Bone engineers

Biomedical engineers are successfully engineering bone by making materials that mimic those naturally found in the body.

Professor Hala Zreiqat and her team at the University of Sydney have been working on their synthetic bone invention since 2011.

By learning from the properties of the skeleton, such as collagen and calcium, Zreiqat’s team has developed a ceramic material that resembles natural bone in terms of architecture, strength and porosity.

“It is strong enough to withstand the loads that will be applied to it and also contains pores that allow blood and nutrients to penetrate it,” explained Zreiqat. “It is designed to encourage normal bone growth and to eventually be replaced by natural bone in the body.”

The non-toxic material acts as a scaffold on which new bone can be regenerated. Because it is bioactive and contains seed cells, the scaffold ‘kick-starts’ the process of bone regeneration, then gradually degrades and is resorbed as it is replaced by natural bone.

The team has recently adapted to using 3D printing to make the material. This enables surgeons to look at a defect and give the exact shape and size needed to the researchers, who then develop a 3D scaffold to give back to the surgeon for implanting.

“Smaller defects are far easier to repair,” Zreiqat said. “The challenge is larger defects. We have experiments going on at the moment for maxillofacial regeneration, which is very difficult to regenerate.”

Zreiqat, who presented her team’s work at the Alliance for Design and Application in Tissue Engineering’s recent Tissue Engineering Symposium, said they hope to see the material in clinical use within the next 10 years.