Posted in Medical Materials - Raw Materials by Chris Newmarker on November 26, 2013
Engineers concerned about global health think there’s room for improvement when it comes to condoms. They want to create condoms that more people will want to use—preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the process, according to a recent NPR report.
In March of this year, the Gates Foundation issued a challenge to inventors and researchers around the world to go beyond the latex condoms that are presently out there, and design condoms that are just as effective but feel better when used.
Last week. the Gates Foundation announced 11 winning proposals out of more than 800 entries through its Grand Challenges in Global Health.
Richard Chartoff of the University of Oregon is among those turning to better polymers, polyurethane elastic polymers in the case of his proposal. Others sought to design better condom applicators.
Some even turned to nanomaterials: Aravind Vijayaraghavan and a team from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom propose to develop new elastic composite materials for condoms that contain nanomaterials such as graphene.
Another of the winners was developed by Mark McGlothin, a chemical engineer at Apex Medical Technologies in San Diego, CA. His novel condom is made of collagen, the same protein found in animal ligaments and tendons.
"We take raw collagen from beef tendons or fish scraps, and gingerly separate out the fibers," McGlothin tells NPR. "We form it into a condom ... and when it dries down, it looks like sausage casing."
