Meet the Steinbrecher Fellows: Investigating an alternative to bone grafts
Harrison Mackler's project
Every year, thousands of people require bone grafts. Grafts are used to repair bone damaged by injury or by diseases such as osteoporosis, arthritis and cancer. Bone for a graft can come either from the the person requiring the graft, or from donated bone. Unfortunately, bone grafts are not always an ideal solution. Sometimes enough bone is not available. It can be difficult to create a graft that is the required shape. Donated bone is sometimes rejected by the recipient's immune system.
Scientists like Harrison Mackler '07 are investigating the potential of tissue engineering—the generation of new bone from the patient's own cells—for providing an alternative to bone grafts. Mackler, a biology major/chemistry minor interested in dentistry and dental research, has received a Steinbrecher Fellowship that will provide him with some of the supplies and equipment necessary to undertake this research over the course of the 2006-2007 summer and academic year.
Harrison is working under the mentorship of biology professor Dr. Timothy Lyerla and Dr. Lucy Di Silvio of the Biomaterials Department at King's College, London. His project originated with Dr. Di Silvio, whose research group investigates the regeneration and repair of tissue using stem cell technology. Harrison completed an internship in Dr. Di Silvio's lab during the spring 2006 semester through Clark's London Internship program.
Harrison's research is focusing on:
1) The development of a scaffold, or synthetic support structure on which new bone cells can grow.
Harrison is working with a scaffold composed of collagen and hydroxyapatite, both of which are structural components of natural bone. A scaffold of the appropriate size and shape provides a place for bone cells to proliferate before being implanted in the patient. Ideally, much of the scaffold would biodegrade after implantation. Harrison will investigate questions such as: How will bone cells behave on the scaffold? Will they continue to proliferate and migrate to other places in the scaffold? What is the appropriate surface configuration for the scaffold?
2) The potential of mesenchymal, as opposed to embryonic, stem cells for generating new bone cells.
Mesenchymal stem cells, also known as bone marrow stromal cells, can be collected from adult bone marrow and used to generate a variety of tissue types, including bone. Harrison is hoping to gain a better understanding of the biological mechanisms that cause mesenchymal cells to produce bone cells.
Harrison has agreed to share with us, via email, news of and reflections on his research this summer. Check the listings in the gray box (top right) to see what he's doing!
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Additional Resources
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Harrison's emails
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Harrison at the cell culture cabinet, which prevents debris and bacteria from the air from disrupting the cells. Here he is testing the growth rate of "scaffolds" designed for bone tissue engineering.
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| A scanning electron micrograph (SEM) magnification (400x) of bone cells adhering to the porous scaffold material. The cells flatten and extend finger-like projections onto favorable surface features. Once the cells are situated and content, they will begin to produce bone. Below, a similar image at 1200x magnification.
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