From Wood to Bone

A group of researchers is looking to regenerate bones with materials of natural origin, such as wood. The project, TEM-PLANT, is the first to use wood to develop organized and complex structures for tissue substitution and engineering. The Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics in Faenza, Italy, has taken red oakwood, turned it into charcoal, and, using the right pressure, temperature and chemicals, modified the molecules of the charcoal to turn it into a calcium-based probe. Anna Tampieri, scientific coordinator of the project, said, “We want this material to regenerate the bone within the body and at the same time to be load-bearing, something that until now can only be achieved through metallic bars.” The transformation of the wood into a type of ceramic means the resulting material is completely natural, with no synthetic or hazardous by-products at any stage. Tampieri adds, “It is also a nano issue in the sense that we generate sub nanostructed material and that our verification system takes places below the nanometer.” The TEM-PLANT technology is being tested in sheep and clinical trials on humans will start as soon as the new material has been shown to be safe to implant.

http://www.youris.com/Nano/Medicine/From_Wood_To_Bone.kl