Video Description: In cases of broken backs, a newly FDA-approved biologic agent called NanoFUSE is helping to grow bone around braces once a spinal fusion surgery is performed. “NanoFUSE is a synthetic bone graft that allows us not to use cadaver bone, and it has a high rate of fusion, so patients are able to grow their own bones in a short period of time,” said Neurosurgeon Fassil Mesfin, MD, with MU Health Care. Once NanoFUSE is inserted, body fluids hydrate the bioactive glass and the surface of the braces become coated with a layer of a mineral called hydroxyapatite. New bone starts forming around the glass fibers, eventually taking the place of the glass particles. The bioactive glass used in NanoFUSE is made exclusively in Rolla, Missouri, by Mo-Sci Corporation, whose chief technology partner is Missouri University of Science and Technology.

• Provide the video for students who are doing independent projects on medical discoveries or other medical/health related topics.
• Use the video in conjunction with an activity that has students focusing on the impact of new medical discoveries on patients. Based on viewing the video, how do they think the recovery of a patient with a broken back could be changed by this innovation?