UCSB chemistry professor receives top military award for life-sa...( UC Santa Barbara Chemistry Professor...)

UC Santa Barbara Chemistry Professor Galen Stucky has been honored for his role in the development of a blood-clotting gauze that is helping save soldiers who suffer severe, life-threatening injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense's Advanced Technology Applications for Combat Casualty Care Award was presented to Stucky August 11 during the opening ceremonies of the group's annual meeting in Florida. The ATACCC convention is the premier scientific meeting on the battlefield medical needs of the nation's soldiers and on recent advances in trauma surgery and medicine.

"I am very honored," said Stucky of the ATACCC award. "In retrospect, this project has meant more to me than any other that I've worked on for the past 40 years. The most important aspect of this work is the thought that it is providing life support that is needed on an immediate-response basis to both military and civilian personnel. For those who knowingly are in harm's way, it is particularly important."

Severe battlefield injuries present unique problems in stemming blood loss, which is the primary cause of combat deaths. Medics may have less than two minutes to stop blood loss before death is imminent. In 2004, Stucky and his colleagues were asked by the Office of Naval Research to work with Connecticut-based Z-Medica to improve its zeolite-based substance, QuikClot brand hemostatic agent, which promotes instant clotting and sealing of the wound until the injured can be taken to medical facilities. Adding to the task, the Navy wanted a solution within six months.

QuikClot, though effective in stanching blood flow, had the potential to cause second-degree burns around the wound. Stucky and his UCSB research team developed a "cooler formulation" of the product, eliminating the possibility of heat generation that existed in the first-generation formula. A Z-Medica team then created another "cooler" version of QuikClot that also maintains the
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