Some kids grow up building things out of clay. And some grownups use nanoscopic clay to build intricate scaffolding that may lead the way to helping regenerate bone.

A team of researchers at North Dakota State University have made great strides in tissue engineering by designing scaffolds with nanosized clays that can aid in the mineralization of bone minerals.

The nanocaopic scaffolding will assist cells in generating bone, acting as a framework for the bone to grow around. Over time the scaffolding will degrade and be harmlessly absorbed into the body, according to a statement from NDSU.

The research on bone mineralization with the aid of nanoclays is being led by Kalpana Katti, Dinesh Katti and graduate student Avinash Ambre.

An interesting finding by the Katti group has shown that the nanoclays also impart useful biological properties to the scaffold.

"The biomineralized nanoclays also impart osteogenic or bone-forming abilities to the scaffold to enable birth of bone," said Kalpana Katti, Distinguished Professor of civil engineering at NDSU.

"Although it would have been exciting to say that this finding had a 'Eureka moment,' this discovery was a methodical exploration of simulations and modeling, indicating that amino acid modified nanoclays are viable new nanomaterials," Katti said.

The Katti group, as the identically named research team has come to be known, uses amino acid to modify clay structures and the modified nanoclays coax new bone growth.

"Our current research studies underway involve the use of bioreactors that mimic fluid/blood flow in the human body during bone tissue regeneration," said Kalpana Katti.

The Katti group has published several pieces of research on bone tissue engineering, the most recent appearing the Journal of Biomedical Materials and Research Part A.