Professor Alan Lau has mixed animal fibres with degradable plastics for better bone recovery.
Silk is an unlikely substitute for steel in any context, but for bone fractures, it may just be the perfect thing. A Swinburne researcher has developed a mix of cocoon silk fibres and biodegradable polymers that may one day hold bones together and help heal them from the inside out. Steel plates and bolts are often a surgeon’s only tools for fixing fractured bones. The problem is that steel can block new bone cells from repairing the fracture. Removing the steel through further surgery can leave bones brittle.
For 10 years, researchers have investigated a biodegradable polymer called PLA, already used in some food packaging, for medical implants...
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