July 12, 2022

It can take inventors years to receive an official U.S. patent, usually represented by a seven-digit number. But the full story behind most patents is much longer. When a professor found that he was lacking a key tool in his field, he and his colleagues set out to build an alternative that was even better. Their patent was approved in 2021, and this is the story of how it came to be.

Dr. Sri Balasubramanian, associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, colleagues, and five Biomed students developed a specially designed portable dynamometer to measure isokinetic strength and muscle force of patients’ knees and other joints. The story of how it came to be is featured in a piece titled 'The Story of No. 11099089' in the summer 2022 issue of Drexel Magazine.