Two Ball State University senior entrepreneurship majors are trying to break into the medical market with a product made to mimic the feel and elasticity of human skin.
Partners Dawn Savidge and Sean Linehan are selling the idea of Sim Skin, a synthetic gelatin-based skin material that came from a military patent given to Ball State as a part of the Military 2 Market program.
The business partners are hoping the material will revolutionize the way that medical students learn to stitch up human skin and harvest veins.
"It will prepare medical professionals to do a better job when they get out into the field and stitch you so they won't show," Savidge said.
"It's the most accurate representation of human skin on the market that we know of," Linehan said,
Military 2 Market is, according to a university press release, a collaboration between U.S. Navy Researchers and Ball State entrepreneurship students to find commercial applications for military developed products.
Savidge said towels, pig feet and poultry are used to represent human skin in practice situations and with real body parts costing as much as $500 to $1,000 dollars. Linehan and Savidge's product costs about $250.
Michael Goldsby, professor of entrepreneurship, said he has overseen Savidge and Linehan's project from the start.
"I think they have recognized a real need out there; I think it was very innovative what they found; I think there is really good market potential," he said. "They have gone out and talked in the field and people have gotten very excited about it; whether it be surgeons or schools, they have been receiving really positive feed back."
Goldsby said the next step for the students' business is to attract investment to get their company off the ground.
"We're actually bringing a venture capitalist to help the students in figuring out how to evaluate the business and how to get those types of funds," he said.
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