Luis Alvarez, a West Point graduate who earned a Ph.D. in bioengineering from MIT, served 20 years in the military including time as an intelligence officer in Iraq. He saw injured soldiers who doctors were able to save, only to later have their limbs amputated because of the inability for injuries to heal properly. The experience led him to develop a means of turning recombinant proteins into a form that allows them to be used as coatings that act like paint and can be applied to implants to promote growth and other benefits. We spoke to Alvarez, founder of Theradaptive, about his journey from the battlefield to the lab, how his company’s platform technology works, and the range of applications to which it may be applied.