Lujan advances biomechanical testing standards with novel 3D-printed tool

Trevor Lujan, professor and chair of the Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department at Boise State University, traces his lifelong interest in joint health back to a teenage trampoline accident that fractured his kneecap. That experience set him on a path to understanding how joints work, why they fail and how they heal. Today, his research explores joint biomechanics, from the progression of osteoarthritis to new ways of accelerating tissue repair. His work is currently supported by the university's TRANSFORM Seed Grants Program.

(l-r) Karlee Macaw, Kate Benfield, Katherine Fors, Amevi Semodji, Trevor Lujan were named finalists in the BS, MS, or PhD competitions at the ASME biomedical engineering conference in New Mexico this past summer. Benfield won 3rd place for the PhD competition, and Fors won 1st place for the MS competition.

As part of a broader campus effort funded by a National Science Foundation Accelerating Research Translation (ART) award, the TRANSFORM Seed Grants Program helps Boise State researchers move discoveries into the world where they can make a difference. Boise State was one of only 17 institutions nationwide to receive this award, which focuses on turning academic innovations into solutions with public impact. For faculty innovators like Lujan, the program fills a critical gap between laboratory insight and commercial opportunity.

That gap becomes especially clear in one of the field's long-standing challenges: ensuring that biomechanical tests are accurate, consistent and comparable across research groups. When scientists study how tissues fail or recover, they rely on precise mechanical testing of extremely small samples. Yet preparing those samples has traditionally been done by hand, a process prone to error. A miscut sample can undermine an entire dataset, making it difficult to replicate studies or build reliable standards for the field.

Lujan's team is addressing this problem head-on.

"We are delivering a 3D-printed product that is customizable, accurate and affordable, and it will be the only one of its kind on the market," said Lujan.

With support from the TRANSFORM Seed Grants Program, the team is refining this device and preparing it for commercial launch within the next year. The funding enables them to build the necessary infrastructure for scale, including a quality-control framework that ensures each tool meets the precision demands of biomechanical research. The device represents the first step toward Lujan's larger goal: creating a suite of tools that redefine standards for mechanical testing.

A critical piece of that commercialization pathway is the collaboration with external partner Steven Szymeczek, owner of Penumbra Consulting, who specializes in advanced additive manufacturing. Because the device depends on extremely tight tolerances, Szymeczek is helping establish a rigorous quality management system and coordinating with Idaho-based 3D printing company JawsTec to scale production as demand increases.

Lujan also credits Boise State's Office of Technology Transfer for helping guide the project from idea to market-ready technology. The office supported the team throughout the utility patent process, a major milestone in protecting the device and positioning it for commercialization. Their continued partnership has been "extremely supportive and helpful," he said.

Looking back on his time at Boise State, Lujan has watched the university's innovation culture evolve from limited commercialization infrastructure to a campus with growing momentum and support. Through programs like the TRANSFORM Seed Grants, he sees a shift toward making translational research not just possible but expected. Over the next decade, he hopes Boise State will be recognized as one of the Northwest's leading environments for bringing research-driven technologies to market.

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