The University of Louisville Alumni Magazine: for alumni, faculty, staff, students and anyone that is a UofL Cardinal fan.
Issue link: https://louisville.epubxp.com/i/705015
S U M M E R U O F L M A G A Z I N E | 3 5 synthetic material is slowly reabsorbed into the body and replaced with living bone. Unfortunately, physicians treating patients with bone loss must decide between healing and mobility or biology versus strength. Current synthetic bone graft substitutes are either strong, allowing the patient to resume normal activities quickly, or they are fast-absorbing, which permit the body to replace the material with bone at a more rapid rate. Michael Voor, PhD, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and bioengineering and founder of the Orthopaedic Bioengineering Laboratory at the School of Medicine, has a better idea. Voor's creation, known as Trabexus EB, is strong enough to allow patients to get back on their feet more quickly, yet is absorbed more rapidly by the body and turned into new living replacement bone. Trabexus EB is based on a self-hardening cement made of calcium phosphate, but uses allograft made from donor bones to add more organic material to the mixture. During the course of his research, Voor has found the ideal ratio of calcium phosphate to bone particles to optimize healing and replacement, while still providing plenty of strength to support movement, anchor screws and aid in bearing weight. "It's so similar to bone that the body recognizes it as the real thing," said Voor. "Since the body sees it as bone, it replaces it with living bone fairly rapidly. And since remodeling happens quickly, surgeons no longer have to decide between mechanical strength and bone replacement." In fact, Trabexus EB is strong enough that, in many applications it has the potential to reduce the number of plates, screws and other hardware that surgeons typically use to support bones as they heal. Trabexus EB is f exible in its applications, as well. It can be mixed and applied with a large syringe, allowing surgeons to f ll bone cavities through a small opening. It can also be molded and sculpted by hand before it hardens to f ll larger, more accessible areas of bone loss. To help market Trabexus EB, Voor has created a company known as Vivorte. He is currently licensing Trabexus EB from the university for Vivorte's use, with the assistance of the Off ce of Tech Transfer. A NEW COMPOUND COULD MAKE GUM DISEASE A THING OF THE PAST Donald Demuth, PhD, associate dean for research and enterprise, School of Dentistry, and Frederick Luzzio, PhD, professor, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry, have developed a synthetic biochemical that can actually inhibit gum disease. Gum disease begins when the bacteria P. gingivalis comes in contact with the bacteria S. gordonii. The two adhere together, and P. gingivalis begins to attack oral tissue and make its way below the gum line. This leads not only to inf ammation in the mouth, but also to inf ammation in other parts of the body. Several years ago, Demuth discovered a peptide that, when applied to the mouth, could actually prevent P. gingivalis and S. gordonii from adhering together. This effectively defeated gum disease before it had a chance to start. The peptide was even effective at eliminating gum disease that had already developed. "Unfortunately," said Demuth, "peptides are expensive and hard to formulate. So I sought out Dr. Luzzio, who has extensive experience creating synthetic molecules used as anti-cancer drugs." Together, Demuth and Luzzio developed a synthetic version of Demuth's peptide that is just as effective at preventing P. gingivalis from adhering to S. gordonii. So together, these two researchers may change oral health forever. The peptide and synthetic compound are both currently patented, and are being marketed to the private sector with the help of the University of Louisville Off ce of Tech Transfer. ▲ Dr. Donald Demuth reviews compounds that can be used to inhibit gum disease. R E S E A R C H I N G A B E T T E R Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E