Implant infection is rising with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control predicting one person every three seconds will die from a bacteria infection by 2050. Nanomedicine is the use of nanomaterials to improve disease prevention, detection, and treatment which has resulted in hundreds of FDA approved medical products. While nanomedicine has been around for several decades, new technological advances are pushing its boundaries. For example, this presentation will provide an over 25 year journey of commercializing nano orthopedic implants now in over 30,000 patients to date showing no signs of failure. Current orthopedic implants face a failure rate of 5 – 10% and sometimes as high as 60% for bone cancer patients. Further, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized numerous industries to date. However, its use in nanomedicine has remained few and far between. One area that AI has significantly improved nanomedicine is through implantable sensors. This talk will present research in which implantable sensors, using AI, can learn from patient’s response to implants and predict future outcomes. Such implantable sensors not only incorporate AI, but also communicate to a handheld device, and can reverse AI predicted adverse events. Examples will be given in which AI implantable sensors have been used in orthopedics to inhibit implant infection and promote prolonged bone growth. In vitro and in vivo experiments will be provided that demonstrate how AI can be used towards our advantage in nanomedicine, especially implantable sensors. Lastly, this talk will summarize recent advances in nanomedicine to both help human health and save the environment.

Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 129) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health in over 30,000 patients.  His technology is also being used in commercial products to improve sustainability and renewable energy. He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Brown University, Saveetha University, Hebei University of Technology, UFPI, and others.  Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies.  Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society for Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 55,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Prof. Webster also recently formed a fund to support Nigerian student research opportunities in the U.S.