Welcome to the Bone Research Laboratory

The Bone Research Laboratory (BRL), a research Unit of the South African Medical Reseach Council (MRC), is a joint undertaking between MRC and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

The BRL is committed to gain insights into the mechanisms of bone, cartilage and connective tissue morphogenesis, development and regeneration, and to promote and accelerate the healing of bone in man. The BRL strives to provide new information to plan therapeutic strategies to initiate and manipulate tissue morphogenesis and bone regeneration, bone growth into prosthetic implants, to restore local and systemic bone mass, and to develop synthetic bone substitutes for the twenty-first century. The BRL is committed to foster an intellectual environment that initiates and maintains the highest possible level of scientific performance by providing free and innovative thinking, transfer of knowledge and implementation of skills. An important function of the BRL is to train and assist postgraduate students at Masters and Doctoral levels, and to nurture a national and international scientific network which can contribute towards the achievement of mutual research goals. The expertise of BRL is poised to make significant contributions in tissue repair, regeneration and morphogenesis which are of relevance to Southern Africa and the rest of the world.