The spongy discs between each vertebra help absorb shock and allow for movement in the spine. Current treatment for damaged discs include implanting a metal disc as a total replacement. Now, a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is engineering new, living disc tissue that could someday be used as a biological replacement. Study leader Grace O’Connell explains.

"We apply cell-based tissue engineering techniques, which means we take cells and we put them within a scaffold. And over a period of about six weeks, the cells will grow new tissue. And we’re looking to see if those cells can grow tissue that behaves like the healthy tissue."

O’Connell says that growing new disc tissue could eventually replace the need for implanting synthetic materials that can wear out over time.

"We know that the plastic and metal components, they wear over time. So they last about 15 to 20 years in a patient. But the idea is that an engineered tissue is a biological tissue. So it would behave like your native tissue does as well."