Professor Joost de Bruijn, from the Department of Materials, is part of a research team focusing on bone tissue regeneration that has had a paper published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS) on-line medical journal. The paper entitled 'Cell-Based Bone Tissue Engineering' and is coauthored by
Gert J. Meijer, Ron Koole & Clemens A. van Blitterswijk.
The types of materials available to treat problems - such as the reconstruction of bone defects resulting from trauma, tumour and infections - include autologous bone (from the patient), allogeneic bone (from a donor), and synthetic biomaterials - such as metals, and ceramics are all currently used in practice. The paper discusses an alternative approach where the possible new directions are explored to make bone tissue engineering a clinical success.