Trust funds silk technology for knee implants
16 February 2009
Silk spun by spiders is both strong and lightweight. It is a remarkable material and would be ideal for many applications in medicine. The only drawback would be harvesting it from the spiders.
But a decade of research by Oxford University scientists has led to a better understanding of the properties of spider silk. And now Orthox Limited is developing a range of novel orthopaedic products for the repair of cartilage using the company's core technology, Spidrex® cartilage. This is a silk biomaterial combining the resilience, high strength and bioresorption found in spider silk.
The Wellcome Trust Translation Award will be used specifically to fund the development of Orthox’s regenerative meniscal (knee cartilage) repair device.
The meniscus is a crescent-shaped cartilage pad found in the knee joint between the femur (the thigh bone) and the tibia (the shin bone). It acts principally as a shock absorber, to dissipate forces and stabilise the knee joint.
Meniscal injury is a huge, unsolved clinical problem, especially with 'baby boomers'. It is associated with ageing, obesity, and sport injuries. Damage to the meniscus is difficult to repair successfully and frequently results in osteoarthritis - a knee joint replacement is often required. Knee replacements now cost the NHS more each year than total hip replacements, estimated to be nearly £1bn by 2010.
Dr Richard Seabrook, the Wellcome Trust's Head of Business Development, said: "Largely thanks to medical advances in recent decades, people are living longer, more active lives. But coupled with increasing obesity, this means knee problems are now a major issue for health services across the world. The Wellcome Trust appreciates both the need to find a regenerative solution to knee damage and the potential of this new silk technology to address an increasingly common but complex clinical problem."
Founder and CEO of Orthox, Dr Nick Skaer added: "We are delighted that our innovative technology has gained recognition by the UK's leading biomedical foundation, the Wellcome Trust. This funding will enable us to initiate the roll-out of our pipeline of Spidrex products, starting with our meniscal repair device.In the future, we plan to develop further Spidrex products for other serious orthopaedic problems, such as spinal disc repair and bone regeneration."
Image credit: stockxpert/zhoren