New polymer glue binds broken bone

Spin-off company PolyNovo Biomaterials is commercialising biological polymers that will put and end to painful, invasive operations.

• 4 October 2007 | Updated 14 October 2011

• CSIRO's achievement
• Initial testing
• Other applications
• Current activities

Joint replacement, mainly of hips and knees, is a multibillion-dollar business in the western world.  The two issues that concern hospital patients the most, are:

• the invasiveness of surgery
• disability during recuperation.

According to CSIRO scientist Dr Thilak Gunatillake, the metallic pins and screws currently in use by surgeons in bone operations also have a number of drawbacks.

Melbourne company, PolyNovo Biomaterials, spun off from research done by CSIRO, has developed a technology it believes could make these expensive and painful operations unnecessary.

CSIRO's achievement

A polymer developed by PolyNovo Biomaterials’ ten-person team could be injected as a gel into a diseased joint, then cured into a 'rubbery' substance able to bear the load and remove pain while cells carried in the polymer repaired the injury.

The goal is reduce the use of instruments in the body to little more than a syringe and needle containing a liquid gel (NovoSorb). Applied at the fracture, the gel cures into a polymer that glues the fractured bone together and mechanically supports it while the polymer aids the healing process.

Rather than needing follow-up surgery to remove pins, the polymer is formulated to naturally degrade at a rate that coincides with healing.

Initial testing

The research has huge medical significance, partly because much of a living organism, including its DNA, is composed of polymers. The difference with PolyNovo's polymer, NovoSorb, is that they can be tailored to exist as liquids, gels, rubbery material or hard, bone-like structures. They can be made porous and can carry cells and drugs to aid repair and healing.

Studies have been carried out on animals - repairing meniscal cartilage, 'gluing' the lesion with the polymer and, as a control, using sutures in another.

Chief Executive of PolyNovo Biomaterials, Dr Ian Griffiths described the team’s excitement at the results. 'After six weeks the sutured repair did not heal while NovoSorb held the cartilage together, showing evidence of cells migrating from one side to the other,' he said. 'We have more work to do, but this was encouraging.'

Other applications

Joint replacement is only one of several applications for this advanced polymer. Tissue engineering, wound care and drug delivery are further examples of medical procedures that could hitch a ride on PolyNovo’s polymer technology.

The firm 'rubbery' polymer has also been adapted to coat and carry healing drugs on stents used to open and repair blocked and diseased coronary arteries, avoiding the need for expensive bypass operations. The stent industry is estimated to be worth about US$4 billion annually.

Current activities

PolyNovo is actively overseeing product development. CEO Dr Ian Griffiths explained the three-stage process.

First PolyNovo hopes to start co-developing devices using NovoSorb in conjunction with medical device companies. Then pre-clinical trials will determine product safety. Full clinical trials are then required to assess product efficacy. If all goes well, PolyNovo’s first product could receive market approval in three to five years.

Learn more about CSIRO's work in Health & Wellbeing.