Regeneration Technologies

What material could be better to replace damaged bone than bone itself? Jamie Grooms, who has spent his career working in the allograft and tissue bank industry, feels that the mechanical properties of bone are often underrated by researchers and clinicians trying to find better orthopedic implants. Grooms is the president of Regeneration Technologies Inc. (RTI), a spin-off of the University of Florida Tissue Bank (which Grooms formerly headed as president). Bone has the capacity to endure numerous testing cycles in which it undergoes torque testing and tests for compressional load. And bone avoids stress shielding, a problem related to the use of metal implants. For bone to be maintained properly, it must be stressed, otherwise it is resorbed. Metal implants bear weight, detrimentally shielding surrounding bone. And finally, bone is a more natural host for biological agents, for example, bone morphogenic proteins, than synthetic scaffolds.