Emerging Biomaterial Approaches for Bone Regeneration

Biomaterial approaches for bone tissue regeneration range from the production of novel biodegradable, cytocompatible tissue engineering scaffolds that can be tailored with appropriate mechanical and biological signals to regenerate bone tissue in specific sites in the body to applying existing biomaterials approved for use in certain clinical applications in strategies to encourage bone regeneration. For instance, our laboratory has developed a variety of biodegradable polymers for the controlled delivery of bioactive agents and/or progenitor stem cell populations to promote tissue regeneration. We have also applied currently regulated non-degradable polymers for space maintenance in an in vivo bioreactor strategy to produce vascularized bone tissue. This talk will present examples of polymeric materials from our laboratory to illustrate designer approaches for tissue engineering scaffolds, as well as examples of emerging applications of clinically available biomaterials as components of strategies to promote bone regeneration.