Boston Startup Launches New Bone Glue To Space

BOSTON (CBS) – A high-flying Boston startup is launching its product to space.

Launchpad's standout product is glue that fixes fractured bone and stabilizes metal hardware to the bone.

CEO Brian Hess won $300,000 in last week's MassChallenge Awards Ceremony, the bulk of his winnings coming from the CASIS-Boeing prize for technology in space.

The glue is now set to head to the International Space Station.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jeff Brown reports

"What's interesting about the space station is that it is a microgravity environment so it actually creates an osteo-product like environment," says Hess.

On Earth, the glue works best on patients with weak bones so being in space is a perfect testing ground.

Astronauts in space lose 1-2% of their bone mass per month, and when the glue is used during surgery on Earth, the recovery process changes.

"When we glue bone back together over time our materials converted to new bone, so what we're interested up in space is to see if it actually accelerates the formation of new bone," Hess explains.

The glue will help back here on Earth as well.

Hess is in the process of gathering the test data needed to show the FDA that this is a safe and effective product. In practical applications this glue would replace the current way of doing things and lead to improvements in the operating room.

"The products that are used in the market to stabilize fractured bone are metal plates, screws and rods," explains Hess. "Even if we could start reducing the amount of metal in the body by augmenting it with bone glue, we could make surgeries much less complicated."

Less complicated too, and for Launnchpad, Hess hopes, a pile of money.