SUMMARY
In the field of tissue engineering, one of the most important primary goals is the development of scaffold structure that would help repair damaged or diseased tissue to its original state. Material selection is an essential parameter for the bioscaffold. Additionally, the geometrical architecture of the bioscaffold is very important. Bioactive glasses are the most promising candidates for use in the construction of bioscaffolds for hard tissues and this invention by Lehigh University present invention provides a method for preparing such bioactive glass fibers.
This material is designed to offer better performance with the additional advantage of controlling the in vivo degradation rate. The pore structure of resulting glass fiber is optimized for enhanced soft tissue regeneration performance. This new “melt-draw-heat-etch” is simple, inexpensive, and is expected to have applications in diverse fields, such as tissue engineering,
biocatalysts, and biosensors.
Lehigh Tech ID#051306-01
THE MARKET
While tissue scaffold engineering for bone and cartilage repair may not be a new development, there is still an immediate window of opportunity for such technologies. This is due not only to the size of the global bone replacement material market, which is around $2B as of 2010, but also due to the aging baby-boomer population and the need for more innovative and effective bone replacement and grafting techniques. [1]
[1] “Bioactive Technologies for Bone Replacement,” Medical Devices Today web site, http://www.medicaldevicestoday.com/2010/06/bioactive-technologies-for-bone-replacement.html, accessed September 2, 2010.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Lehigh University is interested in identifying an industry partner focused on application specific projects.