There hasn’t been a gold standard for how orthopaedic spine surgeons promote new bone growth in patients, but now scientists have designed a bioactive nanomaterial that is so good at stimulating bone regeneration it could become the method surgeons prefer. The researchers studied in vivo the effect of the nanomaterial on the activity of the growth factor BMP-2. They found that 100 times less of the protein was needed for a successful spinal fusion in an animal model.