This Punjab Engineering College Professor Just Got A Bone Graft Development Patent

Who is Uma Batra: A Punjab Engineering College professor and head, Uma Batra, and Punjab University professor, Seema Kapoor, have been granted a patent for developing bone graft material. The product is an outcome of a research collaboration that was initiated in the field of biomaterials in 2009.

Dr Kapoor, professor at PU’s chemical engineering department, and Dr Batra, professor and head of the metallurgical and materials engineering department, have created bone graft material using chemical reactions and no natural ingredients. The cost-effective compound is "synthetic and absolutely safe", according to Batra, who further added that it can be injected in an area in case of a damaged bone. She added that the formula will help in the regeneration of bone in just 3-4 weeks.

"This compound can be injected in an area of a diseased/damaged done, which will help in the regeneration of bone in just 3-4 weeks. It can be used in treatment of different diseases such as fractures," Professor Batra added (28.07)

— ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2021

Who is Uma Batra?

Professor Batra is head of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at Punjab Engineering College (deemed to be University), Chandigarh. According to her LinkedIn profile, Batra has been working at the Punjab Engineering College for 32 years now.

Batra is a Bachelor of Education and holds an MTech degree in Metallurgy. She also did her PhD in Metallurgy, as per Punjab Engineering College official website. Her research interests are mentioned as the structure-property correlation, biomaterials, austempered (a type of heat treatment applied to ferrous metal) ductile iron, failure analysis, ti-alloy bio implants and lead-free solder development among many. She believes that materials are the backbone of our civilization, and strengthening the backbone is an ardent duty of every engineer like her. Metallurgical and Materials engineers, however, "support the most promising role in this business process."

According to the researcher, the collaboration on synthetic bone graft started in 2009. The material had to be imported from America at expensive rates earlier. Now that they have successfully made this formula, it will be available in India at a cheaper rate, Batra says. She promises that this powder will develop bone very quickly. "There will be no need of inserting rod etc. This powder will not have any negative effect on the body because this powder is purely synthetic,", she mentioned while talking to ANI.

Feature Image Credit: ANI