
Who We Are?
Curical is a private start-up founded in 2015 to investigate copper as an antibacterial agent for sutures.
Curical enhanced its internal capabilities with key consultants and is honored to also have former Ethicon distinguished researchers / executives on its team.

Dafna Gabbay
Founder & CEO

Dr. Edward Dormier
R&D Leadership
Former VP R&D of Ethicon

Dr. Thomas Barbolt
Biocompatibility & Toxicology
Former Distinguished Research Fellow of Ethicon

Dr. Thomas Bayer
R&D Consultant
Former R&D Manger for New Biomaterials at J&J
The Power of Copper
Copper is a natural antimicrobial agent and an essential element in the human body that is critical for many physiological processes, including wound healing1.
Also, copper has been long used with no known evidence of the emergence of resistant microbial strains2.
Curical’s Technology
Our first development is to incorporate copper in multifilament sutures.
Sutures are a risk factor to Surgical Site Infection (SSI). SSI is defined as an infection that occurs within 30 days after the operation and involves the skin of the incision3. Foreign materials, such as sutures and especially multifilaments, are a risk factor to SSI as they lower the number of bacteria required to cause an infection4. Therefore adding copper to the suture reduces the microbial colonization of the suture.
As of now, Triclosan is the most dominant material used in antibacterial sutures. The World Health Organization gave a conditional recommendation to use triclosan-coated sutures for the purpose of reducing the risk of SSI. It was also written that “..comparisons with an alternative antimicrobial agent to triclosan would be welcome”5.
We view copper as an optimal antibacterial agent for sutures. Therefore we are excited to work with several global companies to enter the market with our copper based antibacterial technology.
1. UAUY. R, et al; Essentiality of copper in humans. Am. J Clin. Nutr., 1998, vol.1. 67, no. 5 Suppl, p. 952S-959S.
2. BORKOW, G. Safety of Using Copper Oxide inn Medical Devices and Consumer Products. Current Chemical Biology. 2012 6(1):86-92
3,5. Global guidelines for the prevention of surgical site infection, World Health Organization, 2016.
4. Edmiston CE, et al. Bacterial adherence to surgical sutures: can antibacterial-coated sutures reduce the risk of microbial contamination? J Am Coll Surg; 2006, 203(4):481-489
Efficacy and Pre-Clinical
Curical has engaged global experienced suture manufacturers to develop its prototypes. The sutures are made in an European ISO-13485 certified facility.
The sutures were tested in a leading US CRO for safety in an initial in-vivo study, seeing no difference in absorption or tissue reaction between test and control sutures at multiple time points.
Our sutures also showed superior efficacy against sutures with Triclosan in a quantitative in-vitro model, providing an attractive alternative in this rapidly growing market.
In vivo efficacy data to be provided upon demand.
Results against staphylococcus aureus:

Contact Us
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Contact us, we would love to hear from you!
info@curicaltech.com