Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a new way of using nanomaterials to identify and enrich skeletal stem cells – a discovery which could eventually lead to new treatments for major bone fractures and the repair of lost or damaged bone.
Working together, a team of physicists, chemists and tissue engineering experts used specially designed gold nanoparticles to ‘seek out’ specific human bone stem cells – creating a fluorescent glow to reveal their presence among other types of cells and allow them to be isolated or ‘enriched’.
