Carbon fibre technology to treat broken bones gets funding

A University of Arizona professor has invented a flexible carbon fibre fabric designed to be inserted inside and around a fractured bone.

When an animal or human suffers a broken bone, sometimes a traditional cast is not a viable option due to the location or nature of the fracture. To address the problem, the University of Arizona professor Hamid Saadatmanesh has created a flexible carbon fibre fabric designed to be inserted inside and around a fractured bone. The fabric is filled with an inert polymer to inflate the fabric, which then acts as a permanent cast which cannot be rebroken.

Saadatmanesh, a professor in the College of Engineering, licensed the technology from the UA and started a company, MediCarbone Inc., to commercialise the invention. He is off to a successful start, having received investment funding from UAVenture Capital, a Tucson-based venture capital fund dedicated to the commercialisation of discoveries, products, technologies and services emerging from the UA.

We are excited about Dr. Saadatmanesh’s innovation for bone repair because of the difference the medical application can make and the lack of anything similar in the marketplace. Doug Hockstad, assistant vice president of Tech Launch Arizona

Through the creative use of carbon fibre, the company see huge opportunities for both infrastructure repair and medical utilisation of the new invention.