Clinical clay creations

Published:

1 June 2021

Southampton Spotlight shines a light on the impact our University is having across the world, through the achievements of the individuals that make up our community.

As the population’s life expectancy improves, the number of people suffering from conditions associated with living longer, in particular musculoskeletal conditions, increases. An already stretched NHS requires solutions and treatments that enable age-related ailments to be treated swiftly and cost effectively, leading to some pioneering technological advances from a University of Southampton spin-out company and a charitable collaboration which is the first of its kind.

Clay is at the heart of spin-out company Renovos’ pioneering advances in the field of orthopaedics.

“Using clays in medical treatments is not new, but the advances being made certainly are innovative,” explained Richard Oreffo, Professor of Musculoskeletal Science, Director of the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration (CHDSCR) and Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer for regenerative medicine spin-out company, Renovos.

Renovos is pioneering a new nanoclay gel technology, which has the potential to transform orthopaedic surgery.

“For what is essentially quite a low-tech material, clay is proving to have tremendous potential in this area,” said Richard. “The gel allows significantly lower doses of powerful regenerative therapeutic agents to be precisely delivered by injection and localised to bone sites where needed as well as acting as a scaffold.”