After years of research, the University of Tromsø based professor in medicine Oddmund Johansen managed to stimulate cells in a laboratory to produce a piece of cartilage. The cells were stimulated first to form spheroids which later fused into a homogenous cartilage tissue. This represented an historical breakthrough. For the first time in the history of tissue engineering world-wide, someone has succeeded in producing cartilage without using any artificial material. The aim is to produce cartilage sheets for clinical use based on cells from actual patients. Sheets of cartilage will be produced enabling repair of advanced cartilage defects in knee, hip and other joints, hereby increasing quality of patient’s life and dramatically reducing society cost and patient pain relating to knee implants.
VCS assisted Chondro Engineering the first couple of years with management – and funding services (grants & equity). Research is ongoing.
