Erik Muñoz Arellano created the company Project Cali to produce customized breast prostheses for patients who have undergone mastectomies. These prostheses are created with environmentally friendly materials that ensure durability, comfort and low cost.

“One of my relatives underwent a mastectomy and always told me about the problems surrounding the purchase of prostheses, such as discomfort or cost,” said Erik Muñoz, founder of Proyecto Cali and a student of chemical engineering at the University Center of Exact Sciences and Engineering (CUCEI) of the University of Guadalajara (UG).

For a year, Proyecto Cali has focused its efforts on finding the ideal design for 3D printing breast prostheses. Erik Muñoz says they work with commercial materials, such as thermoplastic polyurethane, which offers high malleability and can be melted to recreate new parts.

Erik Muñoz said that one of the advantages of using this material is that it is highly tolerant of environments with acidic pH, its composition helps to personalizing the prosthesis, it can be washed easily and offers a durability of more than five years.

Erik Muñoz added that the elaborated design was counted with technology of the company inMateriis, a laboratory of innovation, investigation and 3D manufacture that has received support of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) through the Technological Innovation Fund (Fondo de Innovación Tecnológica , FIT).

Custom prostheses

Although the design of the prosthesis began a year ago, this emerging company already developed the first prototypes that were tested in a group of 300 volunteers, explained Alejandro Muñoz Arellano, a student of materials science at the CUCEI of and also member of Proyecto Cali.

Alejandro Muñoz said that the first stage of the trial consisted in presenting a generic prosthesis to the patients, in order to observe the reaction to the product and obtain information that could serve to improve its quality. Subsequently, based on the feedback they applied changes to the design.

Once the improvements were applied, the next step was to test the personalized prostheses in specific cases, so we worked with five volunteers to create pieces that would adapt to the peculiar characteristics of each mastectomy.

“We made a diagnosis to evaluate the scars caused by the mastectomies and with a three-dimensional scan we obtain an image of the thorax; we also measure and weigh the healthy breast to obtain the information, which is then used to elaborate a design with the necessary characteristics and that can be printed,” said Erik Muñoz.

Jordi Puig Gómez, another of the members of the team, said the cost of the personalized prosthesis would range between MXP 3,500 and MXP 4,500 (USD 67 to USD 86).

Erik Muñoz said that the first step of Proyecto Cali is the consolidation of a viable product in the market; but in the long-term, the goal is to work on the creation of a company dedicated to the research of materials and protocols that can help the health of the society.

“We not only do want to treat a cancer sequel, if we can help find a cure, it would be better. With the profits raised from the production of the prosthesis, we want to start researching and developing using molecular genetic engineering, biomedicine and materials science. ”

Although Project Cali has already completed the testing phase of personalized prostheses, they do not rule out working with other patients in a next phase, so through their social networks they will indicate if more trial periods are open.

 

Source: Agencia Informativa CONACYT