Bioceramics at the CSIR: past, present and future

Abstract

Bioceramics are ceramic materials used to replace, repair or augment damaged or missing parts of the body. For example, hydroxyapatite (HA = Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) and tricalcium phosphate (TCP = Ca3(PO4)2) are bioceramics commonly used in dental implant and synthetic bone graft applications. Established in the mid- 1990s, the CSIR Bioceramics Group's initial research into porous HA led to the discovery of geometrically induced osteoinduction in primates, that is the spontaneous formation of bone in vivo at implant sites where bone formation is not expected without exogenously supplied growth factors (e.g. the bone morphogenetic proteins)