Development of an Erasable Tattoo Ink: Easy Come, Easy Go, an Adventure into Entrepreneurship

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

12:15pm | Hudson Hall - Room 208

Presenter

Dr. Bruce Klitzman , Associate Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, Assistant Research Professor in Cell Biology

This seminar promises to be a fascinating foray into the worlds of material science, photonics, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, pop culture, academic marketing and dermatology.  Dr. Klitzman and his Duke plastic surgery partner received the world’s first patent on tattoo inks.  He will lead us on an adventure into the biomaterial, biological and optical challenges, the intellectual property battle with Harvard, the medical and popular market for erasable tattoo ink, and the critical decisions in building a start-up. 

The ink development was based on microencapsulation technology, with consideration of how much pigment loading is needed for color perception, how much needs to be removed to be “erased”, and the possible changes in the skin with laser irradiation.

 

Dr. Bruce Klitzman (Duke BME ’74) has been the Senior Director of the Kenan Plastic Surgery Research Laboratories at Duke University since 1985.  He has been the recipient of numerous research grants and has published over 130 peer reviewed research publications.  He is a member of numerous professional societies and editorial boards, was President of The Microcirculatory Society in 1998-9, and founded the North Carolina Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society in 1998.  His career began in the field of microvascular physiology, which is vital to our understanding of wound healing, cell transplantation, mass transport, and tissue engineering, but has expanded to include biocompatibility of devices, including optical biosensors and glaucoma drainage devices.