The Times of Israel reports: Haifa-based biotech company Bonus BioGroup has entered the second trial of a clinical study seeking to regrow bones in a lab. The first trial, which began four years ago and comprised 32 patients, was completed successfully, according to Dr. Shai Meretzki, CEO and founder of Bonus BioGroup.
The process they have designed could come out of an an H.G. Wells novel. Liposuction is used to retrieve fat cells from the body, from which damage-controlling cells are isolated. The isolated cells are then grown in a bioreactor, a man-made simulation of the human body. After two weeks, the new bone, tailored to the patient’s needs, is injected back inside of the patient in the form of thousands of tiny, living bone particles called BonoFill.
According to Meretzki, the new bone is very much alive. It can be strengthened, and it can grow along with the patient, a particular point of interest when it comes to regenerating children’s bones. Elderly patients, as well as patients suffering from osteoporosis, infections, cancer, or trauma accidents, could find themselves with new bones up to seven times stronger than an original bone. Cleft palates, currently treated with a series of surgeries spanning over years, could be healed in infancy.
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