EpiBone, Inc.
Engineering human tissue implants
What is the Challenge?
Millions of patients around the world suffer due to severely diseased or lost organs or tissues, for which there are no available transplants or treatment options. Solutions based on artificial implants come with several challenges for patients and are often inadequate and short lasting, so the need for a paradigm shift towards biological solutions is more urgent than ever. What if we could use the body’s own cells to restore, maintain, or improve damaged tissues or organs?
What is the Solution?
US-based EpiBone, Inc. has developed a proprietary system that can grow the patient's own bone in a laboratory, which can later be transplanted into patients without the need for additional surgeries or complications commonly associated with current treatments. Their technology utilizes a scan of the patient’s bone defect and the patient’s own stem cells to construct a defect-specific “personalized” bone graft. The new bone is incubated in a custom bioreactor, where stem cells are nourished in such a way that they multiply and become bone cells. The new bone cells grow into a personalized bone graft ready for implantation. In the EpiBone, Inc. bioreactor, new, personalized bone can grow in just three weeks.
EpiBone, Inc.’s method provides exact defect repair, improved bone formation and regeneration for the patient whose bone is missing because of genetic defects, traumatic injury, or lost through illness. Surgeons are offered a simpler grafting method that reduces recovery time by sidestepping complications associated with synthetic implants.
