Scientists at MISIS University developed a next-generation medical dressing that both stops bleeding and prevents infections in severe wounds sustained in the field or during emergencies. The material effectively suppresses the growth of dangerous pathogens, including antibiotic-resistant strains.
Chronic and hard-to-heal wounds—such as burns and severe injuries often seen in disaster zones or combat conditions—are highly vulnerable to infection, especially from bacteria resistant to most modern antibiotics. Infections caused by these microorganisms can have severe consequences, while conventional dressings are unable to both protect complex wounds from microbes and accelerate their healing.
“Researchers at MISIS, led by one of the world’s leading materials scientists, Professor Dmitry Shashnkov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Inorganic Nanomaterials Research Center, have created a dressing designed primarily for severe injuries in conditions where medical help is limited. It is made of a nanofiber material—an ultra-thin membrane with fibers hundreds of times thinner than a human hair. This innovative patch, which has already passed clinical trials, can reduce blood loss by nearly four times compared to standard dressings, accelerate wound healing, and destroy a wide spectrum of bacterial strains. It also shows promise for treating diabetic ulcers and severe burns,” MISIS Rector Alevtina Chernikova.
The membrane is produced from biodegradable polycaprolactone, reinforced with copper oxide nanoparticles and additionally treated with the antibiotics neomycin and bacitracin.
“Polycaprolactone was chosen for its biocompatibility, strength, and ability to mimic the extracellular matrix that promotes tissue regeneration. The nanofibers were obtained using electrospinning with copper oxide nanoparticles. As a result, the membranes demonstrate high mechanical strength — up to ~12 MPa in tensile tests, exceeding the performance of many commercial dressings,” Kristina Kotyakova, PhD in Engineering Sciences and researcher at the MISIS Inorganic Nanomaterials Research Center.
In animal tests, the new dressing reduced blood loss by a factor of 4.6 compared to conventional materials. Researchers from Lomonosov Moscow State University and the State Research Center for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology confirmed the material’s strong antibacterial and antifungal activity, noting high efficacy against antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, and the fungus Candida auris. The findings were published in Chemical Engineering Journal (Q1).
Authors claim the study opens new opportunities in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and may find applications both in field conditions and in hospitals. Expanded preclinical and clinical trials are planned in the near future. The team already has a strategic partner — the Russian company “KroveStop,” which specializes in products for bleeding control.
The research was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (No.
and carried out as part of MISIS’s strategic technological project Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials under the Russian Ministry of Education and Science’s Priority-2030 program.
