Produced by a small US biotech company called Suneris, VetiGel is a new medical adhesive made from plant-based polymers.
Developed by New York University student Joe Landolina over the past four years, the gel works by causing blood platelets to stick together and clot as soon as they come into contact with it.
The Suneris lab explains how the gel works at their website:
The gel activates blood's natural clotting process and is made with biocompatible components that can be absorbed directly into the body. By reassembling onto a wound site, VETIGEL mimics the body's extracellular matrix and accelerates the production of fibrin, which enables the body to clot rapidly.
Here's what it looks like, courtesy of SPLOID:
The lab is yet to run trials on human subjects, but their lab tests appear to be having very positive results. They're now testing it out on animal wounds in vet hospitals, and if that goes well, they'll get to human testing and apply for approval to bring it to the market.
"Our goal is to get this in every ambulance, in every soldier's belt, and in every mom's purse," Landolina told Bloomberg News. "And to be in every mom's purse means having a product that is easy enough to be used by just about everybody."
Here's Landolina talking about VetiGel in a recent TED talk:
Sources: Suneris, Bloomberg News, SPLOID