Sports medicine is the fastest growing specialty in orthopedics, attracting more than 25% of orthopedic residents seeking fellowships for the 2010 training year. Since many sports injuries occur in the young athlete, the way an injury is treated early on may be the determining factor in preventing progressive joint changes and the early onset of degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis. The promise of new biomaterials and biologics for repairing or replacing supporting soft tissue structures will have a big impact on the orthopedics market for some time to come.

When thwarted by the lack of a suitable method to sterilize biomaterials for use in humans, Robert Langer's lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology simply invented supercritical carbon dioxide sterilization technology to solve the problem, forming start-up NovaSterilis.

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, The New Movement in Spine, features profiles of Archus Orthopedics Inc., AxioMed Spine Corp., Gelifex Inc. and Replication Medical Inc. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Advanced Circulatory Systems Inc., Ambrx Inc., Clearant Inc., Compound Therapeutics Inc., Hydra Biosciences Inc., NanoBio Corp., Phenomix Corp. and VisEn Medical Inc.

Clearant Inc. eventually aims to apply its gamma pathogen inactivation technology to the blood transfusion market, but it is starting with sterilization of tissue implants and other biological products where the regulatory hurdles are lower and the timeline to commercialization is shorter.