What do a bone replacement and a Swiss radio have in common?

Towards the end of May 2012, Swiss Radio RSI hosted a young bioengineer who, along with three associates, is undertaking research on living tissues regeneration. Sometimes the focus is on a company's results, especially if it is newly established, less frequently one wonders how these realities are born and who the people that lead them are.

We are talking about Giuseppe Perale, who has a doctorate in Bioengineering with a master of Sciences in Engineering, both attained at the Politecnico di Milano, and already an extensive list of publications behind him.

Giuseppe, along with 3 other partners, is investing efforts and research in their company IBI sa, Industrie Biomediche Insubri.

What's this all about?

"Bone substitutes, or in other words, pieces of bone of variable sizes, which are used in reconstructive surgery in order to reintegrate damage, outcomes of trauma, or even more serious illnesses. These are highly engineered products due to their technological content, with these components:

- ical mechanical with regards to forms and shapes,

- microscaled material structure,

- capacity to integrate effectively and quickly with the tissue of the receiving patient.

The last, but surely not least, component is a guarantee of production that is exorbitantly elevated, in compliance with the highest European and American standards."

 Bone replacement: an activity of commitment and entrepreneurship in research.

"When we started there were four of us, young and strong. At the moment the facility is gradually expanding.

Currently we have two branches of activities that are particularly relevant regarding the reconstruction of facial and skull bones. These concern primarily the reconstruction of the dental arch, to allow consolidation of the bone on which we can anchor implants to then make the prosthesis, and this field is extremely broad.

An application which is very important, of which we have already conducted a case study, is the reconstruction of large pieces of facial bones: cheekbones, support of nasal cartilage, eye sockets or the bones around the eyes, maxillofacial reconstruction, where typically traumas are so violent that none of the original bone is left. "

Scientific technology meets a real human case.

"We acquire post traumatic patient's CT scan , we digitally reconstruct the missing bone segments on the computer, we discuss the shapes in detail with the surgeon, and then we re-create them with our material. We carry out what in technical jargon is called a omized custom-made device. This allows people who have had these injuries, which are often quite considerable, to regain the alignment of the eyes and to open an eye, to regain the balance of the face, the smile. "

Switzerland as the seat of innovation.

"The Canton Ticino has thus far offered the most tangible evidence of wanting to support anything innovative in a field as interesting as the biomedical one. And, above all, they have encouraged us to give credit to the innovative ideas that bring a radical innovation to what's present on the market. "

Brand Identity.

"We hope to grow and strengthen our company, maintaining a reference point in the Ticino area, which we feel a connection to, both in terms of sentimentality and in terms of our image. In fact, we have chosen a logo that recalls the colors of the canton: red and blue representing the energy as well as calm and reflection. But they are also the colors of blood, the mean of life, and air, blue, which is also the color of the spirit.

"In other words concrete, with at times some free thinking. And this suits bone replacement as well".