From Neurosurgery to Innovation: Professor Meng Guolu and PowerTight Bio Build a Full-Cycle Surgical Platform with Bioactive Composite Materials

Undoubtedly, China’s physician community stands at the center of healthcare industry transformation, playing an indispensable role in enhancing medical quality and driving medical innovation.

Meng Guolu, currently a Chief Physician at a Grade 3A hospital and a Beijing Science and Technology Star. He graduated from Beijing Medical University (now Peking University Health Science Center) with a bachelor’s degree in 1996, and later pursued his doctoral degree in Neurosurgery at Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University. He has also engaged in academic exchanges and studies in multiple countries, including the United States, Japan, and Switzerland.

Meng Guolu’s interview footage in the CCTV documentary *The Two Hundred Years of Surgery*

Professor Meng’s Department of Neurosurgery is one of the most complex disciplines in the field of medicine. During his more than two decades at the Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Meng Guolu has progressively advanced from a medical student to Chief Physician, personally performing over 400 high-difficulty neurosurgical procedures annually as the lead surgeon.

“Discussing the development of neurosurgery in China, Professor Meng shared his profound insights: ‘Compared with foreign countries, neurosurgery in China started later. The high complexity of the discipline, coupled with the lagging surgical materials and equipment, has constrained the development of neurosurgery and the widespread adoption of surgical procedures in our country.’”

"As a clinician standing at the operating table, although addressing medical device issues may seem like a 'misapplication of one's training,' Professor Meng was actually exposed to biomedical engineering during his student years and has participated in related research projects multiple times since entering medical practice."

It is precisely driven by this internal motivation to deliver better therapeutic outcomes for patients and advance the field of neurosurgery,Professor Meng has long aspired to build an innovative ecosystem in which “developers of medical materials and devices are patient-centered and driven by clinical needs, thereby reducing physicians’ reliance on complex technologies, enabling the wider adoption of high-difficulty surgeries, and enhancing the overall level of healthcare in China.”

In 2021, Professor Meng Guolu, together with several partners, founded Powertight Biotechnology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Powertight Biotech”), a core technology platform enterprise specializing in absorbable biological surgical repair materials with independent intellectual property rights and innovative integration of medicine and engineering. The company is dedicated to building an R&D and industrialization platform for high-end biomedical consumables.

As an innovative high-tech team centered on its founders and backed by resources of surgical medical experts, Powertight Biotechnology, starting from practical research on clinical needs, has focused on the pain points in materials and processes for various surgical procedures, primarily neurosurgery, and formedThree Class III medical devices: absorbable biological tissue sealant membrane, fluid hemostatic protein, and fluid regenerative bone repair material; conformal functional dressing (Class II medical device); user-friendly surgical hand support frame (Class I medical device)A rich product matrix primarily comprising these three categories.

Taking intracranial tumor resection surgery as an example, the first step involves incising the skin and addressing the skull and dura mater, followed by the tumor. In response, the company has developedIntraoperative Rapid Vascular Sealing and Repair Products, enabling precise and efficient delivery of hemostatic materials during surgery; it requires an extremely small delivery channel, causes minimal disturbance to surrounding tissues, offers high hemostatic efficiency, leaves minimal foreign body residue, and is fully absorbable.

Next, after addressing the lesion, the dura mater and skull are repositioned. To this end, the company has developedAbsorbable biological tissue sealant membranes, and conformal repair products for surgical bone tissue defects, which can assist physicians in better repairing tissue defects during deep surgical procedures, promote tissue healing, and prevent risks such as cerebrospinal fluid leakage and infection resulting from dural or bone tissue defects.

“Focusing on biomaterial innovation in the field of surgery and continuously launching products that meet clinical needs is the core objective of Powertight Biotechnology. Neurosurgery represents the first step in the company’s technological product layout and strategic journey; in the future, these domestically developed innovative products can be applied to a broader range of general surgical fields. For instance, absorbable biological tissue sealants can be used for vascular anastomosis and reinforcement in vascular surgery, as well as for pleural and lung tissue repair in thoracic surgery,” said Professor Meng Guolu.

When it comes to import substitution, Meng Guolu, a chief physician with extensive clinical experience who has used a wide range of imported medical consumables, has deep insights.“Imported products are not necessarily ‘good’ or suitable for clinical use. Therefore, although simply replicating foreign technical routes offers a low entry barrier, their lifecycle is inevitably short. Only by targeting the frontier trends in surgical development, conducting in-depth research on clinical practice and the market, and efficiently matching patient needs can we”Original ResearchOnly innovative products can ensure lasting vitality.”

To fill the gap in domestic surgical tissue repair products, Professor Meng Guolu, a renowned neurosurgeon in China, has collaborated with scientists in the field of biomaterials,Invented the world’s first surgical tissue sealant and repair material made from bio-composites—the Absorbable Biological Tissue Sealant Membrane.

“The dura mater is a layer of dense connective tissue that primarily serves to protect the brain, maintain intracranial pressure, and provide nourishment to cranial nerves, thereby ensuring their normal function. Therefore, the selection of dural repair materials has a significant impact on surgical outcomes and patient recovery; unnecessary cerebral adhesions and scarring may lead to neurological dysfunction and pain,” said Meng Guolu.

Currently, dural repair surgery primarily relies on two types of materials. The first involves using the patient’s own tissues, such as dura mater or muscle, for dural reconstruction. While this approach offers high biocompatibility, it may increase surgical risk and complexity. The second involves synthetic materials, which may be associated with poor cerebral adaptability, chronic fibrosis at the interface with brain tissue, delayed hemorrhage, and intracranial infection.

“Although I identified the non-negligible shortcomings of existing repair materials in clinical applications more than a decade ago, innovative R&D is an inevitable path for corporate development, as well as a thorny journey that requires steady accumulation to achieve breakthroughs."Encouragingly, Powertight Biotechnology has fully considered the entire process from raw material selection to process route development in response to the aforementioned objectives, ensuring that product performance closely aligns with the needs of clinicians."

Absorbable Biological Tissue Sealant Membrane

First, as an artificial biomaterial composite, the base material of the absorbable biological tissue sealant membrane is collagen. Other primary materials are also derived from macromolecular protein extracts, and telopeptide-free collagen technology is employed to further enhance histocompatibility and reduce the risk of immune reactions;

Secondly, to address the issue of collagen’s poor mechanical strength, the company has developed a unique physical cross-linking technology. This approach avoids the use of chemical cross-linking agents while controlling for optimal absorption time, thereby maximizing safety for applications involving close contact with brain tissue and other sensitive areas. The resulting product achieves over 90% of the mechanical performance comparable to that of chemically cross-linked collagen.

Furthermore, the company employs its proprietary low-temperature biofilm formation technology and protein self-assembly technology to endow the materials with excellent mechanical strength and water resistance. Additionally, the product’s high adhesiveness and suture-free characteristics significantly reduce the risk of postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage or hematoma, while shortening surgical duration.

Finally, the degradation cycle is controllable. Through technological innovation, Powertight Biotechnology has controlled the absorption and degradation cycle of its absorbable biological tissue sealant membrane to approximately two months, ensuring that the material’s degradation rate matches the regeneration or healing of damaged tissues and providing patients with sufficient time to generate their own dural connective tissue.

Leveraging these advantages, Powertight Biotechnology has developed an absorbable biological tissue sealant membrane centered on neurosurgical tissue repair, with future potential to expand into multiple series of tissue repair products for widespread application inHepatobiliary Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Maxillofacial Surgery, and other departments, effectively filling the gap in domestic surgical tissue repair products and accelerating the deep industrialization of Chinese-made biological composite materials for surgical tissue repair.

As an innovative high-tech team integrating medicine and engineering, Powertight Biotechnology has not only developed capabilities in product, process, and technological innovation since its establishment over three years ago, but also possessesComprehensive Industrialization Capabilities: Design, R&D, Translation, Manufacturing, Quality System Management, and Product Registration of Biomedical Materials。

On March 4, 2023, Powertight Biotechnology officially convened the “Clinical Trial Protocol Discussion Meeting for Absorbable Biological Tissue Sealant Membrane.” Beijing Tiantan Hospital of Capital Medical University, Peking Union Medical College Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Sanbo Brain Hospital of Capital Medical University participated as principal investigators. This marked the formal entry of the “Absorbable Biological Tissue Sealant Membrane” product into the clinical trial phase.

As late as the end of 2023, Powertight Biotechnology had just obtained its first Medical Device Production License and Manufacturing License.

“Leveraging its technological advantages in the field of biocomposites, Powertight Biotechnology has also developed consumer-facing products such as skin disinfectant sprays and liquid spray bandages. ‘Powertight Biotechnology remains committed to product, process, and technological innovation. Taking our liquid spray bandage as an example, it offers performance advantages over imported alternatives, including sterilization, breathability, water resistance, and ease of use, along with a price advantage. The product is now available on major e-commerce platforms,’ said Professor Meng Guolu.”

Throughout its journey, Powertight Biotechnology has repeatedly gained recognition from the investment community. In 2021, the company completed a tens-of-millions-yuan angel financing round led by the Zhejiang University Innovation Institute and was selected for the Yuhang District High-Level Talent Program. In 2023, it secured a tens-of-millions-yuan Pre-A financing round from Tongfang Investment, Zheshang Health Investment, and Zijin Gang Capital.

At the conclusion of the interview, Professor Meng Guolu stated, “The research and development and production of medical devices is essentially an applied science that cannot be separated from the foundation of clinical practice. Therefore, rather than identifying as an entrepreneur, I prefer to position myself as a scientific researcher. Scientific research requires the spirit of persevering in the face of difficulties and fostering collaborative teamwork. Powertight Biotechnology brings together professionals with diverse backgrounds in medicine, engineering, and industrialization, ensuring that our R&D efforts are targeted and purposeful from the outset. By continuously meeting the growing demands of clinical surgery, we realize both the technological innovation value and the social application value of our products, evolving into a high-tech enterprise driven by the dual engines of technology and market.”