The Problem:
Skin simulants have been developed for burnt skin replacements and for medical training, such as for phlebotomical and surgical practice. Skin simulants are also useful in a variety of design and testing applications. For instance, skin simulants are employed during the development of ballistic munitions, especially in the context of non-lethal projectiles. Due to ethical and biosafety issues, many tissues, such as vaginal tissues, are difficult to procure and test in a laboratory setting. The difficult procurement of such tissues makes testing and simulating urogynocological techniques, surgeries, medications, etc. very difficult.
The Solution:
Researchers at the University of Alabama have developed the first ever normal and prolapsed vaginal tissue surrogate material. The customizable four-part silicone based biofidelic composition can simulate both normal and diseased vaginal tissue. The advanced material would be indispensable for simulating, evaluating, and planning surgeries. The material behaves biomechanically like human vaginal tissue and could also play a role in product testing.
Various Conductive Skin Simulants
Benefits:
• Closely mimics the biomechanical properties of natural human skin (including vaginal tissue).
• Realistic non-linear hyper-elastic properties of real human skin.
• Mimics normal and prolapsed vaginal tissue at a lower test rate.
• Can be used to develop surgical techniques associated with prolapse surgery, hysterectomy, childbirth, and more.
• May also be applied to biomedical testing/research, military, ballistic and weapons manufacturers, non-vaginal surgeries.
The University of Alabama Research Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) is a non-profit corporation that is responsible for commercializing University of Alabama technologies and for supporting University research. At OIC, we seek parties that are interested in learning more about our technologies and commercialization opportunities, and we welcome any inquiries you may have.
