I-Corps: Liquid-Crystalline Elastomers for Orthopedic Applications

University Of Colorado At Denver-Downtown Campus, Denver CO

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to improve upon orthopedic medical device design. The medical device market for orthopedics is currently a multi-billion dollar industry. Back pain is the second most common complaint heard by primary care physicians, while over 500,000 knee-ligament reconstructions are performed in the US annually. The total cost of back pain has been estimated to cost the United States between $100 and $200 billion annually. These costs have been calculated from the direct costs of surgery and the indirect costs of lost wages, reduced productivity, and cost of care. This project will challenge the standard of care for orthopedics by integrating a new class of smart and novel polymer materials into medical device design. This I-Corps project focuses on translating liquid-crystal elastomers (LCEs) into the medical device marketplace. LCEs are a class of stimuli-sensitive "smart" materials that display remarkable mechanical properties and can actively respond to a stimulus; however, these materials have traditionally been difficult to manufacture in a practical and scalable way. This I-Corps project will utilize a newly discovered manufacturing method to produce main-chain LCEs using a thiol-acrylate reaction. This project aims to exploit the unique properties of these materials, such as thermo-reversible actuation, soft elasticity, or damping, to unlock new functionalities in medical device design.