Nicolaas Duneas is a South African biochemist and developer of osteogenic

biomaterial A biomaterial is a substance that has been engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose, either a therapeutic (treat, augment, repair, or replace a tissue function of the body) or a diagnostic one. As a science, biomateria ...

s. He is the co-founder (with Nuno Pires) and CEO of Altis Biologics. The company developed the first injectable treatment for bone injuries that require grafting by using a pig-based growth material.

Education and career

Duneas received a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

in 1993 from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

(WITS) and he holds a

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from WITS. He also holds a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

. from the WITS faculty of medicine. From 1993 until 1997 he worked as research officer for the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2002 he founded Altis Biologics (a

biotech company Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

) together with Nuno Pires. Duneas was appointed CEO of Altis Biologics in 2002. The company focusses on

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

regeneration. Traditionally, when repairing a severe bone break involving a void, new bone is taken from the hip and donated to the required site. This results in permanent disfigurement of the hip and complications such as hip displacement, buttock

anaesthesia Anesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), a ...

and severe infections during surgery. Altis Biologics developed a method to use pig bone which had been altered to make it human compatible and also make it injectable, removing the need for surgery. The method is particularly suitable for use in

spinal fusion Spinal fusion, also called spondylodesis or spondylosyndesis, is a neurosurgical or orthopedic surgical technique that joins two or more vertebrae. This procedure can be performed at any level in the spine (cervical, thoracic, or lumbar) and pre ...

procedures. The research for this method began in 1994 and included pre-clinical and clinical studies (in collaboration with universities) that finally culminated in a product that was patented in 2006. In 2012 the method was approved by the largest South African medical aid ( Discovery Health) and since then more than 1000 patients have been implanted with the bone graft. The tissue used in the bone grafts is manufactured in South Africa, removing the previous need to import bone graft material from the USA and Europe. From 2008 until 2010 Duneas also served as managing director of Altis Biologics. He has remained CEO since 2002. In 2014 Duneas was interviewed by Alec Hogg for ''The Rational Perspective'' (hosted on BizNews) on ''Sizing up African Technology Opportunities''. At the 2017 Healthcare Innovation Summit Africa he presented on bone regeneration technologies.

Awards

In 2014 Duneas and Nuno Pires were awarded the Innovation Prize for Africa for the Altis Osteogenic Bone Matrix. This was the first injectable treatment for injuries requiring bone grafts using a

porcine The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

-derived regenerative biological implant. Duneas and Pires received US$100 000.

Selected publications

* Limited chondro-osteogenesis by recombinant human transforming growth factor-beta 1 in calvarial defects of adult baboons (Papio ursinus). (July 1996) * Recombinant transforming growth factor-beta1 induces endochondral bone in the baboon and synergizes with recombinant osteogenic protein-1 (bone morphogenetic protein-7) to initiate rapid bone formation. (October 1997) * Transforming growth factor-beta 1: induction of bone morphogenetic protein genes expression during endochondral bone formation in the baboon, and synergistic interaction with osteogenic protein-1 (BMP-7). (1998) * PubMed: Tissue morphogenesis and regeneration by bone morphogenetic proteins. (January 1998) * Tissue Engineering of Bne, From Concept To Market (April 2, 2008) * High yield isolation of BMP-2 from bone and in vivo activity of a combination of BMP-2/TGF-β1.(2012) * Enhanced activity of demineralised bone matrix augmented with xenogeneic bone morphogenetic protein complex in rats. (2012 August) * Physicochemical modification of kafirin microparticles and their ability to bind bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), for application as a biomaterial. (August 29, 2012)

Education and career

Awards

Selected publications

References

External links