CPG Celebrates 20 Years
Cambridge Polymer Group is proud to be celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer. Started in the front room of an apartment in Arlington, MA by three MIT alumni, CPG has established an international reputation as a contract research and testing laboratory, with almost 900 clients. All three founders are still actively involved with the company. Over the subsequent years, we have had the pleasure and opportunity to work and collaborate with many excellent employees, but we now have one of the best collections of researchers assembled in the history of the company.
CPG started with an NIH SBIR grant to develop an add-on feature for a rheometer, and have used this funding mechanism occasionally over the years to help fund speculative internal research. We quickly realized that instrumentation was not where our primary interests lay and we soon began providing testing and consultation in orthopedics materials and devices. This work translated into other biomedical fields, including cardiovascular, ophthalmology, spine, women's health, gastro-intestinal, and general soft tissue applications. Our clients grew to rely on our expertise in test design coupled to our deep fundamental material understanding, all presented in detail-oriented, clear written, reports. CPG researchers also began to innovate on test methods and materials as part of our internal research efforts, and invented extensional rheometers, hydrogel formulations and constructs, surgical tools, and polyethylene formulations for total joint replacements. Many of these inventions have been licensed and are on the market.
We have continuously added on new capabilities and expertise to help our clients and to support our internal research efforts. In the past 5 years, we have built a chromatography lab to support our work in product formulation, medical device cleaning assessment, unknown analysis, and degradable polymer characterization. Our hydrogel team has developed expertise in tissue phantom development, and have created realistic tissue models for training and testing. Our chemistry team has developed new polymer systems for clients. Our engineers have assisted clients with the design and development of new tools, instruments, and medical devices, from original concept, to material selection, to proof-of-concept testing. And our testing team, arguably the core of CPG, continues to provide rapid, high quality and value added testing services to our clients.
We are pleased to be celebrating 20 years with our clients, and look forward to many more years of service.