Research Collaboration Between Pakistan and the United States on the Development

Pakistan-US Science and Technology Cooperation Program
Phase 6 (2015 Deadline)

Research Collaboration Between Pakistan and the United States on the Development of Innovative Technical Textiles and Medical Textile Products
US partner: Martin King, North Carolina State University
Pak partner: Tahir Jamil, University of the Punjab, Lahore

Progress Reports

2016: The first aim of this project is to develop research collaboration between North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles and the University of the Punjab’s new Department of Textile Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan. Professor Jamil’s Pakistani team has prepared some novel membranes and hydrogels with hemostatic and antimicrobial properties from natural materials such as chitin found in crab and shrimp shells. Professor King’s NC State team will test these materials and fabricate them into unique wound dressings and other medical textiles. Such antimicrobial dressings are urgently needed by the US healthcare sector to reduce the significant number of hospital acquired infections which are reaching epidemic proportions. The experimental samples have already been received from Pakistan and are being characterized at NCSU.

The second aim of this project is to increase awareness within the Pakistani textile industry of the significant advantages of moving their textile production from traditional cotton fashion fabrics to technical and medical textile products that command a higher added value. These functional textiles are expected to meet certain standardized technical specifications, so they can be exported to American, European and other markets. Following his recent visit to several textile companies in Pakistan, Professor Martin King sees merit in strengthening the technical and medical textile research focus, and advancing the textile testing and training activities at Pakistani universities. In particular he recommends that the new Department of Textile Engineering and Technology at the University of the Punjab purchases a laboratory scale narrow width nonwoven production line that can be used for research, product development, training and the fabrication of prototype samples.

2017: In the second year of this project, progress has been made on the two major aims.

To assist the new Textile Technology Department at the University of the Punjab to acquire the advanced equipment, technical expertise and training capacity in order to promote the transition within the Pakistani textile industry from manufacturing cotton fashion fabrics to higher value added technical and medical textiles.
To evaluate and determine the suitability of the natural biopolymer-based membranes and hydrogels synthesized at the University of the Punjab for use as wound dressings and other medical textiles.

For the first aim the delivery and installation of the recommended sample loom has been achieved, and a qualified Pakistani textile engineer has been hired to design and fabricate prototype samples, which Professor King will evaluate at the time of his next visit to Pakistan in December 2017.

Progress has continued on the second aim with characterization of the membranes and hydrogels using advanced chemical and structural analytical techniques, such as FTIR, EDX, SEM and TOF-SIMS. The samples have been sterilized in ethylene oxide and their solubility behavior monitored. Their relative antimicrobial and hemostatic properties are being determined. This work has led to the successful publication of these results in reviewed journals and award-winning poster presentations at international textile conferences.

One unexpected challenge in undertaking this particular aim has been the difficulty in shipping small experimental samples from Pakistan to the USA by commercial air courier.

2018: The initial proposal for this Pakistan – US Science and Technology Cooperation project identified the need during the third year of the project to consolidate the two main aims.

1) For the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University and the Polymer Engineering & Technology Department at the University of the Punjab to share their expertise of natural and synthetic polymers so as to develop innovative applications to the field of technical and medical textiles. This has involved continuing collaborative research activities in the laboratories of both institutions, with natural biopolymer-based membranes and hydrogels synthesized at the University of the Punjab and tested at North Carolina State University for use as wound dressings and other medical textiles with drug delivery. It has also involved the introduction of advanced textile fabrication and finishing equipment, technical expertise and training at the University of the Punjab so they can extend their polymer research into the field of textile technology. Both of these activities have advanced over the last year with a number of award winning presentations at key conferences, symposia and workshops in both Pakistan and the USA as well as the preparation of 5 manuscripts describing the joint work for publication in peer reviewed scientific journals.

2) In addition to the academic research and development activity described above, the second aim was to involve the Pakistani plastics and textile industries into collaborating with the Joint Pakistan – American team to scale up the experimental medical textile prototypes with the objective of developing higher value added technical textile products that will be so manufactured by local Pakistani companies for domestic consumption and possible export.

During his two visits to Pakistan in 2018, Professor King was able to visit a number of companies in the plastics and textiles sectors and to review with them their interest in working with the Joint Pakistani – American team to scale-up, manufacture and market innovative technical and medical textile products such as wound dressings. Certain companies have expressed an interest in working with us as potential partners in this next step to commercializing our experimentally prepared prototype samples.

Further to these two successful outcomes, Professor King has widened his circle of research collaborators to include the College of Pharmacy at the University of the Punjab as well as colleagues at the Lahore University of Management Science’s (LUMS) Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and at the University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore and with Dr. Sayed Muhammad Awais, MD, orthopedic surgeon at the Lahore General Hospital. Plans initiated by Vice-Chancellor Niaz Ahmed Aktar are in place to invite Professor King to Pakistan on an annual basis to continue already established collaboration with the University of the Punjab as well as with these additional partners.

Continuing opportunities for junior faculty and graduate student exchange are being pursued. Professor King has invited Ms Nafisa Gull, a doctoral student, at the University of the Punjab to come and continue her studies at North Carolina State University as a visiting scholar. Financial support is currently under consideration by the HEC in Islamabad. As a chaired professor at Donghua University in Shanghai, China, Professor King is seeking ways to finance the attendance of 5-10 graduate students and junior faculty members from the University of the Punjab to attend the International Research Summer School at Donghua University, Shanghai in July 2019.

Professor Martin King (4th from left) and Dr. Shahzad Maqsood Khan (3rd from right) and his team with members of the University College of Pharmacy outside the original colonial building of the University of the Punjab in Lahore.