Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A New Way to Grow Bones

Posted by timothy on from the when-thinking-about-it-isn't-enough dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "As it is often the case, a recent discovery just came out from a simple idea. By studying diseases in which the human body generates too much bone, UCLA researchers have discovered a natural molecule that can be used to generate new bone growth in patients who lack it. This new molecule has aptly been named UCB, or University of California Bone. This new protein for growing bones is more precise and has fewer side effects than the ones currently used by orthopedic surgeons to aid in bone repair. But if you suffer from a bone deficit today, you'll have to wait almost ten years before an FDA approval and a commercial introduction of products based on this discovery. Read more for other details and references, plus a picture of a bone defect corrected by the UCB."

25 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Delivery Mechanism by asimulator · · Score: 1

    And this new molecule will be administered in a potion form.

    1. Re:Delivery Mechanism by asdfx · · Score: 1

      Will I have to visit the apothecary?

  2. Not more spam! by toygeek · · Score: 1

    The latest spam fad?

    "Make your bones stronger, satsify her longer"

    I guess you'd call that UCB UBE?

    --
    Nobodies Prefect
    Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
  3. 10 year wait by 1nv4d3r · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So, what are some things that we discovered 10 years ago, that should be coming to market soon?

    1. Re:10 year wait by jd · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Virtual Reality systems should be just about entering the domestic market. We aught to be seeing the first research experiments into the usefulness of Bose-Einstein Condensates. GUI development should be moving from being a pleasent gimic to being something of value within itself.


      The development lifecycle is about 10 years for each stage. There seems to be an initial conceptual stage, starting with the origin of the idea through to a product that can sustain itself. Another 10 years covers the scientific R&D, turning the product into something that is usable. A third 10-year step then turns something usable into something cost-effective to use. There's a fourth 10-year step, of "garage development", where the product has insufficient commercial value to be useful to corporations, but is definitely of interest to real inventers. This finishes when the product enters homes as an executive toy or gimic. A fourth 10-year step covers development of a product that is actually useful in and of itself.


      The first computers appeared around 1945-1948. The scientific computers actually useful in science started appearing in the mid 1950s, and the 1960s is when you saw business machines really make headway. Home-brew computers appeared in the mid 1970s, usable home computers could be found in the 1980s and home computing became pretty standard by the mid 1990s.


      VR started in the 1960s. Scientific prototypes appeared in the 1970s and early corporate uses seem to originate around the 1980s. You could buy digitizing gloves and VR helmets for home-brew VR in the mid 1990s. Early home-use VR should therefore appear this year or next, and VR should be pretty much the norm by 2015.


      Quantum computers were theorized about 10 years ago, and we're now starting to see early prototypes of single transistors. Quantum computing is unlikely to be in a particularly useful state for another 30 years, based on this timetable.


      Timesharing operating systems started in the early 1960s. The timetable predicts that homebrew OS' of this kind should have appeared early 1990s. Enter Linux and 386BSD. The timetable also predicts that they should have entered the home in a usable state in early 2000s - about the time Linux started really showing up in the desktop market, pre-loaded and ready to run.


      The pattern is not "absolute", but it does give a rough guide as to when things are likely to move from one phase of development to another.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  4. Innuendo by Flwyd · · Score: 1, Funny

    I have to wait 10 years for University of California Bone? And I thought college kids were easy...

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
    1. Re:Innuendo by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I have to wait 10 years for University of California Bone? And I thought college kids were easy..."

      Hehe.

      You think that's bad? 3D artists have turned 'bone' into a verb. If you add a bone to an object (i.e. if you're building a posable human), they call it 'boning'. Somewhere there's a tutorial floating around called 'boning a horse'.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  5. UCLA vs. UCB ? by HughsOnFirst · · Score: 1

    University of California Bone?

    I think someone from U.C. Berkeley pulled a fast one on the University of California Los Angeles.

    1. Re:UCLA vs. UCB ? by daeley · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think someone from U.C. Berkeley pulled a fast one on the University of California Los Angeles.

      Naw, the other guys are just working on the more complicated University of California Liver Augmentation.

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    2. Re:UCLA vs. UCB ? by HughsOnFirst · · Score: 1

      Well UCLA is thought by some to be something of a party school.... I can imagine that there is some Liver Augmentation there in Westwood.

  6. To grow a bone... by bcrowell · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...I just need Natalie Portman and hot grits!

    --
    Find free books.
  7. New bone growth is great, but... by RootsLINUX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Do they have any methods to stop the bone growth? If they don't, then isn't this just trading one bone disease for another? I fail to see how that would help the problem....

    On a personal note, I would go with more bone.

    --
    Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
  8. UCB? by FunkLord84 · · Score: 1

    Upright Citizen's Brigade.. anyone?

  9. Glad we're being cautious by Zareste · · Score: 1

    you'll have to wait almost ten years before an FDA approval and a commercial introduction of products based on this discovery

    On a related note, the FDA discovered a new brain malfunction in children, called Conformance Deficit Disorder (CDD), yesterday. Approval and sales of drugs treating this are expected to go through tomorrow.

    --
    I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
  10. That's not the problem.. by spineboy · · Score: 4, Informative
    IAAOS (I am an Orthopaedic Surgeon) and usually having overgrowth of bone(Heterotopic ossification) is not a problem. A quick visit to the radiation oncologist for some very low dose radiation usually will prevent any expected overgrowth (as long as you're not a child). Tobacco smoking also usually does a fair job with this too.

    We have become very good at fixing broken bones, but when there is major bone loss we have no great solutions. Infections and trauma that result in substantial bone loss either require a tumor type prosthesis (replacement) or an amputation. Neither are great choices.

    The current methods for stimulating bone growth (e.g. you want to make sure that your spinal fusion for arthritis will work, or that your bad tibia(shin bone) fracture will heal) usually involve either the use of BMPs (bone morphogenic proteins) at non physiologic concentrations (>1,000x found in the body) or by the use of electric/or ultrasonic stimulators. BMPs are very expensive $ - several thousand dollars for a few table spoons worth of material. The electric/ultrasonic stimulators by in large have not been found to be very useful.

    Bone loss is still a significant problem in orthopaedics and oral surgery, and the discovery of anything that provides a significant means to renew bone stock will be a major advance for patients. Having said this - I'll wait and see if the UCBs make it to the marketplace. That should be about 10 years from now.

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
    1. Re:That's not the problem.. by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Tobacco smoking also usually does a fair job with this too.

      Smoke two packs and call me in the morning.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  11. Anyone else think of the Upright Citizens Brigade? by shotgunefx · · Score: 1

    Miss that show.

    --

    -William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
  12. anyone been able to find the citation details? by william.gunn · · Score: 1

    The details, as usual for press releases, are kinda lacking. What protein are they talking about? A transcript of an as yet unidentified ORF? Has anyone been been able to find this in the primary literature? There's no Ben Wu or Eric Ting listed on pubmed.

  13. god farking damnit by Monkelectric · · Score: 1

    I am going in for a bone graft next month (extremely bad surgery). How bribeable is UCLA? :)

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  14. Skel-e-grow by SimonInOz · · Score: 2, Funny

    This isn't new. Harry Potter had it ages ago. The matron used it to regrow the bones in his arm.

    New, indeed!

    --
    "Cats like plain crisps"
  15. bone graft by spineboy · · Score: 1

    the best stuff is always from your own body - this involves a second incision and these can be painful - but it's absolutely the best bone to get something to heal. Also much cheaper than the synthetic stuff

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
    1. Re:bone graft by Monkelectric · · Score: 1
      You're right of course ... but the whole thing doesn't make sense to me on a ceartin level. I have a non-union in my leg -- so the solution is to cut up my hip? :) If my leg wont heal, why would my hip *AND* my leg heal after surgery...

      Oh well :)

      --

      Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  16. Re:My thoughts by CFTM · · Score: 1

    What the hell? That's about all that coems to mind when I read this post :) Maybe I missed something....or a whole lot of somethings.

  17. Here is more detail. link by zymano · · Score: 1

    I love new discoveries in medicine. Lets hope we find out what causes heart disease also.

    Google articles on UCB. Good job to Professor Ben Wu at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Thomas R. Bales Professor Kang Ting

  18. Not exactly from the hip by spineboy · · Score: 1

    The bone is taken from your pelvis - an area that has some redundant bone, that your body won't miss. No breakage occurs there - just a bit of scooping out, which the body re-strengthens afterwards, so healing isn't an issue.

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.