Dr. James Sears, director, Additive Manufacturing Laboratory at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology has been awarded $1 million for his "Biomedical Materials Initiative"(BMI). The grant is being funded through the United States Army Medical Command, Fort Detrick, Md. and will be focused on surface modifications of prosthetic devices to accelerate osteointegration. Osteointegration is the structural linkage made at the contact point where human bone and the surface of a synthetic, often titanium-based, implant meet. The healing time to get to the point where the implant can be load bearing is often lengthy for patients. Although the research will be approached from an engineering perspective, the ultimate goal is to accelerate that healing time.
Sears and his team of two graduate students, with support from Dr. Dana Medlin, professor, metallurgy department, will concentrate their efforts on modifying the surface of metal implants. They will be testing the effects that various metal textures, applied to the prosthetic surface, have on proliferation of bone tissue. The surfaces will be seeded with osteoblasts, bone forming cells, incubated and tested to see if there is an increase in growth. Dr. Daniel Neufeld, professor, cellular and molecular biology, University of South Dakota, School of Medicine, will be subcontracted to perform some testing work.
Improved osteointegration will be beneficial to patients facing joint replacement surgeries, but Sears envisions his research to be of most benefit to amputees. Prostheses used by amputees are traditionally held in place either by suction or by being strapped to the stump of the missing limb or digit. They have been problematic because movement of the limb causes rubbing and pressure sores.
Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis (ITAP) devices, developed by scientists in the United Kingdom, are metal implants inserted through the skin and into the center of the bone of the remaining stump of the appendage. Prostheses are then easily attached to the protruding part of the metal implant. They are in the preliminary stages of testing, having only been used for patients who had lost fingers or thumbs, but the results have been very encouraging. The unique design includes a structure under the skin, modelled after deer antler morphology, which allows the dermal tissues to attach into the metal, preventing the skin from ripping away which minimizes the risk of infection.
In order for these devices to work on larger limbs, strong osteointegration is vital. If the metal becomes securely integrated into the bone it will provide for a more comfortable and securely attached prosthesis.
This grant will also be used to purchase equipment which will bring new capabilities to the biomedical engineering program.
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