PLASM™

Pulsed Laser Assisted Surface Modification (PLASM™) is a fast, dry process for applying thin coatings to biomedical devices. Several techniques such as gamma irradiation, plasma treatment, radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, dip-coating, and chemical modification techniques have been researched over the past several years to produce biocompatible coatings onto medical devices such as stents, catheters, vascular grafts, contact lenses, ocular implants, oral implants, hip implants, pacemakers / defibrillators, and bone fixation devices. Unfortunately these processes are limited by poor control of adhesion and composition, rigorous processing conditions, and long reaction times.

PLASM™ provides a new method for changing the surface properties of implants by depositing ultrafine layers of polymers through a non-aqueous, non-solvent technique near atmospheric pressure. PLASM™ is a vapor deposition process that uses a pulsed laser under controlled conditions. Among the many advantages of PLASM™ are control of both the thickness and uniformity of the polymer coating on any surface, as well as including drugs in a biodegradable or biocompatible polymer for release over several days.

Pulsed Laser Assisted Surface Functionalization (PLASF™), similar to PLASM™, has been developed as a fast method to create even more complex surfaces, i.e. a protein or catalytic enzyme attached to a polymer coating. PLASF™ has also been used to change the normal structure of a polymer coating, thus imparting novel surface properties, like increasing the wettability or the adhesion properties of an implanted device. Both processes offer tailored surface properties to large or small devices in a matter of minutes.

Microscope images of (A) uncoated glass slide seeded with E. coli and (B) PTFE-coated slide showing reduced bacterial adhesion using PLASM™ process.

Nanotherapeutics offers contract manufacturing of PLASM™ / PLASF™ thin-film coatings for evaluation, as well as:

• spray-coatings
  
• surface modification
  
• in vitro / in vivo characterization and testing