Another project undertaken with the same collaborators supported by CeBI is improving newly developed external fixators with the use of affordable and readily available materials and manufacturing techniques. CeBI mainly contributes with industry and administrative coordination in this project.
The University of Moratuwa collaborated with the Imperial College, London and managed to successfully secure funding for the project for the project under the National Institute for Health and Research: Global Health Challenge Grant in 2018. Under this grant, the Fixator Project commenced under three main avenues of exploration; Bio-material to be used in-place of dead bone material, Exploring the feasibility of manufacturing the developed fixators in Sri Lanka and Final element analysis of Fixator and its Clinical Study. This breakdown of the project provided opportunity for 3 PhD studentships with the students graduating at the end of the grant.
Under the first phase, the research team followed up on the work done by Prof. Julian Jones on the development of biomaterial with bio-absorption properties which could minimize complications due to dead bone material during the healing process of a fracture. Under the guidance of Dr. Angelo Karunaratne, the team from Sri Lanka was tasked with imaging the bio-material and validating its viability to be used on live subjects. Using the services of the Diamond Research Facility, UK and their Synchroton x-ray device, the research team was able to obtain high resolution images of the biomaterials and compare the similarities between the biomaterial and bone material in the human body.
After successfully completing the validation process of the biomaterial, the project moved on to the second phase. Under the guidance of Prof. Ruwan Gopura, Department of Mechanical Engineering, his team undertook the task of producing prototypes of the proposed fixators. It is important to note that these prototypes were produced in the workshops at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Once they were produced, the prototypes were sent to Imperial College London to be tested against the Gold Standard for Fixators and were successfully validated.
The third phase of the project, which involved clinical testing and commercialization, was overseen by Dr. Pujitha Silva. Under his supervision, Mr. Thiran Sellahewa, a PhD student under the Fixator Project, looked at the feasibility of the local manufacture of these fixators. The clinical tests were carried out at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. The main focus of these tests was to assess the safety of the fixators. Upon the successful completion of the clinical testing, the fixators have received the approval of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority and the project has moved on to the commercialization stage where they will be produced for use on patients.