Nanoskin Saves Lives and Limbs

Engineers and Orthopedics Experts Reduce Risk of Infection from Medical Prostheses with Nanotech that Mimics Human Skin

Engineers and orthopedics experts are applying nanotechnology to prosthetic medical devices in order to increase patient safety. By closely mimicking human skin, experts hope to reduce the infection-inducing bacteria that grow on prostheses. Changing the texture of the devices in small ways results in a big reduction in bacteria growth, as well as improvement of skin closures and bone growth.

Nanoskin saves lives and limbs - San Diego, California News Station - KFMB Channel 8 - cbs8.com

Losing a limb can be devastating and in the United States there are approximately 1.7 million people living that way. One of the biggest fears for those who use prosthetic devices is getting an infection. But researchers are working on a way to mimic the human skin to cut down on infections.

“I went to bed and woke up the next morning and my body was swollen and I had blisters all over it,” Anthony Buttaro, a man who suffered limb loss, told Ivanhoe.

That morning Anthony Buttaro rushed to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with MRSA the often deadly infection forced doctors to amputate his left arm. Now Anthony uses a prosthetic device but he is still concerned about infections.
“I’m always worried about it,” Buttaro said.

To ease those fears engineers and experts in orthopedics at Brown University are applying nanotechnology to medicine called nanomedicine to mimic the tiniest features and contours of human skin.

“Skin serves as a barrier to keep bacteria out of the body,” Thomas Webster an engineer at Brown University told Ivanhoe.

Screws are often used to attach the prosthetic device to bone, but bacteria can grow on the screws causing an infection.
“We are talking really, really small features that are making a difference,” Webster said.

The difference comes by changing the texture of the screw. First it is dipped into hydrofluoric acid. At the same time voltage is applied to create the tissue like features.

“What we are seeing, we’re reducing bacteria growth, on these implants, we’re improving skin closures around the implants and improving bone growth,” Webster explained.

By mimicking the skin researchers believe it will cut down on infections, saving lives and limbs. The nanoskin technology is still in the study phase, but researchers hope to start human testing in the future.


ABOUT NANOTECHNOLOGY: Nanotechnology is science at the size of individual atoms and molecules -- objects and devices measuring mere billionths of a meter, smaller than a red blood cell. At this size scale, materials have different chemical and physical properties than the same materials in bulk, because quantum mechanics is more important. For example, carbon atoms can conduct electricity and are stronger than steel when woven into hollow microscopic threads. Nanoparticles are already widely used in certain commercial consumer products, such as suntan lotions, "age-defying" make-up, and self-cleaning windows that shed dirt when it rains. One company manufactures a nanocrystal wound dressing with built-in antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. On the horizon is toothpaste that coats, protects and repairs damaged enamel, as well as self-cleaning shoes that never need polishing. Nanoparticles are also used as additives in building materials to strengthen the walls of any given structure, and to create tough, durable, yet lightweight fabrics.


The Biophysical Society and the Materials Research Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Brown University School of Engineering professor Vivek Shenoy's work on thermal transport across grain boundaries in graphene (published in Nano Letters last month) has also been featured in the research highlights section of Nature Materials. An abstract of his paper, "Thermal transport across Twin Grain Boundaries in Polycrystalline Graphene from Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics Simulations" follows:

Heat at the borders

Fabio Pulizzi

Nature Materials

 

10,

 

724

 

(2011)

Published online

 

23 September 2011

Nano Letters http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl202118d (2011)

Graphene exhibits the highest thermal conductivity ever observed. Its thermal transport has been studied theoretically and experimentally, mostly in single-crystalline graphene. Unfortunately, large-scale growth, for example by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), usually yields polycrystalline sheets. Akbar Bagri and colleagues have performed molecular dynamic simulations of the thermal transport across various grain boundary orientations in graphene. They assumed a constant heat flow through the material, calculated the temperature profile and from that estimated the thermal conductivity. Interestingly, they found abrupt jumps in the temperature at the grain boundaries, which depend on the boundary orientation and grain size. The estimated grain boundary thermal conductivity is much higher than in the case of other materials with high thermal conductivity, such as nanocrystalline diamond. The results are particularly important in view of potential applications based on CVD-grown graphene. It will be interesting to see how the experiments will compare with these predictions.


For the full html version from NanoLetters, please go to:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/nl202118d

Risk Management and Locomotive Engine Rooms - Case Study

One of the biggest factors when it comes to risk management is the issue of confined space. OSHA for instance realizes that this is a huge problem and they are concerned with restricted entry and exit locations for employees working in hazardous situations where risk of injury or death is concerned. When it comes to the railroad, and those that work on trains, the engine room is just such a space. In fact, on almost all modern day locomotives there are access doors along the entire length of the motor.

Still, it is a confined space between the pillars for the doors and working between the engine components. Consider if you will that a modern diesel engine has pistons the size of basketballs, and they get very hot. And they leak oil, and there is grease everywhere. It's impossible to keep them perfectly clean all the time, and some railroad mechanics will tell you that if it ever stops leaking, that means it's not working. With grease and oil on, in, and around the engine, it is necessary to clean it early and often.

This means hitting it with a steam cleaner, or hot-water pressure washer. Now you are introducing high-pressure, heat, and water to oil and grease. I'd say that's a little bit hazardous, but it must be done otherwise when the motor is running it would be easy to slip onto moving parts of the motor, and/or burn oneself. Perhaps this is why our contract cleaning company was always busy taking care of our railroad customers.

They wanted the equipment clean, they wanted to save on insurance, and they wanted to prevent accidents. Indeed, from a risk management standpoint, we also had to be very careful when doing the cleaning. For instance we had to clean the outside of the cat walks, all the railings, and the doors first, otherwise we might slip while cleaning the engine ourselves. You see, the point in all this is, it isn't only the factory floor where you have to worry about risk management, every service company must realize its value as well. Please consider all this.