New Jersey Center for Biomaterials

The Center for Biomaterials Research (CeMBR) was created in 2004 as a research program within the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials. CeMBR is funded through the US Army´s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), and facilitate the collaboration of experts in academia, industry and U.S. military to address critical science and technology biomaterials needs for the Department of Defense´s military medical applications requirements.

The CeMBR program provides developmental support to the Rutgers Cleveland Clinic Consortium (RCCC) of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). CeMBR identifies promising technologies in the earliest stages of development (6.1-6.3) and assists focused maturation to the level of translation. Products reaching this level of maturity are seamlessly transitioned into the AFIRM program to complete their development into clinical use. In addition the CeMBR program also provides developmental support to advanced development research in the Combat Casualty Care arena and area of focus for DoD.

Targeted areas of research, as identified by military experts in combat casualty care and regenerative medicine, include:

•    Combat casualty wound care.
•    Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
•    Drug delivery and chemical/biological threat protection.
•    Physiological sensors, diagnostics and electronic medical device interfaces.

The mission of CeMBR is to identify and facilitate the development of promising science and technology in these four areas, and in concert with AFIRM, to move those technologies into use by wounded warriors as rapidly as possible—ideally within 5-7 years.

CeMBR catalyzes new Alliance for Regenerative Medicine

In 2008, a consortium spearheaded by Rutgers was awarded $42.5 million over five years to create one of two academic groups that, together with the US Army Institute for Surgical Research, form the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). The Rutgers-led collaboration is headed by Professor Joachim Kohn, director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials and Dr. Linda Graham, a vascular surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic – Rutgers’ principal partner in this undertaking. Learn more about AFIRM.