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: There is a need to shorten the time frostbite goes untreated and the time to localized drug delivery of a proprietary thrombolytic developed by UN&UP to improve frostbite patient treatment outcomes and increase extremity 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 utilizing a proprietary thrombolytic developed by UN&UP will improve patient outcomes allowing them to retain extremities and relevant function for a higher quality of life. The therapeutic localization device will be accessible to various orientations and sizes of digits and extremities, and the thrombolytic will reach extremities within 1 minute of device activation. Additionally, to test the validity of this device a realistic phantom reflecting the dynamics of extremity vasculature will be fabricated. A drug localization device, a realistic phantom, and all proper documentation to our client UN&UP by April 25, 2025.
Recent Activities
We met as a team and began design analysis on various possible design specifications within our Magnet, Stage/Plane, and Phantom design phases. We also updated our design specifications to include more information on Magnet Safety.
The team also did some simple testing on the movement of UN&UP’s magnetic nanoparticles utilizing a magnet system they have built for other applications to understand how these magnets localize and move.
The team also met with Todd Adkins an Engineer at the National MagLab, the largest and highest-powered magnet lab in the world, to gain insight into the various applications and types of magnets we could use for our design, additionally how we could even combine permanent and electromagnets.
Future Steps
We are looking into the idea of small induction magnets that could be used and easily moved to localize magnetic nanoparticles.
We are going to try and quantify the exact amount of magnetic field flux that is required to move the magnetic nanoparticles through a blood-like medium to inform what strength of magnets will be required for our design.
Questions/Things to Look Into
None.