Scientists Create Bioartificial Bone in Lab

In what they describe as breakthrough research, Israeli scientists have shown that patients in need of an organ transplant may soon be able to provide a tissue sample and then wait a week or two until it has been used to custom-build the necessary organ.

Dr. Gadi Pelled, working under the guidance of Prof. Dan Gazit at Hebrew University (Jerusalem, Israel; www.huji.ac.il), has managed to grow and then combine cells from blood vessels and genetically engineered adult stem cells to create three-dimensional bioartificial bone in the laboratory. Although Dr. Pelled has only conducted research on bone thus far, he says the method can be applied to any tissue that has blood vessels. One of the major difficulties in creating bioartificial organs, he notes, is creating a network of blood vessels in the organ that can connect to those in the body.

The technology has been exclusively licensed to SBT, a startup company founded by the Yissum Research Development Company of Hebrew University and Prof. Gazit. SBT's mission is to engineer skeletal tissue and vascular tissues, including bone, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. SBT has experience in this field, having developed proprietary biologic technology targeted at the use of ex-vivo tissue engineering for the generation of tissues such as these and having also developed methods of treating diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. The company has also developed an ex-vivo three-dimensional system for screening drugs.

Dr. Pelled received a Kaye Award for his research. The Kaye Innovation Awards at Hebrew University are designed to encourage faculty and students to develop innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential that will benefit the university and society.