From an injectable polymer that can save lives on the battlefield to a liquid-impregnated plastic that prevents biofilm formation on medical devices, this slide show features five advances in materials science that have caught our attention since the beginning of the year. We begin with a resorbable material that packs quite a punch while it's around.
Irish biomaterials company Proxy Biomedical (Galway, Ireland) announced last month that it had developed a biomaterial processing technology that boosts the strength of resorbable orthopedic implants by more than 100%. The technology optimizes the mechanical properties of the Proxy Bio-XT material which otherwise would be compromised by standard injection molding and extrusion processes, says the company. By increasing the strength and toughness of resorbables, the material could be a disruptive technology for implant design, enabling new applications that currently are not considered suitable for resorbable products.
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