Patent ID: 8222015

Claim:
A bioactive composition comprising: a porous hydrogel matrix; an effective amount of at least one digestive protein immobilized in the porous hydrogel matrix, wherein the hydrogel matrix pore defines a volume V 1 ; and the at least one digestive protein has a total volume V 2 defined by the collective three-dimensional size of the protein wherein the ratio of (V 1 −V 2 )/V 1 is less than 20 percent, the protein having a half-life at least 1000 times longer than the half-life of a free digestive protein counterpart, wherein the water content of the hydrogel matrix is less than 10 weight percent, and wherein the amount of said at least one digestive protein is between about 0.2 to 5.0 dry weight percent of the hydrogel matrix.