Summary

Tissue engineering is a new biotechnology that combines various aspects of medicine, biology and engineering, in order to produce, repair or replace human tissue. It is therefore easy to grasp the potential of these new therapies in helping to improve the quality-of-life of patients suffering from rare diseases. Typically, bone tissue engineering approaches foresee the use of scaffolding material combined with tissue cells. An advanced scaffolding material for tissue engineering must exhibit high quality, reliability, sustainability and cost-effectiveness throughout the individual's life and provide new advanced levels of medical assistance in therapy and surgery. One particular requirement of bone tissue engineering is that the scaffold should be porous because, in that form, large numbers of cells can be incorporated.