Spotlight Interview with Alex Santayana, Applications Engineer at NuSil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you hope attendees will gain at your webinar?

Innovative new medical devices are changing lives for patients around the globe. As engineers design these devices, they need biocompatible materials that offer long-term stability, high levels of purity and robust performance standards. Along with end-use requirements, they also need materials that meet their manufacturing needs.

Silicone is a unique, engineered material that can help solve many of these design challenges facing engineers. I’ll highlight the distinctive qualities of the material that make it stand out while offering insight into its many forms and processing methods. My goal is to make it easier to choose the right silicone for a medical device application.

What discussions do you look forward to having with the attendees?

Medical devices change lives every day, whether it’s a child hearing for the first time with a cochlear implant or a busy dad who no longer stops his day for injections because he has an insulin pump. Now device therapies are expanding in ways that might have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. It’s exciting to hear how engineering teams are imagining and developing the next generation of devices, including personalized healthcare therapies. And I look forward to conversations about the ways silicones can help improve device performance and support manufacturing processes.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I love working with silicone because this single chemistry is capable of an incredible range of properties. Fundamental changes to the polymer can yield everything from soft gels to hard resins, all without using harsh additives or plasticizers.

The best part of my work is when I can piece together the performance, processing and business needs of an application to identify the most suitable product — the silicone that optimally balances all a manufacturer’s needs. For medical device applications, it’s both satisfying and humbling to know that my skills and expertise can help engineers find solutions that make a genuine difference in the daily lives of so many patients and their families.

How did you get into the industry?

Ten years ago, I started working with silicone as a mechanical engineer involved in the design and manufacturing of elastomeric parts. Since then, I’ve supported customers leveraging silicones in a range of industries, including technology, aerospace, defense and medical. Although today my work is more focused on the raw materials, I still benefit from knowing how they are used to accomplish any specific design goal.

Where is your favorite place in the world, and why?

My favorite place is underwater. It’s the closest most of us will get to visiting an alien world where we can weightlessly float around while observing strange and exciting creatures we would never see otherwise.

You can register for NuSil’s webinar “The Future of ATMPs” here:

https://bit.ly/3KhAcdA

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