New UK–Brazil research group to pioneer novel bone surgery paste
30 Nov 2025
Two British institutions have set up a new research group with a peer organisation in Brazil to develop an injectable paste to aid bone cancer surgeries.
Aston University, Birmingham Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and the Brazilian Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA) recently formed ITA Biomedical Technologies for Regenerative Orthopaedics (BioTROCS).
It will seek to advance research pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of novel biomaterials for bone regeneration and bone cancer applications.
This follows several years of collaboration between the trio, examining the application of Gallium in treating cancer.
However, formalising the relationship through the formation of the research group will enable the organisations to secure funding support more easily, they say.
Aston recently won funding to develop the new paste and support for a 12-month PhD scholarship placement at Aston University, provided to a Brazilian postgraduate.
Professor Richard Martin of the university’s school of computer science and digital technologies said the research had “huge” potential.
He noted that in September 2024 its tests found that bioactive glasses doped with gallium revealed it had a 99% success rate of eliminating cancerous cells and could even regenerate diseased bones.
Dr Lucas Souza, Dubrowsky Regenerative Medicine Laboratory manager at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital said the new group represented “the first step to establishing a strategic partnership that aims to facilitate the flow of researchers, materials, and data between the participating institutions to foster an even richer research environment to accelerate discoveries in the field of biomaterials for bone regeneration and bone cancer.”
Professor Dr Joao Lopes of the Aeronautics Institute of Brazil added that partnership between institutions in Brazil and the UK would increase access to funding from agencies focused on international collaborative projects.
Pic: Dr Lucas Souza
