Research Areas
Cell and Tissue Engineering
One of the most exciting and rapidly
growing areas in biomedical engineering, tissue engineering offers vast
potential for changing traditional
approaches to clinical treatment. And
because so many tissues and organs
are strong candidates for engineering
reconstruction—including bone,
cartilage, liver, pancreas, skin, blood
vessel, and peripheral nerve—tissue
engineering can help meet critical
health care needs related to tissue and
organ replacement. Tissue engineering
systems also are being used as model
systems to study cell behavior.
Tissue engineering uses biomaterials
and cells to produce new tissues.
Stem cells have infused great excitement
in the field as a potentially powerful cell
source to rebuild tissues. Significant
research focuses on understanding
and harnessing the power of stem cells
and on developing new biomaterials to
guide cell behavior.
Scientists must address many
challenges before tissue engineering
therapies reach clinical use and
widespread application. Research in
the Department of Biomedical Engineering ranges from fundamental studies
to determine a cell’s response to its
environment to developing applied
technologies, including microfabrication,
polymer and biomaterial synthesis,
and drug and gene delivery.
Research being conducted in
tissue engineering includes:
- Developing new biosynthetic materials that can guide tissue growth in complex in vivo environments.
- Applying adult and embryonic cells to generate new tissues.
- Characterizing cardiac cells derived from embryonic stem cells and their use for cell-based therapy of dysfunctional cardiac tissue.
- Using the latest technologies to create novel biomaterial scaffolds.
- Studying the relationship between cell behavior and the physical environment.
- Targeting anti-cancer drugs and diagnostic agents to engineered cell surfaces and constructing artificial viral receptors on human cells for gene therapy.
- Applying tissue engineering to the study of diseases, such as osteoarthritis, Aperts Syndrome, and HIBM, a degenerative muscle disorder.
- Using biomaterials as a means for time-controlled and tissue-specific drug delivery.
- Using physical cues for in situ manipulation of endogenous stem cells and tissue regeneration.
Faculty working in this areaJian Du Ph.D. Jennifer Elisseeff Ph.D. Warren Grayson Ph.D. Jordan Green Ph.D. Winston Timp Ph.D. Kevin Yarema Ph.D. BME labs working in this areaBiomaterials and Drug Delivery Laboratory Laboratory for Craniofacial and Orthopaedic Tissue Engineering Laboratory of Cell and Carbohydrate Engineering Laboratory of Cell and Carbohydrate Engineering The Timp Lab Tissue Engineering Laboratory
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