As devices are implanted into the body to supplant functions once lost—the heart in need of assistance, the knee damaged in a football injury, the breast removed in a mastectomy—scientists are searching for materials that will not only be accepted by the body, without an adverse reaction, but will even stimulate the body to heal or regenerate itself, dissolving conveniently when their work is done. This is the aim of the biomaterial, a man-made substance designed to work in the body, whether engineered out of ceramics, glass, metals, polymers, collagen or stuff that comes from the body itself, such as bone.
Biomaterials are currently used in a wide variety of medical applications: as biocoatings for medical devices to provide a harmonious interface between the device and its surrounding tissue; in scaffolds...
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