pSiMedica's BioSilicon to undergo tissue engineering trial

pSiMedica, a subsidiary of Perth-based pSivida (ASX: PSD), has signed an agreement with the UK-based McComb Foundation to evaluate its nanostructured porous silica material BioSilicon as a tissue-engineering substrate.

The McComb Foundation, named after British plastic surgeon Harold McComb, conducts research into materials that are potentially useful for plastic and reconstructive surgery.

BioSilicon is both biocompatible and biodegradable. The foundation is evaluating its potential as a scaffold material for growing cells for tissue-engineering applications in wound healing and burns repair.

If the tests confirm that standard cell lines will grow rapidly and proliferate in BioSilicon, Melbourne biomedical products company Clinical Cell Culture (ASX: CCE), known as C3, will have rights to commercialise products that combine its own proprietary technology with BioSilicon. C3 licenses in technologies from the McComb Foundation.

The nanoscale pores in BioSilicon provide tissue-forming cells, including skin cells, with a scaffold on which they can anchor and penetrate. As the cells grow, they dissolve away the silica, which forms harmless silicic acid.

C3's interest is in using the material as a substrate for growing cells into skin components for autologous grafting into patients with severe burns or wounds.

pSivida's managing director, Gavin Rezos, said the agreement was further evidence of the strong interest in his company's material, which, among other things can be used to deliver chemotherapy compounds or radioisotopes directly to cancers, antibiotics to inhibit localised infections, controlled-release drugs, or cellular growth compounds.

The company has previously signed similar materials-evaluation agreements with Singapore General Hospital, and US-based tissue-engineering company CytoMatrix.