At TED2023, EpiBone CEO Dr. Nina Tandon gives an update on how far EpiBone has come in developing bone and cartilage replacements

It wouldn’t be a TED conference without a session devoted to nerding out. Session 8 of TED2023 featured speakers covering the future of digital property rights and blockchain, new thinking on health and medicine, a deep look at the problems facing the oceans and how a few simple lines can evoke both life’s challenges and its wonder.

As humans injure earlier and live longer than ever before, we need our implants to last as long as we do, says bioengineer and TED community member Nina Tandon. In both her 2011 and 2012 TED Talks, she championed the use of stem cells as an ingredient to grow spare parts for repairs on the human body. At TED2023, she gives an update on how far her organization has come in developing bone and cartilage replacements. (For the curious, it takes three weeks to engineer bone, and four for cartilage — plus they can do any of the 207 bones or 360 joints in the body.) As of 2021, they became the first biotech company greenlit by the FDA to use this approach. She asks: “Would we rather have spare parts made from metal, plastic and ceramic, or connect to our own internal fountain of cellular youth?