ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 1998) — Three-dimensional living bone created by University of Toronto researchers could one day replace conventional bone grafting techniques.

The bone is made by growing human cells throughout a new type of biodegradable polymeric foam invented by biomaterials professor John Davies, chemical engineering professor Molly Shoichet and doctoral student Chantal Holy. When implanted to fill a gap or fracture, the foam can be seeded with the patient's own bone stem cells to create living tissue.

Bone defects and injuries are currently treated predominantly by grafting bone from another part of the patient's body or by taking bone from cadavers. "Implanting the foams to create new bone eliminates both the secondary injury associated with grafting from the patient's body and the risk of disease transmission from the use of cadavers," says Davies. The team anticipates that the foams will also be suitable for dental applications.

The technology has been transferred to a spin-off company, BoneTec Corporation, which has seed capital from University Medical Discoveries Inc.

Related Stories

Printing Better Bones: First Step Toward Revolutionary Change In Bone-grafting Technology (Mar. 12, 2007) — Using a modified ink-jet printer, a McGill University researcher is producing three-dimensional bioceramic "bones" that could one day change the way reconstructive surgery is ...  > read more

New Technique Uses Pubic Bone For Grafting (Jan. 29, 2007) — A new technique using the pubic bone as a source of bone for grafting may avoid the complications of harvesting bone from the iliac crest, or "hip bone," according to a report in the ...  > read more

Imaging Technique To Help Improve Bone Regeneration (Mar. 2, 2005) — Tissue engineers can choose from a wide range of living cells, biomaterials and proteins to repair a bone defect. But finding the optimum combination requires improved methods for tracking the ...  > read more

Tissue Engineered Bone Grows Strong (June 26, 2003) — By closely following nature's blueprint, Toronto researchers have developed an innovative way to speed the healing of severe bone breaks, resulting in what may be the thickest tissue-engineered ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Baking Out DNA