Bio-materials
A biomaterial is any matter, surface, or construct that interacts with biological systems. The development of biomaterials, as a science, is about fifty years old. Biomaterials science encompasses elements of medicine, biology, chemistry, tissue engineering and materials science. Biomaterials can be derived either from nature or synthesized in the laboratory using a variety of chemical approaches utilizing metallic components or ceramics.
They are often used and/or adapted for a medical application, and thus comprises whole or part of a living structure or biomedical device which performs, augments, or replaces a natural function.
Biomaterials are also used every day in dental applications, surgery, and drug delivery. A construct with impregnated pharmaceutical products can be placed into the body, which permits the prolonged release of a drug over an extended period of time.
A biomaterial may also be an autograft, allograft or xenograft used as a transplant material.
For burn victims and sufferers of skin-related conditions, replacement skin may soon be easily available as scientists have claimed in 2012. The researchers are able to grow sheets of skin by placing individual cells into a gel-like sheet, and they can even be grown into specific shapes — such as letters.
To perfect the technique biomaterials were mixed, causing a chemical reaction that forms a ‘mosaic hydrogel’ — a sheet-like substance compatible with the growth of cells into living tissues, into which different types of cells can be seeded in very precise and controlled placements. This is unlike more typical methods, for instance scaffolding, where cells are seeded onto an artificial structure capable of supporting three dimensional tissue formations. In this process, cells are planted onto the mosaic hydrogel sheets as they are being created — generating the perfect conditions for cells to grow. The placement of the cells is so precise that scientists can spell words and can precisely mimic the natural placement of cells in living tissues.
