Engineers create bone that blends in...(ns or ligaments. If the technology i...)

If the technology is able to pass further testing, one application could be anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery. Oftentimes, ACL surgery fails at the point where the ligament meets the bone. But if an artificial bone/ligament construct with these types of graded transitions were implanted, it might lead to more successful outcomes for patients.

"Every organ in our body is made up of complex, heterogeneous structures, so the ability to engineer tissues that more closely mimic these natural architectures is a critical challenge for the next wave of tissue engineering," said Phillips, who is now working at Emory University as a postdoctoral research fellow in developmental biology.

Now that they have been able to demonstrate that they can implant the tissue in vivo for several weeks, the team's next step is to show that the tissue can handle weight for an even longer period of time.

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