Scientists turned sheep’s wool into a material that helps bone regrow

A team at King's College London decided to test an alternative—keratin from sheep’s wool. Wool is an accessible and often discarded agricultural by-product. Keratin from it was chemically processed and turned into durable membranes.

First, the membranes were tested on human bone cells in the lab: the cells grew well and showed signs of normal bone formation. Then the material was implanted in rats with large skull defects that do not heal on their own. Over several weeks, the researchers monitored how new bone grew.

Collagen scaffolds produced a larger volume of tissue. However, the bone that grew on keratin turned out to be more organized: the fibers aligned better, and the structure was closer to that of natural healthy bone. The membranes remained stable during healing and integrated normally with the surrounding tissues.

So far, this is only an animal model. But the result suggests that wool-derived keratin could become a new class of regenerative materials and compete with collagen—especially where tissue organization matters more than achieving maximum volume.

Sources

1. King's College London. "Scientists turn sheep’s wool into a material that helps regrow bone." ScienceDaily (12 August 2026).
2. King's College London materials on wool-based keratin scaffolds.

Author: Maksim Aleksandrovich Erdyakov.