Ceramics are becoming increasingly popular as implant materials in the biomedical engineering community. This popularity arises from the fact that ceramics are inherently compatible with physiological environment and from the expectation that ceramics may be engineered to minimize wear and distribute the stresses optimally over the implant. Recent developments in materials engineering suggest that a novel form of ceramics -nanoceramics - has the unique potential of realizing these expectations for orthopaedic applications. Nanoceramics are ceramics with microstructures modulated to the nanometer scale. This microstructure has created the unprecedented opportunity of engineering the strength, the fracture toughness, the wear properties, the porosity, and the formability of biomaterials. Furthermore, the nanoceramics-based products have novel properties useful for orthopaedic applications. This program seeks to develop, demonstrate and commercialize this unique potential of nanoceramics as orthopaedic biomaterials. Our technical approach will include synthesizing and processing nanoceramics by a proprietary process and then experimentally evaluating the nanoceramics-based implant materials for orthopaedic applications. We expect to establish the proof-of-concept during Phase l (where our focus will be alumina-based nanoceramics), optimize and extensively evaluate a wide range of nanoceramics-based orthopaedic biomaterials during Phase II; and during Phase III, commercialize nanoceramics-based orthopaedic biomaterials.
Nanoceramics are expected to help engineer orthopaedic biomaterials with significantly lower wear rates for hemiarthroplasty and THR components. Nanoceramic-based biomaterials have the potential of providing increased implant life (lower patient care costs), increased patient comfort and reduced surgical complications.
