I helped develop and still participate in the two-semester senior design sequence. This is in essence what a BME degree leads up to: giving the student enough content knowledge so they can go through the design process in a BME application as well as understand the steps to commercialize a medical device.

The other main class I teach is a tissue interaction course, which is for both graduate and undergraduate students. The class has three parts:

1. Students are exposed to histology and implant pathophysiology so they can understand the histology portion of biomaterials papers and talks.
2. The course then goes into more depth about the types of biological responses around implants.
3. Finally, students use the first two parts to help go through the steps necessary to get regulatory approval of a device of the student’s choosing.

Most of what I do relates to restorative/repair phenomenon. My interest is in designing better scaffold systems to help repair and regenerate damaged tissue. Although the main interest is in degradable regenerative systems; it is realized that in many cases you have to start with a system that is not degradable or regenerative and research ways to make it that way (I call this the biocompatibility hierarchy). I have also examined methods to attach tissue and/or immobilize it to help in the healing process (e.g. bone plates, intramedullary rods, and sutures).

Over the years different matrix materials and strategies have been used. In the last 20 years the main application has been skin wounds. Most recently it has been degradable metals for orthopedics. For skin wounds, the most recent efforts have been in developing a treatment for pressure ulcers in an injured spinal cord that could be delivered at the patient’s home by a home-health nurse.  The goal is not only to shorten the healing time, but to do so in a cost-effective, commercializable way. This is similar to part of the design requirements for our students in senior design projects. Although I have explored tissue engineering methods to get the maximum healing benefit; — with stem cells, growth factors, and gene therapy — the ultimate solution needs to be as simple as possible with a reasonable path through the FDA and lead to a reduction in health care costs (typically by moving care to less expensive settings and provided by individuals who charge less for their services — also reducing post treatment care time and therefore costs).

One of the solutions has been an electric bandage that mimics the field in regenerative animals vs. the scarring in humans. This came out of a M.S. project and turned into a company (with my former student as president) that developed a product that is being sold overseas (recently bought by L’Oreal). The other approach has been using a natural tissue adhesive scaffold to mimic the structure, function, and mechanical properties of the normal provisional wound healing matrix; degrading and releasing factors and chemoattractants as the wound heals under biofeedback control. In addition, we have been adding the patient’s own stem cells (endothelial progenitor cells or mesenchymal stem cells). The system works as a two part glue that sets up in and conforms to the wound as well as can be administered at the patient’s home.

I have also been working on commercializing degradable metals for orthopedic applications. This came from collaborators at the University of Alabama who have developed a surface treatment that can slow the degradation of Mg-based metals, in a controllable way, in order to make them useful for orthopedic applications. We have just finished a Phase I STTR showing in vitro feasibility and are currently working on Phase II proposals that will select specific applications (some that senior design students have worked on). The initial focus will be on internal fixation devices.

• Sealy, M., Guo, Y., Caslaru, R., Sharkins, J., and Feldman, D., Fatigue performance of biodegradable magnesium–calcium alloy processed by laser shock peening for orthopedic implants, Int J Fatigue, 82:428-436, 2016 (online September 2015).
• Stoff A, Rivera AA, Sanjib Banerjee N, Moore ST, Michael Numnum T, Espinosa-de-Los-Monteros A, Richter DF, Siegal GP, Chow LT, Feldman D, Vasconez LO, Michael Mathis J, Stoff-Khalili MA, Curiel DT, Promotion of incisional wound repair by human mesenchymal stem cell transplantation. Exp Dermatol. 2009 Apr;1 8(4):362-9.
• Jennings, A., Chen, D., and Feldman, D., Transcriptional response of dermal fibroblasts in direct current electric fields, Bioelectromagnetics, 29(5): 394-405, 2008.
• McClain, A. and Feldman, D., Engineering applications for middle school mathematics education: supporting an inquiry-based classroom environment, American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.
• Kilpadi, D. and Feldman, D., Biocompatibility of silicone gel breast Implants, Biomaterials Engineering and Devices: Human Applications, Vol. 1, ed. D. Wise, 2000, Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, 57-84.
• Bowman, J. and Feldman, D., Tissue adhesives for growth factor delivery, Biomaterials and Bioengineering Handbook, ed. D. Wise, 2000, Marcel Dekker, New York, 261-312.
• Feldman, D., Barker, T., Blum B., Kilpadi, D., and Redden, R., Tissue assessment of skin substitutes, Biomaterials and Bioengineering Handbook, ed. D. Wise, 2000, Marcel Dekker, New York, 773-806.
• Feldman, D., Barker, T., Bowman, J., Blum B., Kilpadi, D., and Redden, R., Biomaterial enhanced regeneration for skin wounds, Biomaterials and Bioengineering Handbook, ed. D. Wise, 2000, Marcel Dekker, New York,  807-842.
• Saltz, R., Sierra, D., Feldman, D., Saltz, M., Dimick, A., and Vasconez, L., Experimental and clinical applications of fibrin glue, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 88(6): 1005-1015, 1991.

• Adjunct appointment at UAH and the University of Alabama
• Secondary faculty appointment in Materials Engineering at UAB
• Society for Biomaterials
• Wound Healing Society
• Biomedical Engineering Society

• Faculty advisor for BMES
• Faculty advisor for SFB