A Purdue University startup thinks it has a solution for the challenge of getting soft tissue to bond with hard bone.
BioRegeneration Technologies co-founders Darryl Dickerson and Eric Nauman say InMotion has the potential to be a one-time-only, permanent solution for joint pain and degeneration.
InMotion is a porous scaffolding made of a nonbiodegradable, collagen-based substance. It is implanted in a cavity in an area of joint loss or damage. The scaffolding has “a transition zone” that consists of hard and soft segments — hard to provide support and soft to nurture tissue growth. This allows for optimum tissue-bone connection.
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InMotion’s primary focus is cartilage regrowth in knees, hips, shoulders and back pain related to cartilage damage. Athletes with knee and hip injuries and people with osteoarthritis are the initial customer target.
But BioRegeneration is hopeful that InMotion also could repair damaged or deteriorated ligaments and tendons, and reverse muscle degeneration.
“The hope is to reduce the overall healthcare burden by having fewer people living with pain and needing joint replacement,” Nauman said.
Microfracture surgery, a common approach to joint repair, involves creating tiny fractures in underlying bone to allow cartilage to develop from a sort of super-clot. But the procedure lacks a successful interfacing of tissue and bone. Within two to five years after surgery, Dickerson said, scar tissue forms or good tissue is compromised by acidic leakage from the biodegradable joint repair material, which means pain returns.
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Dickerson is president and chief scientific officer, and Nauman is vice president for development of new technologies and an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the university.
Nauman said Dickerson came up with the idea for InMotion in late 2004. Dickerson, then a student in one of Nauman’s labs, said he was looking for a thesis topic for his Ph.D.
BioRegeneration got funding from AMIPurdue for initial research and patent work. The company also received an SBIR phase 1 grant of $99,394 in 2010.
Dickerson and Nauman said three years of testing on rabbits and sheep has produced positive results. A patent for InMotion is pending.
