Faster bone healing cracked

New research by Queensland University of Technology may one day lead to the development of technology that can speed up the time it takes to heal fractured and broken bones.

QUT recent graduate Dr Gwynne Hannay has built a gadget capable of promoting bone cell formation in the laboratory.

Hannay said his device replicated the mechanical and electrical stimulants which occurred naturally in the body to repair fractured and broken bones.

‘This device is about trying to grow bone tissue in the same environment our body grows bones. I have taken bone cells and put them in the physical environment they would experience in the body, and then varied the stimulants to extract a beneficial environment for tissue growth,’ he said.

Hannay's research has advanced the understanding of how bone cells can be stimulated to heal factures and has for the first time combined the artificial reproduction of both mechanical and electrical stimulants.