The Department of Periodontology and Biomaterials is a leading multidisciplinary research group involved in the development of new biomaterials and studies to how these materials interact with the natural body environment. The research is focused along three research themes:
 

·        The development and characterization of novel implant surfaces

·        The construction of synthetic bone substitutes

·         The application of cells and growth factors to engineer the tissue response
 

The challenge of every biomaterials scientist is to understand the basic phenomena of wound healing and how to use this knowledge for the development of new materials/approaches that can be used for the replacement of lost or damaged tissues.

Recently, this area of research has been termed Regenerative Medicine. The aim of Regenerative Medicine is to seduce the body into self-healing, which can only be achieved by a good fundamental understanding of structure-function relationships in normal and pathological tissues. This implies that the regenerative approach builds on the convergence of the knowledge of engineering sciences,, life sciences and clinical sciences and requires  a multi-disciplinary approach. As a consequence, Regenerative Medicine involves novel combinations of cells, biomaterials, drugs, or genes that may be designed, manufactured and delivered either synchronized or chronological as a customized therapy. Regenerative Medicine holds the promise of revolutionary advances for health care. The Department of Periodontology and Biomaterials of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center intends to be a major player with respect to bone replacing therapies.