Israeli Biotech Firm Successfully Reverses Bone Loss With Lab-Grown Bones

Bone loss has proven to be one of the trickiest aspects of human medicine. However, it seems one Israeli biotech company aims to spice up the odds.

Biotech firm Bonus Biogroup was able to successfully inject their special lab-grown, semi-liquid bone grafts into the jaws of 11 people and repair bone loss in an early-stage clinical trial.

According to Reuters, the material was grown in a lab from each of the patient's own fat cells. They were injected into and filled the voids of the problematic bones. In a feat of what could only be of medical fascination, the bones hardened and merged with the existing bone to complete the jaw in just a few months.

Bonus Biogroup made this statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and it will now be presenting its results at the International Conference on Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Spain next week.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the company, which has raised $14 million, said it plans to dual list on Nasdaq in the coming months in order to improve the progress of their research. 

Chief executive Shai Meretzki said that for the first time worldwide, the reconstruction of deficient or damaged bone tissue has been made achievable by growing usable human bone graft in labs and transplanting it back. The method is minimally invasive as it only requires surgery.

Meretzki previously funded Pluristem Therapeutics, which works with stem cells and is one of the more advanced Israeli biomed companies.

Ora Burger, the vice president of regulation affairs at Bonus Biogroup, told Reuters the transplant was successful in all of the patients. They are now planning to conduct a clinical study in the extremities and long bones. 

According to Israeli 21C, Bonus Biogroup built the first bone regeneration center in Haifa in 2013. The facility serves as a production center for growing human bone grafts that can supply the company with the materials it needs for clinical trials, as well as for research and development.