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Engineering

Developing Biocompatible Stents with Shape Memory Alloys

Quick fact

Shape memory alloys like Nitinol can 'remember' a pre-set shape and return to it when heated, allowing a stent to be compressed for delivery and then self-expand to open a blocked artery.

Why this is interesting

You’ve probably heard of metal stents, but what if the metal itself could remember its original shape and expand on its own once inside your artery? That’s exactly what shape memory alloys do.