Major Grant Supports Bone Regeneration Program

Bone Therapeutics SA, a Gosselies, Belgium, regenerative therapy company, is developing osteoblastic cell-matrix products for the treatment of large bone defects. The government of the Walloon Region has granted the company one million Euros to help finance the project.

The company plans to combine its allogeneic bone-forming (osteoblastic) cells within a 3D bio printed scaffold to treat large bone defects that result from trauma, disease or surgery. The firm sees this process becoming an alternative to bone autograft, the current standard-of-care for large bone defects which, they assert, is associated with significant morbidities.

The cell-matrix scaffold, they report, will be tailored to the size and form of the bone defect and will mimic the natural bone. Once implanted, researchers anticipate that the 3D matrix will be gradually replaced by natural bone tissue, produced by osteoblastic cells as well as cells from the patient that will have been recruited to the site. Since adequate vascularization can be a problem due to the size of many of these defects, the cells in the matrix will be designed to stimulate the formation of new blood vessels by releasing factors that recruit endothelial cells to the defect site.

Enrico Bastianelli, CEO of Bone Therapeutics commented: “This novel approach utilizing our allogeneic bone-forming cells within a 3D bio printed structure could herald a new and highly effective treatment for large bone defects and success in a field where regenerative medicine was thought to be untenable. We are grateful to the Walloon region for supporting this important project.”