Professor Thomas Webster will be leading the Purdue research team in a joint effort between Purdue, the University of Notre Dame, and DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. which will be funded by the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. The research will focus on the development of biologic scaffolds to connect soft tissues to artificial joint implants made by DePuy. The tissue engineering research will be directed toward the development of a composite device that will combine the strength, rigidity, and other desirable properties of metal-based prostheses with the soft tissue integration and biologic remodeling properties of a tissue-engineered orthobiologic scaffold. DePuy will combine its development and manufacturing expertise with the design, engineering analysis, and tissue engineering expertise of Professor Webster's Purdue-based research team and researchers at Notre Dame.

According to Richard Tarr, Vice President for Orthobiologics at DePuy and one of the lead researchers on the proposal, the initial patient population who will benefit from this new generation device will be cancer victims who would otherwise require limb amputation, and children born with orthopaedic deformities that require correction with prosthetic devices.