3-D-printed bioceramic composite offers flexible new hope for bone replacement

Published on October 4th, 2016 | By: April Gocha, PhD

[Image above] Hyperelastic bone 3-D-printed in the shape of a section of the human spine. Credit: Adam E. Jakus

Whether you’re attacked by a bear (twice) or trip and fall because you’re distracted by a set of see-through bathrooms, at some point most of us need help repairing these impressive bodies we live in.

So an important goal of biomaterials research is to be able to repair and replace bone when and where we need it. And although much success has been made in this area—such as here, here, here, here, here, or here—we still don’t have an ideal biomaterial with widespread clinical availability.

That ideal material needs to be robust enough to match the strength of natural bone, yet flexible enough to integrate with the body—and biocompatible, rapidly deployable (even in the operating room), customizable, and reasonably scalable. Oh, and how about an inexpensive price tag, too?

While that may sound like a lofty wish list, researchers at Northwestern University report that they’ve developed a hyperelastic material that can be 3-D-printed into a potential bone replacement scaffold that ticks all those boxes.