Deepak Salem, May 12th, 2014
“Molly Stevens: A new way to grow bone”. 2013 June. TEDTalks. TEDGlobal 2013.TThe world of materials science is evolving all the time. One field in particular, biomaterials and biomedical engineering has taken off in an incredible fashion. There is constant innovation in this field, and these changes often are life changing to many people. Many surgical procedures and medical practices can be completely altered through this innovation. Molly Stevens, a researcher from London, is an example of a leading researcher who is changing the medical field. She has actually found a way to revolutionize bone regeneration therapy and perhaps even cardiovascular growth.
Fractures and injuries to bone are traditionally addressed in a very painful method. Presently, bone is taken from the iliac crest and is grafted onto damaged bone elsewhere on the body. While this method does work, it is not efficient as patients tend to typically feel intense pain even two years after the operation. This is what has caused Dr. Stevens to come up with a solution that utilizes biomaterial engineering along with the brilliance of stem cell therapy.
This new revolutionary therapy is based on stem cells. Stem cells are injected on top of original bone layer, and then an intermediate viscous liquid is injected between the two layers. This essentially causes a cavity to form in between the two layers and allows the growth of the stem cell bone layer to be controlled. Afterwards, the new bone growth is molded to work as the old one and removed if necessary. It’s almost fool proof, as the biomaterial intermediate essentially becomes biologically active.
Dr. Stevens then introduces the possibility of including cardiovascular therapy in this category of stem cell treatment as well. She goes over the fact that a myocardial infarction can cause the death of vascular tissue. This is a serious problem in the world, and she believes there is new hope in regenerative therapy. Currently, when new tissue is grown, it often dies as well unfortunately. She believes the use of stem cells to create a new tissue, coupled with a rigid or flexible biomaterial can provide the treatment. She then references an experiment where vascular tissue was grown in this method and was actually biologically active.
It will be interesting to be able to how this treatment fairs on the long term. Whether it will be a realistically achievable procedure or not will deduced upon whether or whether not the treatment is successful on the long term, and not the short term. Also, it will be interesting to see whether this treatment on osseous tissue will cause osteoporosis or other bone degenerative treatments due to the variable rigidity of the new bone. It opens up many questions such as how durable and how strong the bones actually are, as well as whether they can support day to day activities or perhaps even extreme sports.
Biomaterials engineering is so relevant to pretty much daily life. It has the chance of affecting essentially every living being on this planet, as it can save lives. It is also amazing because in essence, it branches off of basic cellular biology, classical/quantum physics, and organic/inorganic chemistry. So in essence, to every college student that is studying these sciences, it is applicable! It is wonderful to be able to slightly comprehend the basic science behind these breakthroughs.
With the advent of stem cell therapies, and the inevitable future where these therapies will be commonplace, the general public will need to be educated about the science of the treatment. It is not pseudoscience anymore where organs can be grown in a lab- it is actual science! These therapies are often complex, and for most people, an explanation must be provided to the population to which these treatments can touch.
As a whole, Dr. Stevens was an excellent presenter. At times, she could have been more dynamic, but given the nature of the speech, her relatively monotone voice was acceptable. She was clearly extremely knowledgeable about her topic, which made listening to the presentation that much more enjoyable. Hopefully in the future, this treatment will be successful and she will be able to produce many more educationally significant presentations.