This article was taken from the November issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Meet Imperial College’s limb-regeneration expert
Name: Molly Stevens
Job: Biomaterials Professor
Location: London
“Consider soldiers back from Afghanistan without limbs,” says Molly Stevens. “I do geeky, hardcore science, but my aim is helping patients.” The 36-year-old professor of biomaterials and regenerative medicine is based at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, Imperial College, London, where she heads a team of surgeons, chemists, biologists and physicists.
They create biomaterials that enable the body to regenerate its own bones. One of her new products, a compound containing strontium, has been approved by the EU for use in humans. Implanted into living bone, it cues cells to fill in the damage. “We are also close to creating a finger joint,” she says. “Regenerative medicine is really evolving.”
