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Xavier Garric

Xavier Garric

Professor, Faculty of pharmacy, University of Montpellier

Xavier Garric was born in Nice (France) in 1977. He first received his PharmD degree in 2001 before he obtained his PhD in 2004 from the University of Montpellier I, under the supervision of Doctors Michel Vert and Jean-Pierre Molès in the field of degradable polymeric scaffold in skin engineering. He joined the group of Doctor Michel Vert as an Assistant Professor at the University of Montpellier, in 2005. He was appointed Professor of Polymer Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy in 2013 and became team leader in September 2018. His research interests are focused on biomedical applications of polymers and especially for the design of new drug delivery systems and degradable medical devices.
Part of his recent research is related to the design of an anti-adhesion, self-expanding and degradable medical device for the prevention of intra-uterine adhesions. This work led to the creation of the Womed start-up in 2018 of which he is co-founder and scientific advisor.
Another part of his research focuses on degradable elastomers for tissue engineering applications as the well as the development of new drug eluting system for implantable medical device.
Xavier is co-author of over 46 papers and 5 patents.
He is co-head of the master’s degree in health engineering, he is deputy director of the scientific chemistry department at the University of Montpellier.

Contact:

xavier.garric(a)umontpellier.fr
+33411759693

5 recent publications:

Pinese C, Gagnieu C, Nottelet B, Rondot-Couzin C, Hunger S, Coudane J, Garric X. In vivo evaluation of hybrid patches composed of PLA based copolymers and collagen/chondroitin sulfate for ligament tissue regeneration. J Biomed Mater Res B 2017;105:1778-88.

Guillaume O, Garric X, Lavigne JP, Van Den Berghe H, Coudane J. Multilayer, degradable coating as a carrier for the sustained release of antibiotics: Preparation and antimicrobial efficacy in vitro. J Control Release 2012;162:492-501.   IF 2016 = 7.786

Blanquer S, Guillaume O, Letouzey V, Lemaire L, Franconi F, Paniagua C, Coudane J, Garric X. New magnetic-resonance-imaging-visible poly(epsilon-caprolactone)-based polyester for biomedical applications. Acta Biomater 2012;8:1339-47.  IF 2016 = 6.319

Morille M, Tran Van T, Garric X, Coudane J, Venier-Julienne MC, Montero-Menei C. Microsphere compositions, preparation and method and applications thereof. WO2013144341

Coudane J, Leprince S, Garric X, Paniagua C, Huberlant S, Letouzey V. Composition of diblock and triblock copolymers and the use thereof in the prevention of tissues adhesions. WO2016020613

Preliminary in vivo study of biodegradable PLA-PEU-PLA anti-adhesion membranes in a rat Achilles tendon model of peritendinous adhesions

BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE 2022,10, 1776-1786

Hadda, Zebiri, Van Den Berghe Helene, Paunet Tom, Wolf-Mandroux Aurelie, Bethry Audrey, Taillades Hubert, Yohan Jean Noel, Yohan Jean Noël, Nelly Pirot, Botteron Catherine, Chammas Michel, Chammas Pierre-Emmanuel and Garric Xavier

 

 ABSTRACT

Peritendinous adhesions are complications known to occur up to 6 weeks after surgery and cause chronic pain and disability. Anti-adhesion barriers are currently the best option for prevention. In a previous study, we designed two biodegradable membranes, D-PACO1 and D-PACO2, based on new triblock copolymers and conducted in vitro evaluations. The membranes maintained filmogenic integrity, had degradation rates that promoted anti-adhesion and were biocompatible, suggesting their safe and effective use as anti-adhesion devices. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a preliminary in vivo study in a rat model of peritendinous adhesions and evaluated the membranes’ degradation rates, tendon healing and anti-adhesion effect compared to non-surgical and surgical control groups 2 and 10 weeks after surgery. Macroscopic evaluation showed membranes were effective in reducing the extent and severity of adhesions. Membranes acted as physical barriers at 2 weeks and underwent a complete or significant biodegradation at 10 weeks. D-PACO2 had a longer degradation rate compared to D-PACO1, was more effective in reducing adhesions and is expected to be more effective in promoting tendon healing. The tendency of D-PACO1 to promote tendon healing while D-PACO2 did not interfere with healing highlights the need to redesign the porosity of the D-PACO membranes for optimal nutrient diffusion, while maintaining their anti-adhesion effect and clinical usability. Preliminary findings revealed that adhesions form beyond the 6 weeks cited in the literature. In this study, adhesion formation continued for up to 10 weeks, underlining the need to increase the experimental period and sample size of future experiments evaluating anti-adhesion membranes.

Protein-Polymer Bioconjugates Prepared by Post-Polymerization Modification of Alternating Copolymers

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 2022

Saxer, S.; Erdogan, O.; Paniagua, C.; Chavanieu, A.; Garric, X.; Darcos, V.

 ABSTRACT

Protein-polymer bioconjugates have shown great promise in biomedical and life science applications including drug delivery and diagnosis. The current bioconjugation strategies suffer from lack of efficiency and versatility. In this article, poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) copolymers were first prepared by RAFT polymerization and characterized by different analytical techniques. Then, the poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) precursors were functionalized with primary amine such as azidopropylamine and amino poly(ethylene glycol). The reaction of amino compounds with maleic anhydride was found to be a highly efficient, a versatile, and a facile chemical ligation reaction for the synthesis of macromolecules with quantitative yield under mild conditions. The main benefit is the incorporation of a wide range of functionality by easily changing the primary amine compound. For the amphiphilic graft copolymers based on poly(ethylene glycol), aggregation behavior in water was investigated. In a second part, azido-functionalized polystyrene copolymers were used to prepare a new protein-polymer bioconjugate by copper-free click chemistry reaction.

Dual-crosslinked degradable elastomeric networks with self-healing properties: bringing multi(catechol) star block copolymers into play

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ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 15, 2077-2091 (2023)

Mathilde Grosjean, Louis Gangolphe, Stéphane Dejean, Sylvie Hunger, Audrey Bethry, Frédéric Bossard, Xavier Garric, Benjamin Nottelet

ABSTRACT

In the biomedical field, degradable chemically crosslinked elastomers are interesting materials for tissue engineering applications since they present rubber-like mechanical properties matching with those of soft tissues and are able to preserve their 3D structure over degradation. Their use in biomedical applications requires surgical handling and implantation that can be source of accidental damages responsible for loss of properties. Therefore, their inability to be healed after damage or breaking can be a major drawback. In this work, biodegradable dual-crosslinked networks that exhibit fast and efficient self-healing properties at 37 °C are designed. Self-healable dual-crosslinked (chemically and physically) elastomeric networks are prepared from two methods. The first approach is based on the mix of hydrophobic PEG-PLA star-shaped copolymers functionalized either with catechol or methacrylate moieties. In the second approach, hydrophobic bifunctional PEG-PLA star-shaped copolymers with both catechol and methacrylate on their structure are used. In the two systems the supramolecular network is responsible for the self-healing properties thanks to the dynamic dissociation/re-association of the numerous hydrogen bonds between the catechol groups, whereas the covalent network ensures mechanical properties similar to pure methacrylate networks. The self-healable materials display mechanical properties that are compatible with soft tissues and exhibit linear degradation because of the chemical crosslinks. The performances of networks from mix copolymers vs. bifunctional copolymers are compared and demonstrate the superiority of the later. The biocompatibility of the materials is also demonstrated and confirm the potential of these degradable self-healable elastomeric networks to be used for the design of temporary medical devices.

Degradable Bioadhesives Based on Star PEG–PLA Hydrogels for Soft Tissue Applications

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Biomacromolecules XX, XX (2022)

Mathilde Grosjean, Edouard Girard, Audrey Bethry, Grégory Chagnon, Xavier Garric, Benjamin Nottelet

ABSTRACT

Tissue adhesives are interesting materials for wound treatment as they present numerous advantages compared to traditional methods of wound closure such as suturing and stapling. Nowadays, fibrin and cyanoacrylate glues are the most widespread commercial biomedical adhesives, but these systems display some drawbacks. In this study, degradable bioadhesives based on PEG–PLA star-shaped hydrogels are designed. Acrylate, methacrylate, and catechol functional copolymers are synthesized and used to design various bioadhesive hydrogels. Various types of mechanisms responsible for adhesion are investigated (physical entanglement and interlocking, physical interactions, chemical bonds), and the adhesive properties of the different systems are first studied on a gelatin model and compared to fibrin and cyanoacrylate references. Hydrogels based on acrylate and methacrylate reached adhesion strength close to cyanoacrylate (332 kPa) with values of 343 and 293 kPa, respectively, whereas catechol systems displayed higher values (11 and 19 kPa) compared to fibrin glue (7 kPa). Bioadhesives were then tested on mouse skin and human cadaveric colonic tissue. The results on mouse skin confirmed the potential of acrylate and methacrylate gels with adhesion strength close to commercial glues (15–30 kPa), whereas none of the systems led to high levels of adhesion on the colon. These data confirm that we designed a family of degradable bioadhesives with adhesion strength in the range of commercial glues. The low level of cytotoxicity of these materials is also demonstrated and confirm the potential of these hydrogels to be used as surgical adhesives.