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| Sunday, 13 March 2005 |
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Wool replaces metal in bone surgery by Deepal Warnakulasuriya A Sri Lankan doctor at the Otago University, New Zealand has changed medical history giving new hope for disfigured patients all over the World. Dr. George Jayantha Dias at a research in Otago University with another doctor has created a mouldable, bone-like material based on Keratin, a Protein extracted from wool which would assist to heal broken or damaged bones faster, cleaner and in a natural way too. The innovation which could be a medical breakthrough has brought immense benefits for broken bones. The ground breaking research had been initiated by Dr. Dias who is a lecturer of the University's Anatomy and Structural Biology Department. The former oral and facial surgeon had been asked to work on bone substitutes by the shortcomings of existing technology. Dr. Dias who is known as Jayantha by his colleagues here in Sri Lanka is an old boy of St Joseph's College, Colombo and Aquinas, and resided in Mutwal, Colombo 15. He obtained his Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) from the University of Peradeniya and post graduation from the Colombo University on Master of Surgery (MS). He has also done his PhD at Otago University in New Zealand after he joined the University as a lecturer in 1994. He, the co-inventor of the international patent on keratin currently leads the University's research group. Bones damaged by trauma or tumours are currently repaired using bone chips harvested from elsewhere in the body which sometimes causes its own complications or using synthetics such as titanium or stainless steel that do not promote bone recovery. According to several New Zealand newspapers of late January the new material is strong enough to form a structural repair which is gradually absorbed by the body. They also assure that non-toxic and non irritating materials definitely remove the need of a second operation which usually comes after a operation. "The Otago Daily Times" and "Otago Bulletin" in New Zealand report that the material can be made as malleable as jelly or as hard as bone. It further says that while existing techniques risk with cross-contamination, infection, follow up surgeries and sometimes rejection of the technique altogether by the body, this would encourage fresh bone to grow back. According to Dr.Dias and his partner Dr.Phil Peplow, Keratin is a core-component of hair-wool, for example, is about 95 per cent keratin protein and has useful biological and physical properties that makes it ideal as a potential bone substitute. By now keratin bone technology has been successfully tested in a number of research models. The material which was patented by 2002 had been sold to a private company while the University owned the intellectual property. |
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