MINES St Etienne PhD student Guillaume Patt-Lafitte has produced a video explaining his thesis which will be part of the BoneFix project. Guillaume, who has a masters in biomedical engineering from the University of Paris, is working on BoneFix as part of David Eglin’s team. His project is titled “Design and fabrication of origami patch for a biodegradation osteosynthesis fixation” and will focus on developing biodegradable and foldable polymeric membranes which will be used in BoneFix’s fixation patch, together with the thiol-ene based hydroxyapatite composite.
In the video, which was made for the thesis monitoring committee at MINES, Guillaume describes the high incidence and costs associated with osteoporosis in Europe, and how the current metal plate and screw based fixators are often incompatible with osteoporotic bone. The topological fixation approach of BoneFix aims to overcome these issues by providing strong fixation to complex bone fractures without requiring drilling, which causes further trauma to the bone. The origami membrane that Guillaume aims to develop will enhance the fixation properties of BoneFix by increasing the strength and crack resistance of the fixation patch, while also being biodegradable. Its programmable foldability will allow the membrane to be applied in a folded configuration and then deployed in situ, which will allow for minimally invasive implantation.
Guillaume says that one of the things that interests him most about the BoneFix project is the chance to work with a multidiscipline team and that the creation and design of the new membrane will ultimately end up helping people. In addition to making complex origami in the lab, Guillaume enjoys origami as a hobby, along with climbing and cooking.