Scientists Use Technology to Create the First Ever Human Bone

Those of us who are involved in the technology field often overlook certain areas of technology. A solid explanation for this could be because we become so involved in the fields that interest us the most. Often, this can result in us missing out on what technology can really do for us. Imagine a world in which technology can create actual living human bones. Well, you can imagine that world now because some scientists have done just that.

We have seen and heard of scientists working to create skin tissue and even clone animals and if we are capable to do these two things it is a wonder why it took so long to create a way to replicate human bone. A group of scientists from Columbia University have solved this problem by creating actual human bone, might I add completely from scratch, and even went as far to insert the bone into actual human flesh to see how it interacted with other bone.

The man behind this invention is Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, a professor of biomedical engineering at the university. It took years of testing but the doctor's team was able to make it all possible through the use of stem cells. They took stem cells and unique bone molds that were generated from three-dimensional scans. The two were uniquely combined to create human bones of all different sizes.

In order to test the grown bone the scientists needed a few guinea pigs. They decided to do testing on a small variety of animals that have similar structures to a human. It has been a few years and there appears to be nothing but positive results. However, the current plan is to continue monitoring the animals for another five years before starting the process in humans. Theoretically, we could see this technology in use by the end of this decade. Amazing.

There have been attempts to make human bone in the past. A group of researchers in Europe announced that they made human bone last year. It was not until they actually conducted some tests that they learned the bone did not bond with other human bone. This was seen as quite the failure in the team rescinded their announcement for the time being.

The invention of this technology can lead to a better world. As our bones get older they become more brittle and attacked by disease. The ability to replace bones can help get rid of diseases, prevent them, and help increase the ability for someone to live longer. There is a lot of hope that becomes created with this breakthrough in medical technology. It should not be overlooked and everyone should be excited about it.

Sources:

(1) Gizmodo, http://gizmodo.com/5505396/this-living-human-bone-was-grown-in-lab, 2010.