This is one in a series presenting news on technology and innovation, made possible with generous support from the Lemelson Foundation.
Implanted metal parts — such as artificial joints or pins and plates that hold bones together — can help people with injured or aging bodies.
Once repaired, patients often can run, jump and play again. But sometimes bacteria in the body find and hide out in these implants. When this happens, it may take surgery to rout those germs. But what if doctors could kill those germs from outside the body, without drugs or cutting someone open? Two scientists are developing a way to do just that. The trick to make it happen: a special magnet.One reason these infections can be so tough to treat is that they form biofilms. These are thin sheets of bacteria and other gunk bind together beneath a protective, sticky layer. Plaque growing on teeth is one type of biofilm. But while you can scrub away plaque with a good toothbrush, a biofilm isn’t so easy to get rid of when it’s inside your knee or sandwiched beside a titanium plate in your toe. Only about one or two percent of patients with artificial joints develop one of these infections. But that still adds up to a lot of people.
And once they develop, such infections can be very painful and expensive to treat. Often, the patient needs more surgeries to remove the infected joint and put in a new one. They may also need a lot of antibiotics.
David Greenberg started puzzling over a new solution. He is a doctor and researcher who works on preventing infections. “What are the ways we could prevent that original joint from being removed if it got infected?” he wondered. He talked with one of his colleagues, Rajiv Chopra. Chopra is a biophysicist. That’s a scientist who studies how physical forces relate to living things. Both work at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Together, they thought about MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging. Doctors often use this imaging technique to view soft, internal organs, like the brain, muscles and heart. An MRI machine uses strong magnetic fields to create those images.
But when those magnetic waves interact with metal, they can create heat. That can make it dangerous for some people with metal implants or electronics in their bodies to get an MRI scan. But what if…
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