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New MU research to explore alternative method to spine surgery

Graduate student Shwetha Ramachandra and Associate Professor Bret Ulery in the Biomodulatory Materials Engineering Laboratory in the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building doing research.
Ben Stewart / Show Me Mizzou
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Ben Stewart / Show Me Mizzou
Graduate student Shwetha Ramachandra and Associate Professor Bret Ulery. Ramachandra, who has went through spinal fusion surgery, provides a unique perspective to the research.

A University of Missouri researcher has won a nearly $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to study new materials which could be used in orthopedic spine surgery. The research will focus on recruiting and turning stem cells into bone cells for the spines of humans, cats and dogs.

Principal Investigator Bret Ulery says this type of therapy would be better than existing spinal fusion techniques which use metal rods, screws and plastics.

“What we're trying to do is actually deliver cues that can cause the body to regenerate the bone tissue itself, whether that's across two vertebrae to kind of create a fused bone, or if it's to enhance and regenerate a osteoporotic fractured bone,” Ulery said.

Ulery said older patients are more likely to have osteoporosis, a weakening of bone tissue which leads to more spine fractures and surgeries. Older patients also have fewer stem cells than younger patients.

“And so we have to think about what are ways that we try and enhance the body to recruit more cells that then become the new bone tissue that we want to have there. So kind of our motto of our lab is that cells do it better, and we try to do that within the confines of the individual host,” Ulery said.

Ulery hopes his new method can increase long-term pain relief and reduce the number of adjacent fractures and follow up surgeries caused by the current method.

Ulery says that the crux of the spine surgery research is to attract the stem cells to the affected area. The research will focus on using a gel to accomplish this.

“So it's kind of a two-pronged process, and ...that's why we work with these gel based materials, to localize and bring in stem cells from the body and the surrounding area into this site, where then they will be convinced to become bone cells and actually create new bone tissue,” Ulery said.

Other research that will be done with the grant includes immune-based therapies for influenza and hematological cancer.

Ethan Davis is a journalism graduate student at the University of Missouri, specializing in cross-platform editing and producing.
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