Scientists grow bones using sound waves
Scientists at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia have managed to grow new bone from stem cells using high-frequency sound waves.
After spending more than a decade investigating how sound interacts with different materials, researchers have developed a sound wave-generating device that can manipulate cells and fluids, the institute's website states.
“We can use sound waves to apply the right amount of pressure in the right places to stem cells, to stimulate the process of change,” says co-researcher and professor Leslie Yu. This innovative feat could also decisively help patients who have lost bone due to cancer or degenerative disease. It is an inevitable breakthrough because the current experimental process requires bone marrow extraction, which is expensive and painful.”
In contrast, this new approach is faster, simpler and more effective, according to the same news, because "our device is cheap and easy to use, so it can easily be upgraded to treat large numbers of cells at once," stresses Yu.
The researchers are now exploring how to scale their devices to deal with as many people as possible, thus determining its commercial effectiveness.
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