up with next.
Steven Ruffing (16:56):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, there's a lot ofpotential here and I can't even
imagine some of the you know,the breakthrough implications,
the breakthrough potential thatyou hold in the future.
And even just talking aboutthat, that localized drug
delivery, one of that, a bigbreakthrough there what, what
problems does that solve that?
(17:17):
Maybe existing methods, youknow, might not.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (17:19):
yeah we think there's a few areas for
local drug delivery, but one isis the ability for it to be
local.
Unlike existing materials theymight just inject, this material
can stick to the target tissuethat you want it to go and it
will stay there for weeks.
So we think that's a one areathat's useful and we think that
the pipe that can serve as alocal depot for a drug or any
drug or existing drug deliverysystem is another advantage.
(17:42):
In terms of the amount of drug,we can load unprecedented
amounts of drug into the gel.
Most hydrogels are typicallypretty weak or brittle, as we
talked about, and they'reusually not loaded more than 1
or 10 mg per ml drug.
We can load these materials upto 500 mg per mil drug.
They still maintain their samepercentage of early indication.
(18:04):
So we're looking at order ofmagnitude improvement there, all
using very simple drug releasestrategies.
Steven Ruffing (18:08):
So we think all these areas may open the doors
for some opportunity for thesematerials as advanced drug
delivery systems Absolutely, andwe talked about you know some
of the challenges getting intothat and getting to that point,
finding that localized drugdelivery system.
What about some regulatory and,of course, maybe some
scientific hurdles that youfaced when bringing this new
(18:31):
class-absorbable adhesive to aclass two or three device market
?
I'd love to hear about thatsome things that people might
not know when it comes to anysort of medical development.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (18:44):
Sure.
So for those tuning in that arenew to the FDA space, or just
device regulation.
So there's different ways thatdevices are classified.
Of course, if it's a deviceversus a biologic, even within
the devices it's a device versusa biologic.
Even within the devices.
You know it's a class one,class two, class three device.
The higher the class, the morescrutiny FDA will place on it.
So our technology hasapplications in both class two
(19:06):
and class three areas as well ascombination product devices.
And you know, depending on theclass, it dictates how much
testing is required for FDAapproval, how much funding might
be required to bring atechnology to market.
So you know we, as part of ourprogram development, we're
pursuing both areas actively andwe've had several positive
(19:28):
engagements with the FDA so farand we hope to share more
exciting news soon.
So please stay tuned for somepress releases in this space to
share more exciting news soon.
Steven Ruffing (19:37):
So please stay tuned for some press releases in
this space.
Yeah, absolutely, again, we'lllook forward to that and I'm
sure you know, hopefully peoplewill listen to this and keep an
eye out as well.
And so that is great.
And just thinking about some ofits capabilities and the wide
range of different indicationsthat it could do, how do you
tailor Hemamax's tunableproperties from those different
(19:58):
applications, from minor woundsto internal hemorrhage control?
Yeah, that's a great question.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (20:04):
So you know, I think, that the
performance is similar.
When we talk about thedifferences, you know how long
that material may be in contactwith the tissue for and if it
will need to degrade or beremoved over time, and so I
think those are some of thebiggest differences that we
think about when we think aboutgoing from a class two product
to a class three device.
Steven Ruffing (20:26):
Yeah, no, that is.
It is Thinking about that.
It is something that'sspectacular and how you even you
know how you get it to thatpoint.
It really is.
It really is great.
I'm really interested in theproduction process as well.
Let's talking about aboutscaling.
How does that scalingproduction in the manufacturing
(20:48):
process work?
Is it in-house, leveragingpartnerships?
What does that kind of looklike?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (20:53):
Yeah, so we are looking into various
partnerships for this space, ofcourse, developing some things
in-house, but also ways that wecan further enhance our
scalability while keeping theteam lean.
So we are taking some activesteps on both fronts to be able
to produce these materials atscale and for the writing,
different demands that will benecessary or the volumes that
(21:16):
are going to be necessary tomeet the clinical demands.
Steven Ruffing (21:19):
No, yeah, that's , that's great.
And and we talked about thefuture a little bit I'd love to
know what does let's say it's socliche, but that five year
timeline look where do you seeyourselves in five years?
What's the future?
What's?
What are the next, uh, goalsthat you guys are trying to hit?
Phoebe Kwon (21:38):
um, I think the next goals we're trying to hit
are to finalize pre-clinicaltrials and key surgical models
and then move into earlyfeasibility human clinical
studies and, yeah, and run pilotprograms with searchable teams
to refine usability.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (22:00):
And ultimately we're trying to get
these materials into the handsof clinicians.
So we're going to be lookingtowards at least one FDA
approval in the coming years andhopefully some steps where we
can then start to scale thetechnology and get it to
impacting patient-wise.
Steven Ruffing (22:19):
Yeah, absolutely .
As we wrap this up, this wasgreat for one thing.
I mean, something like this andits capabilities is something
that should make a lot of peopleexcited.
Just what you guys are doing,what you've been able to
accomplish thus far, it reallyis great.
What else would you guys wantto add?
That maybe that we left off,that people can kind of look
(22:42):
forward to, kind of get excitedabout?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (22:44):
Yeah, I mean, if you're listening in,
you're interested in, you know,joining our mission.
Please do reach out.
We're always looking to sharewhat we're working with others
and we're always looking to growthe team and, of course,
fundraise for our next endeavor.
So if there's anybody that'stuning in, that's interested in
learning more, please don'thesitate to reach out.
Steven Ruffing (23:04):
That leads me into my next question how can
people stay in touch, keep up todate on all of the latest news
from you guys from LeeMaxBiosciences?
Give the people a little bit ofinformation of how they can
maybe reach out or continue tofollow along with the journey.
Phoebe Kwon (23:20):
You can find us on lemaxbiosciencescom or also
follow us on LinkedIn, and youcan subscribe to our website and
reach out.
Steven Ruffing (23:28):
Yeah, no, that's great.
We're looking forward toourselves following along with
the journey.
We'd love to work togetheragain, and I just can't thank
you guys enough for taking thetime out of your day and joining
us on the show.
Well, thanks again for havingus.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (23:42):
I look forward to keeping you posted
with all of our progress in themonths to years ahead.
Steven Ruffing (23:47):
Yeah, absolutely , definitely.
Keep in touch.
We're excited.
We're excited about the futurefor LEMAX.
Well, thanks very much again.
We're excited about the futurefor for LEMAX.
Well, thanks very much again.
Yeah, absolutely, the pleasurewas all ours.
All right, everyone.
That is all the time we have.
We'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of the Four Worlds
podcast.
Until next time, you can catchup on the latest innovations
(24:10):
shaping our world attomorrowsworldtodaycom.
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subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Welcome to the Four Worlds podcast from
Tomorrow's World.
Today we're diving into thelatest in tech, science and
sustainability, from nature'smysteries and the world of
inspiration to the hands-oncrafts of creation, the bold
breakthroughs of innovation andthe scaled-up wonders of
production.
This is your ticket to thestories shaping tomorrow, and
(00:24):
welcome back everyone.
Have you ever heard ofbiomimicry?
So it's a design approach thatviews nature as a mentor, model
and measure for creatingsustainable solutions.
With us today is BenjaminFriedman and Phoebe Kwan from
WeMax Biosciences to discusstheir slug inspired hydrogels.
(00:44):
Before we get into all of that,thanks so much for joining us.
How are you guys Doing?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (00:49):
well, how are you?
Steven Ruffing (00:49):
doing Great.
You know, this is another onewe're excited for.
We're really looking forward tothis because it is an
interesting concept.
So what I will ask is if youjust kind of introduce
yourselves and tell me a littlebit about LEMAX before we really
get into what you guys do.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (01:03):
Sure sounds good.
Well, thanks so much again forhaving us here.
I'm really excited to sharemore about our story with you.
So I'm Ben Friedman.
I'm a founder of LEMAXBiosciences.
I'm a bioengineer by training,and it's a technology that I've
been working on for a number ofyears now, which is really the
culmination of much of the workthat I completed during my
postdoctoral fellowship in DaveMooney's lab at the Wyss
(01:23):
Institute at Harvard University.
Steven Ruffing (01:26):
And Phoebe what's your background, how did
you get involved in WeMaxBiosciences and kind of a little
bit about your story.
Phoebe Kwon (01:32):
So I have a background in biology and
material science and I startedworking as a research tech at
the Wyss Institute and throughthat I met Ben and started
working on this project.
Steven Ruffing (01:48):
No, that's great .
So you meet at the WyssInstitute and then, in 2021,
that's where LEMAX Biosciencesstarted hitting the ground
running.
So what inspired?
What was that inspirationbehind getting this off the
ground and that early visionfrom your time at the Wyss
Institute?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (02:07):
So I came and started in the lab as a
postdoc with a strong interestin tendon ligament biomechanics
and at the beginning we werereally focused on applying these
materials to augment tendon andligament healing.
And those studies wereprogressing.
And when everything started toshut down during the pandemic we
had essentially applied to oneof these NSFI core grants which
(02:28):
enabled us to start to exploremany other applications of the
technology beyond orthopedics.
And through those customerdiscovery interviews we started
talking to experts inneurosurgery and dermatology and
general surgery and plasticsurgery and with those calls we
started to realize the trueplatform potential of the
technology.
So when the pandemic started towind down, when we returned to
(02:52):
the lab we started undertaking anumber of studies to really
investigate the full platformpotential of the technology and
through those discussions andthe data that we started to
collect it became clear thatthere was some interesting
commercial opportunity for thetechnology.
We started getting involvedwith many different accelerators
and incubators right on theHarvard campus, the Harvard
(03:12):
Innovation Labs and others inthe Boston ecosystem and through
each of those engagements welearned more about the
translational potential of thetechnology and it really
motivated us to want to form acompany in this space, to try to
take the technology andtranslate it to ultimately
impact patient care.
Steven Ruffing (03:30):
And so when we're thinking about this
HydroGel technology and I sayslug-inspired, give me a little
bit of background about that.
When people hear slug-inspired,where does that inspiration
come from?
How did you land on slugs asthe foundation for this
innovation?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (03:48):
Yeah, so we're coming from the Institute
for Biologically InspiredEngineering.
We try to turn to nature forinspiration to try to engineer
new materials and systems.
So when we take a historicallook back at existing
bioadhesives and sealants,oftentimes researchers have
focused primarily on generatingstrong adhesion under lung
(04:09):
surfaces.
You may have heard aboutmuscle-inspired adhesives and
other types of biopolymers, butthese are confronted with one
common limitation of thematerials themselves have poor
cohesive properties.
The matrix that comprises themis essentially weak and brittle
and they fracture.
Even though they may interferestrongly, the overall matrix or
(04:30):
hydrogel that supports them isweak and brittle.
What we tried to do was turn toa different type of inspiration
.
We came across the slug,particularly the dusty marion
slug.
It's actually a reallyinteresting, cool garden
creature.
Slug slime has highstretchability.
You can take slug slime andstretch it about 10 to 15 times
(04:52):
its length without breaking.
It's a hydrodial system.
It's about 90% water.
It's composed of ions, proteinsand sugars which give it these
interesting tough properties.
So we said, hey, this is muchmore of a stretchable, tough
material.
Maybe this would have differentfeatures if we tried to
recapitulate them in our ownmaterials.
So, without using any slowcomponents, we tried to create
materials that behave in asimilar way In the lab.
(05:13):
What we did was we basicallycombined an existing hydrogel
system that had been developedyears before by some other
former postdoctoral fellows inthe laboratory, and we basically
combined this dual-networkhydrogel with a liquid-based
adhesive surface which containsprimary anemones that work as
float slime and, lo and behold,the system stuck pretty strongly
(05:36):
to wet tissue surfaces and wewere surprised by how robust
that adhesion was and it reallydrew us down and led us down the
path of many interestingstudies and collaborations.
And here we are today.
Steven Ruffing (05:49):
No, that's great .
And with all of that backgroundand coming up with that idea,
taking the inspiration from slugslime, what was that maybe
personal or clinical or evenscientific moment that really
sparked the need for thisstretchable, wet, adhesive
biomaterial?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (06:07):
Yeah, I mean we tried to test these
materials in all sorts ofextreme conditions and you know,
one fun case for this is we.
You know we had some activecollaborations going on in some
large animal studies.
We stuck it to the surface of afeeding part of a pig and that
image and video still, I think,strikes everybody today when
they see it for the first time.
Steven Ruffing (06:28):
A material that's 90% water.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (06:30):
That's highly stretchable sticking to
an actively beating organ.
You don't see that with anyother material system that's
been developed to date.
So you know that I think hasbeen a big aha moment for us as
we look ahead towards what thesematerials can do and how they
may potentially transformpatient care.
Steven Ruffing (06:47):
Right and Phoebe with your background.
What was that moment like foryou when you, as Ben said that
aha moment?
What was going through yourmind when something finally
clicked with this technology?
Phoebe Kwon (07:00):
I've always been interested in improving patient
lives and just because thecurrent standard of care is very
lacking and you know, you couldimagine like a Band-Aid being
stuck on what services like,that doesn't really work well.
So you can imagine like havingour hydrogel system stick in
(07:21):
that environment and last, andyou know, move with this
dynamically moving tissue.
Steven Ruffing (07:27):
that was, that was just like sorry, no, you're
fine, just a big moment for youguys, I'm sure yes, it's a big
moment for us so let's take itback.
You know, lemax, biosciences2021 when things really started,
(07:47):
get to get rolling the fastforward to 2022, the harvard
president's innovation challenge.
How did that winning that awardshape your belief and really,
you know, set the standard forthis mission?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (08:02):
Yeah, we were there.
We were on the stage.
There were hundreds oftechnologies that were being
initially pitched as part of theinnovation challenge, and then
we were sitting on the stagewith four other amazing teams in
the Boston Harbor to give us aWinning.
The challenge was huge for usto rocket and really kickstart
our progress.
(08:23):
The time that we were justcoming out of the laboratory and
having the support of theBurger Lake Foundation enabled
us to start to take on some ofthose challenges.
We were incredibly grateful forthat initial financial support,
as it really kicked off theinitial product development for
the technology on the startupside.
Steven Ruffing (08:41):
Right, no, that's great.
That's again another huge featfor you guys and winning that
going into those earlyprototypes of the HEMA-MAX in
this adhesive.
How did those early prototypeskind of evolve from concept to,
you know, a physical adhesivethat can have practical use?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (09:00):
I mean, there's a lot of iterations in
material science.
You know the initialformulations that we worked with
years ago.
We've been taking active stepsto simplify, you know.
Do we need this component?
Do we not need that component?
How does this, you know, viewedin the eyes of the FDA?
We've made a number ofiterations over the years.
So, for example, the initialformulation wasn't resorbable.
We've made it resorbable andwe've done other modifications
(09:22):
to the system to sort of make iteasier to handle core
clinicians, whether it be.
What size or shape should be?
How long it's going to take toget it to set up?
How should it be stored?
What's the shelf life?
There's all sorts of variablesthat come into play as we try to
take it from an academicexercise into a viable product.
Steven Ruffing (09:39):
And I think that leads kind of seamlessly into
my next question and I'd love tohear both of your thoughts
because I'm sure there might bedifferent answers from you, ben,
and from you, phoebe.
Some of those challenges indesigning the hydrogel, you know
, that adheres so strongly butremains stretchable, and going
through all of those variables,I'd love to hear some of those
(10:01):
challenges that you know both ofyou have faced throughout the
development process.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (10:06):
Yeah, so where to begin?
I mean, let's talk about makingthe materials to grade.
There are different ways tomake them to grade.
Do you want them to go fast ordo you want them to go slow and
kind of the bench size?
What do the clinicians want?
How is this very currentvacation?
All these areas are importantpoints that you need feedback
(10:27):
from end users, you needfeedback from the FDA and then,
of course, there's scientificconstraints.
So I think, as we kicked outthat arm of the product, all
those variables came into play,continue to come into play, and
we want to make sure you'redesigning the product around the
right form factor.
Steven Ruffing (10:51):
And what about you, phoebe?
Was there any maybe differentchallenges that you may have
faced that might be a littledifferent from Ben's, or did you
kind of feel those same hurdlesas this process moved along?
Phoebe Kwon (10:59):
I think it's similar, I think, coming from an
academic research, totranslating it out into actual
benchside use product definitelytakes a lot of iteration and,
as Ben mentioned, needs a lot ofuser input.
So that could completely changethe design that us scientists
(11:20):
and engineers need to come upwith.
Yeah, it's like balancing thestrength and the stretch and
safe degradation.
You know fda is always lookingto make sure about like we're
not putting toxic chemicals inour bodies, which are luckily
ours is like bio-inspired, verybio-friendly, but other other
(11:42):
standard care materials strugglewith that a lot as well.
Steven Ruffing (11:52):
So, being able to balance all of these
different aspects of what goesinto a medical device and when,
just talking about all of thosethings that kind of go into it,
I mean, let's say, guess what,it's not easy, it's not an easy
process.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (12:20):
So some of those challenges and getting
over those hurdles is incredible.
And when you're going throughall of that, what were those
design is that?
You know you must be able tocut it to any size or shape
without it breaking orfracturing right.
Oftentimes clinicians may wantto do that on the operating
field.
That's a must-have.
Another must-have, you know, isit's not requiring any sort of
cold chain or refrigerationchain of refrigeration.
(12:43):
A lot of existing materialsthat have been commercialized
require cold storage To overcomesome of those limitations.
For transport, I might haveapplications both for civilian
use as well as military.
Dfd Removing cold chain is amust-have.
Shelf life Some materials thathave been commercialized contain
human dry products.
(13:03):
They have shorter shelf lives.
We don't have that problem.
We can have extended shelf lifeand maintain performance.
Another one could involvesterilization.
There are some materials outthere that can't be terminally
sterilized, but ours can, andthat enables new applications.
So there's all sorts ofmust-haves when you design it.
Of course, the materials haveto perform well and they have to
(13:26):
be superior to standard of careand they have to be in demand
by clinicians.
So we balance all those areasas we look towards new
indications and applications.
You know the list of must-havesor our target product profile
is generated for those types ofapplications.
Steven Ruffing (13:44):
Yeah, absolutely , and you know, throughout this
process again, it's like ahands-on, all hands on deck kind
of situation.
You know, with amultidisciplinary team, you know
from material science toclinical advisors.
You two come from, you knowdifferent backgrounds and what
you focus on.
How did all that shape thedevelopment journey?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (14:03):
Yeah, so I think it's all about the team
, about the team, and we lookfor folks to come on the team
that share, you know, of course,common interests and you know
collegiality, you know creatingcomfortable work environment and
passion for what we're doing.
But we also look for folks thatcan bring key skill sets and
expertise.
We like folks to feel validatedas they bring those different
(14:26):
areas to the team.
So, you know, we have a core ofmaterial science and
bioengineering, I'd say, but wealso see clinicians that have a
variety of different experienceareas and different indications
and dealing with differentpatient populations and may have
an eye for translation, for howto design trials.
We go to top regulatory folks.
We go to top folks that cansupport us in animal studies and
(14:48):
reimbursement and qualitymanagement.
So we're always looking for thebest talent.
As we built the team so far andI look forward to building it
even more in the future.
Steven Ruffing (14:58):
Yeah, absolutely , and that team, I'm sure had a
lot of hands in some of thosekey scientific breakthroughs,
when we're talking about anadhesive that could be stronger
than traditional sealants, thatcan stretch even more and work
in wet and dynamic biologicalenvironments.
So what were some of those keyscientific breakthroughs as you
(15:19):
explored all of that that canstretch even more and work in
wet and dynamic biologicalenvironments.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (15:23):
So what were some of those key
scientific breakthroughs as youexplored all of that?
Oh man, there's been a number.
I mean.
They seem to happen everycouple of years or so.
Knock on wood, they'll keepcontinuing that way.
I mean, the first one was astretchable hydrogel.
We won't take credit for that.
That was developed previouslyby other members of the
laboratory, but just creating ahydrogel that was stretchable
was previously not demonstrated.
So traditional hydrogels areweak or brittle.
You don't stretch them morethan a couple times their length
.
So back in 2012, when thestretchable tough hydrogel was
(15:46):
developed, here's a systemthat's developed.
You can stretch it 20 times itslength without breaking.
That was a step function, thefact that you could.
Then it took another five yearsbefore we discovered that that
material could be sticky totissues, and since then we've
seen an explosion in the fieldon developing tough hydrogel
materials that can adhere.
(16:07):
Such as us, there's others thatare working in this space, all
built on this same foundationalprinciple.
Since then, we've hadmilestones where we've made
these systems work as integrateddrug delivery systems, where
we've shown that they can notonly attach to wet surfaces but
be able to deliver payloadslocally for extended periods of
time.
(16:27):
We've made milestones to makethese materials absorb ever wet
away.
We've created milestones tomake them attach to each other
in other areas instantly, aswell as simplifying the
formulation to remove the needfor the addition of any other
coupling agents added to thesystem during its attachment to
the tissue.
So I'm not sure what the nextbig milestone will be, but these
(16:49):
tend to happen with many andsmaller breakthroughs along the
way, and so we're eager to seewhat we come up with next.
Steven Ruffing (16:56):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, there's a lot ofpotential here and I can't even
imagine some of the you know,the breakthrough implications,
the breakthrough potential thatyou hold in the future.
And even just talking aboutthat, that localized drug
delivery, one of that, a bigbreakthrough there what, what
problems does that solve that?
(17:17):
Maybe existing methods, youknow, might not.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (17:19):
yeah we think there's a few areas for
local drug delivery, but one isis the ability for it to be
local.
Unlike existing materials theymight just inject, this material
can stick to the target tissuethat you want it to go and it
will stay there for weeks.
So we think that's a one areathat's useful and we think that
the pipe that can serve as alocal depot for a drug or any
drug or existing drug deliverysystem is another advantage.
(17:42):
In terms of the amount of drug,we can load unprecedented
amounts of drug into the gel.
Most hydrogels are typicallypretty weak or brittle, as we
talked about, and they'reusually not loaded more than 1
or 10 mg per ml drug.
We can load these materials upto 500 mg per mil drug.
They still maintain their samepercentage of early indication.
(18:04):
So we're looking at order ofmagnitude improvement there, all
using very simple drug releasestrategies.
Steven Ruffing (18:08):
So we think all these areas may open the doors
for some opportunity for thesematerials as advanced drug
delivery systems Absolutely, andwe talked about you know some
of the challenges getting intothat and getting to that point,
finding that localized drugdelivery system.
What about some regulatory and,of course, maybe some
scientific hurdles that youfaced when bringing this new
(18:31):
class-absorbable adhesive to aclass two or three device market
?
I'd love to hear about thatsome things that people might
not know when it comes to anysort of medical development.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (18:44):
Sure.
So for those tuning in that arenew to the FDA space, or just
device regulation.
So there's different ways thatdevices are classified.
Of course, if it's a deviceversus a biologic, even within
the devices it's a device versusa biologic.
Even within the devices.
You know it's a class one,class two, class three device.
The higher the class, the morescrutiny FDA will place on it.
So our technology hasapplications in both class two
(19:06):
and class three areas as well ascombination product devices.
And you know, depending on theclass, it dictates how much
testing is required for FDAapproval, how much funding might
be required to bring atechnology to market.
So you know we, as part of ourprogram development, we're
pursuing both areas actively andwe've had several positive
(19:28):
engagements with the FDA so farand we hope to share more
exciting news soon.
So please stay tuned for somepress releases in this space to
share more exciting news soon.
Steven Ruffing (19:37):
So please stay tuned for some press releases in
this space.
Yeah, absolutely, again, we'lllook forward to that and I'm
sure you know, hopefully peoplewill listen to this and keep an
eye out as well.
And so that is great.
And just thinking about some ofits capabilities and the wide
range of different indicationsthat it could do, how do you
tailor Hemamax's tunableproperties from those different
(19:58):
applications, from minor woundsto internal hemorrhage control?
Yeah, that's a great question.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (20:04):
So you know, I think, that the
performance is similar.
When we talk about thedifferences, you know how long
that material may be in contactwith the tissue for and if it
will need to degrade or beremoved over time, and so I
think those are some of thebiggest differences that we
think about when we think aboutgoing from a class two product
to a class three device.
Steven Ruffing (20:26):
Yeah, no, that is.
It is Thinking about that.
It is something that'sspectacular and how you even you
know how you get it to thatpoint.
It really is.
It really is great.
I'm really interested in theproduction process as well.
Let's talking about aboutscaling.
How does that scalingproduction in the manufacturing
(20:48):
process work?
Is it in-house, leveragingpartnerships?
What does that kind of looklike?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (20:53):
Yeah, so we are looking into various
partnerships for this space, ofcourse, developing some things
in-house, but also ways that wecan further enhance our
scalability while keeping theteam lean.
So we are taking some activesteps on both fronts to be able
to produce these materials atscale and for the writing,
different demands that will benecessary or the volumes that
(21:16):
are going to be necessary tomeet the clinical demands.
Steven Ruffing (21:19):
No, yeah, that's , that's great.
And and we talked about thefuture a little bit I'd love to
know what does let's say it's socliche, but that five year
timeline look where do you seeyourselves in five years?
What's the future?
What's?
What are the next, uh, goalsthat you guys are trying to hit?
Phoebe Kwon (21:38):
um, I think the next goals we're trying to hit
are to finalize pre-clinicaltrials and key surgical models
and then move into earlyfeasibility human clinical
studies and, yeah, and run pilotprograms with searchable teams
to refine usability.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (22:00):
And ultimately we're trying to get
these materials into the handsof clinicians.
So we're going to be lookingtowards at least one FDA
approval in the coming years andhopefully some steps where we
can then start to scale thetechnology and get it to
impacting patient-wise.
Steven Ruffing (22:19):
Yeah, absolutely .
As we wrap this up, this wasgreat for one thing.
I mean, something like this andits capabilities is something
that should make a lot of peopleexcited.
Just what you guys are doing,what you've been able to
accomplish thus far, it reallyis great.
What else would you guys wantto add?
That maybe that we left off,that people can kind of look
(22:42):
forward to, kind of get excitedabout?
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (22:44):
Yeah, I mean, if you're listening in,
you're interested in, you know,joining our mission.
Please do reach out.
We're always looking to sharewhat we're working with others
and we're always looking to growthe team and, of course,
fundraise for our next endeavor.
So if there's anybody that'stuning in, that's interested in
learning more, please don'thesitate to reach out.
Steven Ruffing (23:04):
That leads me into my next question how can
people stay in touch, keep up todate on all of the latest news
from you guys from LeeMaxBiosciences?
Give the people a little bit ofinformation of how they can
maybe reach out or continue tofollow along with the journey.
Phoebe Kwon (23:20):
You can find us on lemaxbiosciencescom or also
follow us on LinkedIn, and youcan subscribe to our website and
reach out.
Steven Ruffing (23:28):
Yeah, no, that's great.
We're looking forward toourselves following along with
the journey.
We'd love to work togetheragain, and I just can't thank
you guys enough for taking thetime out of your day and joining
us on the show.
Well, thanks again for havingus.
Benjamin Freedman, PhD (23:42):
I look forward to keeping you posted
with all of our progress in themonths to years ahead.
Steven Ruffing (23:47):
Yeah, absolutely , definitely.
Keep in touch.
We're excited.
We're excited about the futurefor LEMAX.
Well, thanks very much again.
We're excited about the futurefor for LEMAX.
Well, thanks very much again.
Yeah, absolutely, the pleasurewas all ours.
All right, everyone.
That is all the time we have.
We'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of the Four Worlds
podcast.
Until next time, you can catchup on the latest innovations
(24:10):
shaping our world attomorrowsworldtodaycom.
Follow us on Facebook andInstagram, and be sure to
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