Project by Catherine Picart | France Inter

Ali Rebeihi

• Thierry, this month you went to Grenoble to meet the team of Catherine Picart, who is a Professor at the Grenoble Polytechnic Institute. She directs the Biohealth Laboratory and her team is called “Biomimicry and regenerative medicine”.
• One of his research projects, which is funded by the Foundation for Medical Research, aims to repair bones using biomaterials.

Thierry Lhermitte

• Exactly. Everyone knows about breaking a bone. From the limbs to the spine, there are many fracture sites in the body.
• In the majority of cases, the bone repairs itself naturally, through immobilization.
• But in 5 to 10% of cases, natural repair does not occur, and it can be more frequent when there are complications, in people with a weakened immune system, in cases of osteoporosis, etc.

Ali Rebeihi

• Do we still have prostheses to repair a joint or replace a missing bone?

Thierry Lhermitte

• Yes, there are prostheses made of different materials, often including metal (notably titanium). This is the case in hip prostheses for example.
• To replace bone, we also use ceramic materials, which have the composition closest to that of natural bones (which are made of calcium phosphates). This is what we use for teeth, for example. But ceramics have a drawback: they are fragile and break easily in the event of an impact.
• There are also polymer materials, natural or synthetic, but nothing is as perfect as natural bone.
• And besides, when the case is more complex, we do a bone graft… But it’s quite heavy.

Ali Rebeihi

• And so Catherine Picart’s objective is to find a more natural and easy-to-implement solution?

Thierry Lhermitte

• Yes, it’s been almost 20 years since she started this work.
• With her team and in collaboration with that of Professor Georges Bettega, at Annecy hospital, she developed a biomimetic film, that is to say which mimics a natural matrix. It is made in particular from hyaluronic acid.
• It forms a kind of mesh which allows it to attach a specific growth factor which stimulates the formation of bone by the cells.
• The experiments showed that thanks to this biomaterial, the injured bone was reconstituted correctly and that, in addition, it was vascularized, like native bone!

Ali Rebeihi

• Okay, what’s the next step?

Thierry Lhermitte

• In 2016, the team set itself the goal of repairing the largest bone lesions, those that the simple biomimetic film was unable to repair.
• To do this, she developed a new material to fill the void left by the lesion. It is a kind of architecture produced to order using 3D printing, which will be able to be colonized by the cells which make bone and which need support.
• This architecture is covered with the famous biomimetic film impregnated with growth factor initially developed by Catherine Picart’s laboratory.

Ali Rebeihi

Thierry Lhermitte

• Alright ! The concept was patented in 2020.
• Today the team is working in collaboration with two other partners, in Annecy and Bordeaux, to develop a ready-to-use solution that would replace bone grafting, sometimes necessary before placing a dental implant.
• And things are looking good, since the researchers are banking on a first clinical trial in around ten patients in 2026.