A dentist in Alexandria, Egypt, seeks a replacement for decaying bone. To that end, a sol–gel chemist in Lisbon, Portugal, is working to create glass structures with continuous porosity that would let cells and nanofibers grow and nutrients flow. The structures will be characterized by scientists at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the interface between the candidate bone replacement and biological tissue will be investigated in Senegal and at Princeton University.