Innovations that make our lives better

Bern [ENA] The Swiss Materials Science and Technology Institute, known as Empa, has presented the “Empa Innovation Award” to outstanding innovation and technology transfer projects. The prize, endowed with CHF 5,000, honors a person, a group or a department for excellent innovations or a successful technology transfer in the private sector. In addition, two recognition prizes with an amount of CHF 2,000 each will be awarded.

Among the innovations that will bridge the gap between science and business in 2020 and beyond are three developments that have now been honored with the Empa Innovation Award: a nanoparticle adhesive for wounds, a transparent corona mask and software for sustainable ones Energy use. The first prize of this year's "Empa Innovation Award" goes to a health technology that is retiring surgical suture material: Nanoglue is a new type of tissue adhesive technology that promises faster and safer wound healing.

Nanoparticles adhesive for wounds

It was developed by researchers at the Particles-Biology Interactions Laboratory at Empa in St. Gallen in collaboration with the Nanoparticle Systems Engineering Lab at ETH. Their approach differs radically from existing solutions as it uses the wound healing properties of inorganic hybrid materials. Unlike previous wound adhesives, which mainly consist of the body's own protein fibrin, the technology is based on a combination of inorganic nanoparticles. The adhesive particles bind particularly well to bone or soft tissue, depending on the recipe. Other wound healing effects, such as accelerated blood clotting, are promising for the treatment of external and internal wounds.

The wound adhesive is based on inexpensive materials that can be produced on a large scale and adheres strongly to the tissue, as experiments with prototypes have shown. Nanoglue can thus ensure faster and safer wound healing and benefits patients, hospitals and the economy. So far, poorly healing wounds have been a major burden for those affected and an increasing cost factor for the health system.

Transparent cirurgical mask

The Hello Mask project, in which researchers from Empa and EPFL developed a transparent face mask, also received an award. The Hello-Mask is a prime example of an innovation that can solve the problems of tomorrow: the ambitious team started in 2018 with the aim of producing transparent surgical masks that keep germs away, but does not cover up the lip movement and facial expressions of the wearer. While face masks are meanwhile being used millions of times in everyday life due to the corona pandemic, the need for transparent masks grew at the same time in various population groups such as health and school staff. Deaf associations and nursing homes are also very interested in such a mask.

The transparent surgical mask should now be available by mid-2021. “The completely transparent mask was developed primarily with the aim of improving the relationship between nursing staff and patients,” said Empa researcher Joshua Avossa from the “Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles” department in St. Gallen, who accepted the award. In order to bring transparency, durability and porosity into harmony in particular, two years of joint research at Empa and EPFL were necessary. The result is a membrane made from a polymer specially developed for this application. The arrangement of the fibers creates tiny spaces with a pore size of around 100 nanometers that allow air to pass through, but hold back viruses and bacteria.

Sustainable energy systems

One of the winners of the “Empa Innovation Award” is “Urban Sympheny”, a software platform for planning sustainable energy systems. The Empa spin-off, founded in 2020, focuses on software-based support in the planning of sustainable energy systems for city districts, districts and communities. The aim is to help energy system planners to navigate quickly, comprehensively and effectively through the spectrum of available technological options in energy system planning and to identify a number of optimal design solutions that are tailored to the specific boundary conditions and goals of a particular location and customer.

"We offer a flexible SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that improves our customers' existing workflows, which can lower project costs, and which enables planners to achieve ambitious goals in energy efficiency strategies," explains Sympheny. CEO Andrew Bollinger. The innovative software platform was developed in Empa's “Urban Energy Systems” department as part of the “Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research” (SCCER) “Future Energy Efficient Buildings & Districts”. Urban Sympheny was honored by Venture Kick last year and received CHF 50,000. (SOURCE: EMPA)