{"id":247490,"date":"2026-06-29T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=247490"},"modified":"2026-06-29T12:26:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:26:54","slug":"a-soft-sensor-for-knees-under-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/06\/a-soft-sensor-for-knees-under-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"A Soft Sensor for Knees Under Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

A biodegradable pressure sensor could help people with knee injuries exercise and heal faster, University of Connecticut researchers report in the 26 June issue of Science Advances.<\/a><\/p>\n

The knee can take a great deal of abuse, thanks to the cartilage that cushions it. But if it\u2019s not moved and exercised enough, the knee stiffens and has poor blood flow. The cartilage can degrade or tear, worsening any injury already there. So people with injured knees have to move in order to heal. The challenge is to know how much exercise or movement is too much.<\/p>\n

To answer that question, UConn College of Engineering professor Thanh Nguyen, along with Ph.D. student Jinyoung Park and other colleagues developed a pressure sensor that can be put inside the knee joint, and then degrade harmlessly into the body when no longer needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverloading destroys the cartilage. But if you don\u2019t move and exercise, if you don\u2019t run, walk, jump, you have a very stiff joint with little blood flowing to it,\u201d says Nguyen. \u201cMy lab developed a sensor that can monitor the force in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nguyen\u2019s lab created the sensor from poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), a polymer than degrades harmlessly into lactic acid, carbon dioxide, and water. When properly manufactured, it also has the neat quality of being piezoelectric. That is, flexing or pressing the polymer creates an electric charge inside it.<\/p>\n