WHEN archaeologists uncovered an ancient Egyptian tomb near Thebes, they knew they were on to something exciting. But no one could have predicted the discovery that would come next.

The group exhumed a 3,000-year-old mummy from the tomb: a thrilling find. But the truly astonishing discovery was not the mummy itself, but its right toe.

The body that the group had found belonged to a woman, around 50-60 years old when she died. The woman’s right toe was missing, probably as a result of diabetes, and in its place was a prosthetic made from wood and leather.

Dating from approximately 650-710BC, the toe was, by far, the oldest prosthetic limb ever discovered. And its creators – ancient Egyptian craftspeople – the earliest known bioengineers.

Bioengineering is the biological or medical application of engineering principles. It’s a broad field encompassing prosthetics, implants and even some forms of drug design.

Thousands of years on from the ancient Egyptians, research in Oxfordshire is currently looking into ways of improving much more complex implants.

Over the past decade, approximately half a million hips have been replaced with prosthetic devices: in some cases a metal-on-metal joint. This particular type of implant has been in use for some time now; but not without issues.

When patients walk or move around, it causes friction in the hip joint. In metal-on-metal implants, this can lead to tiny particles of metal rubbing off and entering into the patient’s bone cells.

This can cause the implant to fail. More than 10 per cent have had to be replaced within five years – a much shorter period than patients and doctors would like. And so scientists are using Oxfordshire’s world-leading science infrastructure to try and fix the problem.

The group are scrutinising how these metal particles are distributed, with a view to using drugs that prevent them from entering the bone cells. In this way, it may be possible to prevent the implants from failing, improving the lives of patients around the world.

But it’s not just joints that sometimes need extra engineering. The aortic valve is a key component in one of the body’s most vital organs: the heart. It helps blood to leave the heart and travel to the rest of the body.

But as a result of age or disease, this valve can tighten or become damaged. There are currently two options for aortic valve replacement: a mechanical valve made from synthetic mechanical materials or one made from biological matter – usually adapted from pig tissue.

But both of these materials have flaws. Mechanical materials react badly with the blood, and so patients have to take blood thinning medication every day. Biological tissue works better with the blood, but requires more frequent replacement: meaning more surgeries for the patient.

And so scientists in Oxfordshire are looking into new materials that could be used as an alternative. One of these substances – a copolymer material comparable to that used in rubber bands – could combine the longevity of mechanical replacements with the biocompatibility of tissue.

There’s still a lot of testing to do, but this work could lead to a new generation of improved heart valve implants.

Bioengineering is a huge and rapidly growing field. We’re now seeing scientists designing materials and structures on even smaller and more complex levels. Artificial vaccines constructed atom-by-atom; drugs that are pieced together to target a specific protein and elicit a therapeutic response.

We’ve come a long way from the days of wooden toes, but the principles are the same: when it comes to biological and medical challenges, clever design can go a long way.