Professor Thomas Webster and postdoctoral researcher Jeremiah Ejiofor have recently released research results proving that bone cells attach better to metals with nanometer-scale surface features, offering hope for improved prosthetic hips, knees and other implants.

Conventional titanium alloys used in hip and knee replacements are relatively smooth - their surfaces possess bumps measured in microns - or millionths of a meter. Natural bone and other tissues, however, have rougher surfaces with bumps about 100 nanometers -or billionths of a meter - wide. Professor Webster has shown that human bone cells, called osteoblasts, generate about 60 percent more new cells when they are exposed to a titanium alloy that contains nanometer-scale features, compared to the same alloy containing micron-size surface bumps. These materials containing the nanometer-scale bumps could be critical to keeping the body from rejecting artificial parts, offering hope in developing longer lasting and more natural implants.

Professor Webster's findings were presented on October 28th during the sixth annual Nanoparticles 2003 Conference in Boston.