Bio-Glasses: An Introduction

This is the first book dedicated to glasses (and their variants) that can be used as biomaterials to repair diseased and damaged tissues. Bio-glasses are superior to other biomaterials in many applications, such as healing bone by signaling stem cells to become bone cells. It covers all types of glasses – traditional glasses, bioactive glasses, sol-gel glasses, phosphate glasses, glass-ceramics, composites and hybrids – and discusses how they are made, their properties, and the reasons for their use. There are also chapters on their applications, in dentistry, bone regeneration and tissue engineering, and cancer treatment. The final chapter describes the steps needed to take a new material from concept to clinic, covering the essentials of patenting, scale-up, quality assurance, and FDA approval.