From Flush to Future

David Kisailus is turning urine into medical-grade material for bone and teeth implants and water purification. Learn how Kisailus is making bone implants more affordable through this new process of producing calcium phosphate from urea. Kisailus, a UCI professor of materials science and engineering, is the director of the well-known Biomimetrics and Nanostructured Materials Lab.

Transcript:

[sci fi music]

NATALIE TSO, HOST: This is the Lab Beat, where we catch the pulse of cutting-edge labs at UC Irvine’s engineering school. I’m Natalie Tso.

[sound of toilet flusing]

Yes, that’s the sound of a toilet. We usually don’t want what’s flushed away, but UCI Professor of Materials Science and Engineering David Kisailus thought differently.

His research team is turning urine into material that can be used for teeth and bone implants.

DAVID KISAILUS: Where urine comes into play is that urine contains urea, and urea is a molecule that if you break it down using a catalyst, an enzyme called urease, urea will break into ammonia and CO2.

TSO: Their team engineered a yeast that breaks the urea down and triggers the creation of calcium phosphate. That’s the same material that makes up our bones and teeth. Now will there be any urine in the implants?

KISAILUS: First of all, when we did the experiment, the urine wasn’t made [chuckle], it was bought from a company. It was artificial urine. So it’s just an ammonia-based compound that we want. But at the end of the day, the urine doesn’t get into the material itself. The component urea from the urine goes into the cell, but what's pumped out is just pure calcium phosphate.

TSO:  Millions of Americans get bone grafts a year. They can cost thousands of dollars, so this new process will make those life-changing procedures more affordable.

KISAILUS: As our population ages, more and more people, including myself, I played sports my whole life, so I definitely will need an implant somewhere at some time in my life. You know, cost of materials will always play a factor in whether people can afford to have implants so I think by having a process where you can make calcium phosphate implant based materials at low cost, I think it will enable a broader swath of folks to be able to get these procedures done.

[sci fi music]

TSO:  He also explains another use for the calcium phosphate they make in their new process.

KISAILUS: It also happens to be a good scavenger of metals and flourine. So one of the issues we have in our society today is a lack of clean drinking water so if you can actually make materials that may be able to scavenge heavy metals or flourines, things that would negatively affect our health in drinking water, that also provides value.

TSO: UC Irvine Professor of Materials Science and Engineering David Kisailus is taking what’s flushed away

[sound of toilet flush]

to make more affordable bone implants and cleaner water.

I’m Natalie Tso, for The Lab Beat which is brought to you by the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering.

(Season 1, Episode 2)