From bench-to-bedside: Licensing and development of a mineral-organic bone adhesive for bone repair

Statement of Purpose: Often times, after a traumatic event or progression of a chronic disease, surgeons and dentists use metal hardware such as plates, screws, artificial joints and other metallic implants to reconstruct the damage that was done to the skeletal system. In many cases, the bone tissue does not provide adequate support for the hardware necessary to complete the surgical repair. Recently a new material called Tetranite® (LaunchPad Medical, LLC, Lowell, MA) has been developed that would allow physicians to glue both bone and metal. Tetranite is a novel mineral-organic bone cement comprised of a blend of tetracalcium phosphate and phosphoserine (TTCP-PS) powder which react in an aqueous medium to form a self-setting material which adheres to both metal and bone in a wet field. Once set, Tetranite acts as a biocompatible, load bearing scaffold that is bioresorbed while gradually being replaced upon new bone formation. LaunchPad Medical currently holds the exclusive world-wide license from Stryker (Kalamazoo, MI) to develop this novel material in dental and orthopedic applications.