Biomedicals from Bone

Abstract

The realm of biomaterials, under which biomedical materials can be categorised, has a broad definition base and recognises materials that are synthesized or naturally sourced. Biomaterials are normally those that come into contact with live tissue and physiological fluids. They have applications as prostheses to replace lost function of joints or to replace bone tissue, for diagnosing medical conditions, as a form of therapy, or as a storage unit. The diversity and scope of biomaterials science research, and especially its application to the improvement of trauma, disease, and congenital defects in the human condition, are making this branch of science increasingly dominant and topical in many countries. An exciting aspect is that such research is interdisciplinary. The varied problems of the human condition that biomaterials research addresses occupy the efforts not only of medical doctors who act as the end users of such technology, but also those of chemists, physicists, engineers, and biologists in creating the technological advances. Chemistry, in particular, plays a major role in such research, after all it is the foundation stone on which biomaterials polymer science and biomedical scaffold materials are built.