Aravis BioTech and Advanced Implant Imaging

Image of hip implant from wikimedia.org

It's no secret that orthopedic implants have revolutionized mobility in the modern world. Hip and knee replacements have given a new lease to life for hundreds of thousands of individuals. But when complications strike, the impact is severe. Around 2% of hip and knee replacements become infected, requiring revision surgeries and associated direct and indirect lifetime costs of ~$400,000 and carry a 5% mortality rate within two months. Currently, confirming infection often means painful and invasive joint aspirations, time consuming lab cultures, or exploratory surgery.

I recently sat down with co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Anker to discuss Aravis BioTech and their innovative approach to visualizing implants and detecting complications. At first glance, orthopedic implants might not seem like a natural fit for analytical chemistry—but in practice, the discipline plays a pivotal role. By pairing analytical techniques with existing medical imaging methods, Aravis is uncovering richer, more precise information about implant performance and patient recovery.

The innovation at Aravis BioTech involves infusing implants with sensors that safely report their biological and mechanical state through a simple X-ray. By embedding tiny, radiopaque sensors into orthopedic implants, the company intends to enable surgeons to measure pressure, bending, and infection-induced chemical changes in implants. Thus, through a combination of chemistry and traditional X-ray imaging, Aravis may open the door to better monitoring and caring for post-surgery implants.

Founders from Chemistry, Bioengineering, and Surgery

Aravis was founded in 2015 at Clemson University by a uniquely interdisciplinary team: Jeffrey N. Anker, Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Medical Biophysics, and Bioengineering; Caleb Behrend, orthopedic spine surgeon and current president of OrthoArizona; and John DesJardins, Hambright Distinguished Professor in Engineering Leadership in Bioengineering. What began as a conversation between colleagues evolved into a tightly integrated research partnership that merged three worlds rarely found in the same room—cutting-edge chemistry, advanced implant design, and first-hand surgical experience.

Anker brought to the table years of research in responsive materials, optical sensing, and imaging techniques. His lab was already exploring ways to make sensors visible in standard imaging modalities, and he saw clear potential to move beyond the lab into the clinic. Behrend, as a practicing surgeon, was acutely aware of how difficult it can be to assess healing progress after orthopedic surgery—especially when physicians must rely on indirect signs, patient-reported pain, and guesswork from static X-rays. DesJardins rounded out the team with deep expertise in implant mechanics, biomaterials, and how subtle design changes can translate into meaningful differences in patient outcomes.

Together, they envisioned a radical shift: transforming the passive metal hardware in medical implants into active participants in patient care. Their concept was deceptively simple—embed a sensor or gauge directly into the implant. Under standard X-ray imaging, the physician could not only check alignment and placement but also read a measurable indicator of healing, such as the stability of a bone fusion or the progress of load-bearing recovery. This approach would give doctors hard data during routine follow-ups, potentially catching complications earlier and guiding more personalized treatment plans.

How It Works: Turning X-Rays into Live Readouts

At the core of Aravis’s innovation is a chemically responsive hydrogel—a soft, polymer-based material that can swell or contract in response to very specific biochemical or physical cues. These cues can include changes in pH associated with infection, the appearance of targeted biomarkers like alpha-defensin (which is elevated in prosthetic joint infections), or subtle mechanical strains that occur as bones bear weight during the healing process.

What makes this approach powerful is the integration of the hydrogel with a radiopaque marker. The marker’s position or shape changes as the hydrogel swells or contracts in response to local chemical changes in the surrounding fluid, and those changes are readily visible using standard medical X-ray imaging—equipment that is already ubiquitous in hospitals and clinics. This allows clinicians to monitor chemical and mechanical changes without the need for expensive, specialized imaging platforms.

To further enhance detection sensitivity, Aravis’s engineers incorporate mechanical gain mechanisms—lever-like structures or bilayer materials—that translate microscopic shifts in hydrogel volume into amplified, measurable movements of the radiopaque marker. The result is a device capable of producing a quantitative readout from a single, routine X-ray. This means that a post-operative image can reveal far more than whether a bone is properly aligned: it can track the healing trajectory, provide an early warning of infection before symptoms arise, and even offer an indirect measure of bone strength as patients recover.

Progress to Date

The Aravis team has spent the last several years methodically validating the core technology in laboratory, animal, and human cadaver settings. They have demonstrated that their hydrogel-based sensors are fully biocompatible and can withstand the harsh sterilization conditions of operating rooms, including both autoclaving and gamma irradiation. Sensitivity testing in animal models, such as rodent studies, has confirmed that the devices can reliably detect pH shifts indicative of infection.

Feasibility has also been shown in human cadaver trials, where the swelling of the hydrogel produced a clearly visible shift in the position of the radiopaque marker on X-ray images—providing the kind of unambiguous signal that surgeons and radiologists can trust.

In parallel, the company (in conjunction with Clemson University) has secured competitive federal funding, including NIH SBIR and R21 grants, to expand the biomarker sensing portfolio, with a particular focus on alpha-defensin detection for orthopedic infection diagnostics. They are also working with Parvizi Surgical Innovation, and have received funding from the South Carolina Research Authority and an SCBio pitch.

Commercial Strategy and Future Vision

Rather than marketing directly to hospitals, Aravis plans to partner with established orthopedic device manufacturers that already have global distribution networks, trusted surgeon relationships, and extensive service infrastructure. This approach avoids the massive expense and complexity of building a salesforce from scratch. It allows Aravis to focus on what it does best—pushing the limits of sensor design and integration—while relying on industry leaders to help with integration and implementation.

If successful, Aravis’s approach could transform post-surgical care from a largely reactive model—waiting until symptoms arise—to a proactive system where problems are detected and addressed before they cause serious harm. A standard follow-up X-ray could become a multipurpose diagnostic session, yielding quantitative readings alongside visual inspection. Surgeons could confirm proper healing trajectories, identify early signs of loosening or infection, and adjust recovery plans accordingly. Patients, in turn, would gain tangible, visual evidence of their progress—something far more satisfying than a vague "you’re healing fine."

"We want to make the status of your implant be something that we can quantify," says Anker. "We want to improve communications with doctors and patient." Over time, this approach could foster greater trust, better adherence to rehabilitation programs, and fewer costly revision surgeries.

In the not-too-distant future, orthopedic care might evolve from simply placing a piece of hardware into the body to actively listening to what that hardware is saying every step of the way. Implants would no longer be silent passengers—they would become informed, intelligent partners in the healing process.

To learn more about Aravis BioTech and their technology, visit Aravis BioTech.