SBIR Phase I: Improving Orthopedic Implants with a Nano-Engineered Surface Coating

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve the clinical success of spinal and orthopedic implants to keep more Americans healthy and active. Our focus is to enhance properties of a widely used implant material made of a polymer. As a hard plastic, it is beneficial for strength but unfavorable for integrating with surrounding tissue. As a result, a high percentage of polymer implants loosen because they do not integrate well with bone. Our innovation expands scientific and technical understanding by investigating a novel nano-engineered surface coating for polymer implants. The outcome of this proposal could be a revolutionary implant surface with rapid healing, sound integration, and lowered risk of implant failures. Surgeons could have higher success rates and save on operating time. Patients could have fewer complications. Insurers could pay less for procedures. Manufacturers could offer a superior technology. This novel surface technology will be applied to spinal implants first and then expanded into craniofacial, trauma, sports medicine, hip, knee, and extremities applications. Our goal is to bring this technology to market to provide the tens of thousands of Americans undergoing orthopedic procedures each year a pain-free, mobile lifestyle. The proposed project aims to develop a nano-engineered surface coating on polymer implants for treating spinal fusions. The goal is to reduce back problem unions due to inhibited osseointegration by presenting an implant surface that intimately interacts with host bone down to the cellular level. We plan to do this by using advanced materials processing techniques for creating nano-engineered surfaces on polymer substrates (Objective 1). Next, we will validate with advanced imaging techniques the presence of the nano-engineered structures on the implant surface (Objective 2). The anticipated outcome will be a novel surface coating with a nanostructure that has superior material attributes on the macro, micro and nano levels. Extensive material characterization will validate the procedure. Successful development of fabrication methods will lead to mechanical testing (Objective 3). The novelty of this nano-engineered surface coating is that it relies on the characteristics of the surface itself to create a rapid and powerful bond with host bone enhancing the bone union process using biomaterial science.