< (From top left) Professor Steve Park, Professor Sangyong Jon, (From bottom left) President Kwang-Hyung Lee, Ph.D canddiate Youngju Son, Ph.D candidate Kyusoon Park >
The leading cause of death due to injuries in war is excessive bleeding. A KAIST research team, in which an Army Major participated, has tackled this issue head-on. By developing a next-generation powder-type hemostatic agent that stops bleeding in one second just by spraying it, they have presented an innovative technology that will change the paradigm of combatant survivability.
KAIST announced on December 29th that a joint research team led by Professor Steve Park from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Sangyong Jon from the Department of Biological Sciences has developed a powder-type hemostatic agent that forms a powerful hydrogel barrier within approximately one second when sprayed on a wound.
This technology reached a high level of perfection as a practical technology considering real combat environments, with an Army Major researcher directly participating in the study. By implementing characteristics that allow instant hardening even under extreme conditions such as combat and disaster sites due to high usability and storage stability, immediate emergency treatment is possible.
Until now, patch-type hemostatic agents widely used in medical fields have had limitations in application to deep and complex wounds due to their flat structure, and were sensitive to temperature and humidity, posing limits on storage and operation.
Accordingly, the research team developed a next-generation hemostatic agent in powder form that can be freely applied even to deep, large, and irregular wounds. They have secured versatility to respond to various types of wounds with a single powder.
< Figure 1. AGCL powder development strategy and fabrication schematic >
< Figure 2. Gelation speed and blood absorption capacity of AGCL powder >
Existing powder hemostatic agents had limits in hemostatic capability as they functioned by physically absorbing blood to form a barrier. To solve this problem, the research team focused on the ionic reactions within the blood.
The 'AGCL powder' developed this time has a structure that combines biocompatible natural materials such as Alginate and Gellan Gum (which react with calcium for ultra-fast gelation and physical sealing) and Chitosan (which bonds with blood components to enhance chemical and biological hemostasis). It reacts with cations such as calcium in the blood to turn into a gel state in one second, instantly sealing the wound.
Furthermore, by forming a three-dimensional structure inside the powder, it can absorb blood amounting to more than 7 times its own weight (725%). Due to this, it quickly blocks blood flow even in high-pressure and excessive bleeding situations, and showed superior sealing performance compared to commercial hemostatic agents with a high adhesive strength of over '40kPa', a level of pressure that can withstand being pressed strongly by hand.
AGCL powder is composed entirely of naturally derived materials, showing a hemolysis rate of less than 3%, a cell viability rate of over 99%, and an antibacterial effect of 99.9%, making it safe even when in contact with blood. In animal experiments, excellent tissue regeneration effects such as rapid wound recovery and promotion of blood vessel and collagen regeneration were confirmed.
In surgical liver injury experiments, the amount of bleeding and hemostasis time were significantly reduced compared to commercial hemostatic agents, and liver function recovered to normal levels two weeks after surgery. No abnormal findings were observed in systemic toxicity evaluations.
In particular, this hemostatic agent maintains its performance for two years even in room temperature and high humidity environments, possessing the advantage of being ready for immediate use in harsh environments such as military operation sites or disaster areas.
Although this research is an advanced new material technology developed with national defense purposes in mind, it has great potential for application throughout emergency medicine, including disaster sites, developing countries, and medically underserved areas.
It is evaluated as a representative spin-off case* where national defense science and technology expanded to the private sector, as it is capable of everything from emergency treatment on the battlefield to internal surgical hemostasis.
*Spin-off case: Expanding or transferring national defense science and technology for use in the private sector. Examples include computers, GPS, microwave ovens, etc.
< Figure 3. Validation of efficacy in wounds through animal experiments >
< Figure 4. Validation of efficacy in a liver surgery model >
This study was recognized for its scientific innovation and national defense utility simultaneously, winning the 2025 KAIST Q-Day President's Award and the Minister of National Defense Award at the 2024 KAIST-KNDU National Defense Academic Conference.
Ph.D candidate Kyusoon Park (Army Major), who participated in the research, stated, "The core of modern warfare is minimizing the loss of human life," and added, "I started the research with a sense of mission to save even one more soldier." He continued, "I hope this technology will be used as a life-saving technology in both national defense and private medical fields."
This research, in which KAIST PhD student Kyusoon Park and Ph.D candidate Youngju Son participated as lead authors and was guided by Professor Steve Park and Professor Sangyong Jon, was published online on October 28, 2025, in the international academic journal in the field of chemistry/materials engineering, Advanced Functional Materials (IF 19.0).
※ Paper Title: An Ionic Gelation Powder for Ultrafast Hemostasis and Accelerated Wound Healing, DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202523910
Meanwhile, this research was conducted with the support of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)."
