Humacyte announces federal support for bioengineered blood vessels
The recently passed federal defense budget for 2026 includes dedicated funding for the use of bioengineered blood vessels developed by Durham-based Humacyte to treat warfighter injuries.
The National Defense Authorization Act, passed by Congress in December 2025, stated that the Department of Defense (DoD) should “integrate FDA-approved breakthrough vascular repair technologies in traumatic extremity arterial injury repair, providing an off-the-shelf, biologically active vascular conduit when autologous vein harvesting is not feasible.”
That language is a direct nod to Humacyte’s Symvess, the only human-derived bioengineered blood vessel approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In announcing the funding, Humacyte said, “lawmakers demonstrated that they recognize and understand the need for human-derived bioengineered vessels to save life and limb on the battlefield. Humacyte is grateful to see Congress express even greater support for this medical innovation by designating appropriated funds to advance the goal of making this groundbreaking technology available to service members.”
It is not clear how much DoD funding will be dedicated to Symvess. No specific dollar amount was cited.
“This historic, first-of-its-kind federal investment will help ensure our soldiers continue to have access to cutting-edge treatments and state-of-the-art care whenever and wherever they need it,” said Laura Niklason, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Humacyte.
Niklason noted that Symvess has already been tested on the battlefield in Ukraine, where patients injured by gunshots, shrapnel, blasts and accidents were treated as part of a humanitarian program. Sixteen patients in the program who were followed in a retrospective, observational study had 100% survival, zero amputations and zero conduit infections despite incurring serious wartime injuries.
“We look forward to working with leaders in our military and the Pentagon to ensure that American service personnel will have access to this same quality of care,” Niklason said.
The FDA approved Symvess in December 2024 for the treatment of extremity vascular trauma in adults when vein grafts from a patient’s own body are not feasible.
Lab grown at commercial scale
Symvess vessels are grown in the lab from banked human vascular cells that are seeded onto biodegradable tubular scaffolds. The vessels can be produced in varying diameters and lengths within a few weeks. They are “de-cellularized,” so they won’t trigger an immune response when surgically implanted into a patient.
The vessels are intended to overcome long-standing limitations in vessel tissue repair and replacement. According to Humacyte, they can be manufactured at commercial scale, they eliminate the need for harvesting vessels from patients, they are available to surgeons off-the-shelf for rapid use, they are universally implantable, and clinical evidence suggests that they are non-immunogenic and infection-resistant and can become durable living tissue.
Humacyte is evaluating the technology in clinical trials for use in arteriovenous access in hemodialysis and peripheral arterial disease. Preclinical research is also underway for potential use in pediatric heart surgery, coronary bypass grafting and other tissue and organ applications.
Humacyte was founded in 2004 by three Duke University scientists: Niklason, a leader in cellular therapies and regenerative medicine; biomedical engineer Shannon Dahl, Ph.D., and molecular biologist Juliana Blum, Ph.D.
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center provided the company with a $150,000 Small Business Research Loan in 2006 to support its early work.
Humacyte became a publicly traded company in 2021. Its shares are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol HUMA.