His work is also being supported by The Arthritis Foundation. Although prospects are well in the future, medical researchers are studying whether collagen replacement therapy could alleviate some of the damage caused by arthritis.

"In arthritis sufferers, the body's immune system is tricked into thinking its own collagen is a foreign entity that must be destroyed," Raines said. "That process might be triggered when collagen begins to unfold."

Collagen therapy could work much like bone or skin grafting, where new material replaces the lost or damaged tissue, he said. Some early, experimental studies are also looking at collagen as a raw material for heart valve or vessel repair, in reconstructing damaged cartilage or ligaments, and for corneal grafts.

Its sheer abundance in the body makes it an exciting and important area for medicine, Raines said. Some scientists have posited that if the body were stripped of everything except collagen, it would maintain essentially the same form.