• Question: What sorts of bio-material are we currently able to create and use?

    Asked by heisenberg to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      There’s a few, but there’s one in particular I’d like to point out to you, which is artificial tissue, which is a huge breakthrough.

      Scientists make a little cage out of a kind of plastic and then use a person’s cells to coat the cage. The cells grow around this cage and become whatever shape the scientists choose. There are groups in the Royal College of surgeons in Dublin that have made synthetic blood vessels and there are other groups that have made synthetic windpipes that have been put in people!

      The great thing about these is because they’re made from a persons cells, there’s no change of rejection!

      I’m telling you about this because it’s probably one of the biggest breakthroughs of the last five years

    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Hi Heisenberg,
      Well biomaterials were defined back in 1987, so there is a huge field involved in this area. Biomaterials are widely used around the world and are used for medical devices such as hip and knee replacements, a heart valve, lens for the eye or pacemaker for your heart. some understanding of the differing properties of these materials is important.

      These devices can be made up of different things. A heart valve may be made from polymers (plasctics), metals, and carbons.
      A hip joint might be made from metals and polymers (and sometimes ceramics) and will be connected to the body using a special bone cement. In these examples, a single device uses many different materials, each with special properties and biological interactions which is essential because we do not want the body to reject these devices.

      Hope this helps 🙂

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