Medical marvel: Israeli biotech firm plants lab-grown bones in 11 people to fix bone loss!

(Image for representational purposes only)

New Delhi: Miracles in the field of medicine are not unheard of. The most precarious cases have often turned out spectacular results.

For example, a fracture, a bone misalignment or a dislocation have always been tricky to fix, but bone loss is one of the most complex aspects of human medicine.

However, an Israeli biotech company called Bonus Biogroup has taken a step further when they grew semi-liquid bone grafts in their laboratory and successfully injected them into the jaws of 11 people in order to repair bone loss in an early-stage clinical trial.

According to Reuters, the material was grown in a lab from each of the patient's own fat cells. They were injected into and filled the voids of the problematic bones. In a feat of what could only be of medical fascination, the bones hardened and merged with the existing bone to complete the jaw in just a few months.

The biotech firm will be presenting the results at the International Conference on Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Spain next week.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the company, which has raised $14 million, said it plans to dual list on Nasdaq in the coming months in order to improve the progress of their research.

Chief executive Shai Meretzki said that for the first time worldwide, the reconstruction of deficient or damaged bone tissue has been made achievable by growing usable human bone graft in labs and transplanting it back. The method is minimally invasive as it only requires surgery.

Meretzki previously funded Pluristem Therapeutics, which works with stem cells and is one of the more advanced Israeli biomed companies, Nature World News reported.

Ora Burger, the vice president of regulation affairs at Bonus Biogroup, told Reuters the transplant was successful in all of the patients. They are now planning to conduct a clinical study in the extremities and long bones.