Current Project Information
Client Information: Our client is UN&UP (https://www.unandup.com/) with our main point of contact being Michael Sabo (mes@unandup.com).
Need Statement: A way to shorten the time frostbite goes untreated and the time to localized drug delivery to improve patient outcomes and increase limb retention and function.
Project Scope: Physicians need a method to quickly and accurately deliver frostbite therapeutics to affected extremities where blood often coagulates. This timelier and more targeted therapeutic intervention will improve patient outcomes allowing them to attain extremities and relevant function for a higher quality of life. The therapeutic localization device will be accessible to all extremities impacted by frostbite, and the therapeutic agent will reach affected areas within 1 minute of device activation. Additionally, to test the validity of this localization a realistic phantom reflecting the dynamics of extremity vasculature will be fabricated. We will deliver a programmable control system for a magnet (therapeutic device) and a realistic phantom to our client UN&UP by April 25, 2025, as well as all proper documentation for fabricating the therapeutic device and phantom.
Recent Activities
We had a meeting planned with Mike Sabo to discuss our previous meeting with Edwin Carlen which showed us that we needed to understand what specifications UN&UP was hoping to receive and what data they would ultimately need to prove the validity of treatment; however, the meeting was canceled due to an emergency, so we will resume that next week.
Additionally, in class, we began revising some of our design specifications and received a lot of feedback surrounding additional specifications in regard to regulatory bodies/medical standard compliance and overall safety of the device. We also began brainstorming some initial ideas for our solution, a few of the main considerations currently are how the device will be oriented near the affected extremities (will it wrap around them or simply be near them), will it be able to be utilized while the patient is undergoing rewarming treatment, and will we use a permanent magnet or electromagnets.
Future Steps
We are reaching out to a graduate student in Mark Meacham’s Lab here at WashU who does a large amount of microfluidic fabrication to see their input on what sorts of channel structure we may need to model frostbite at different resolutions, as well as seeking the input of UN&UP to see what previous tests they have done to model the efficacy of the iron nanoparticles they have been developing for this project.
Questions/Things to Look Into
What is the simplest mechanism that would act as a proof of concept for extremity vasculature in frostbite?
What are the minimum functionalities we could imagine our solution implementing, and what are the additional functionalities that could be beneficial but not required for the true aim of targeted and timelier drug delivery?