#143 | Dr. Luis Alvarez | U.S. Army Veteran | MIT | Theradaptive

Dr. Luis Alvarez joined The Protectors to discuss the future of warfighter healing.  Interview coming this week.  Luis is a U.S. Army Veteran and has a PhD from MIT.

About: Luis is a West Point grad and Iraq Veteran. While serving in the Army in Iraq, Alvarez was frustrated to see the lack of technology available for targeted tissue regeneration. Some of his fellow service members underwent amputations weeks or months after a wound originally occurred because the bone and tissue couldn't be healed properly.

To address that shortcoming, Luis got a PhD in biological engineering from MIT and developed a method of converting the most powerful regenerative proteins currently used in humans into material-binding variants. These new proteins, which can be coated on to medical devices or implants, allow for targeted tissue regeneration with little off-target effects.

In practical terms, this means that major bone breaks could now be healed in a matter of weeks, not months. Cartilage that may have been considered irreparable might now be fully repaired.  His company, Theradaptive, has received $6 million in funding from the Department of Defense. While their lead products are for orthopedic trauma, they have also developed similar therapeutics for spinal fusion, cartilage repair, localized oncotherapy, and more.