By studying diseases in which the human body generates too much bone, UCLA researchers have discovered and isolated a natural molecule that can be used to heal fractures and generate new bone growth in patients who lack it.Bioengineering Professor Ben Wu at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Thomas R. Bales Professor Kang Ting at UCLA’s School of Dentistry are developing a new molecule they’ve named UCB, or University of California Bone. The core technology developed by Wu and Ting is potentially the most significant advancement in bone regeneration since the discovery of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) by Dr. Marshall Urist at UCLA in the 1960s.
