Advanced imaging and 3D printing to guide early intervention implants

Imperial College London’s Medical Device Prototype and Manufacture Unit has received £1.7 million in funding. This is to be used on manufacturing and advanced imaging techniques to print implants for the bones and joints, in order to study how they interact with the human body.
Researchers hope to produce early intervention implants using material to surround the bone, making it stronger and control the strain, as well as create smart instruments that measure joint health, and nano needles that will act as an anti-infection coating around the implant.
Project leader Dr Jonathan Jeffers at Imperial College, commented, “The current generation of orthopaedic implants are brilliant, but they tend to treat the end-stage disease, and are very invasive, because they involve chopping out the entire joint. What surgeons need is something that can treat younger patients, to try to prevent the disease progressing.”
A Renishaw titanium additive manufacture machine and a small two photo lithography system will be used to produce parts to a millimetre scale, and a CT Scanner and 3D digital microscope will be used to study the parts in great detail. “These technologies will enable material to be manufactured with the same mechanical properties as bone, which means the bone will accept the implant better than they currently do,” Jeffers added.