In what may be the most impressive new of the week, researchers have developed plant cellulose foam that can be turned into bone. The material is being touted as the implant substance of the future.
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Airy and foamlike, it can easily be injected into the body to provide scaffolding for the growth of new bone.
"Most bone graft or implants are made of hard, brittle ceramic that doesn't always conform to the shape of the hole, and those gaps can lead to poor growth of the bone and implant failure," said study author Daniel Osorio, a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering at McMaster.
"We created this cellulose nanocrystal aerogel as a more effective alternative to these synthetic materials.
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