Embodiments of the invention is directed to methods of forming a bone-like material, by placing a matrix into a culture container, adding cells to the matrix, placing the tissue-cell construct into the culturing environment and incubating the construct under appropriate conditions for the time required to produce an amount of bone-like material of sufficient volume to be harvested for further processing. Other embodiments of the invention are directed to the use of the bone-like material formed by methods of the invention in implantation procedures.
