The Technology. Critical elements of the Gelastomer hydrogel elastomer technology were conceived and developed in the research laboratories of Colorado State University through a series of grant awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF-1808824, NSF-1160026, NSF-0645781), National Institutes of Health (R21AR069826-01), and Colorado’s Office for Economic Development and International Trade (APP-347148). Through these grants, strategies for imparting mechanical durability, strength and toughness into polymeric hydrogels, enabled through advances in synthetic polymer design and network nanostructure, paved the way for the first Gelastomer materials.
Origin Story
Gelastomerics LLC. Gelastomerics LLC was founded in April 2023 as a CSU STRATA (Colorado State University’s Technology Transfer Office) endorsed startup aspiring to further develop and commercialize Gelastomer resin formulations for use in the medical device industry. Our mission is to use materials innovation to finally address the critical absence of intrinsically lubricious, low-friction polymeric materials in the current medical plastics markets.
Since its inception, the Gelastomerics team has been an active participant in National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps Regional (I-Corps Hub West, 2023) and National Teams (2024) programs, Innosphere Ventures 2024 Life Sciences Start-up Incubator program (sponsored by CSU STRATA), and was awarded its first Phase I Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR Phase I) grant award from National Science Foundation’s Biomedical Technologies program.
