T32EB023872
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Tissue engineering has unrealized potential as a treatment for disease and as a tool for research. Prime examples are attempts to remuscularize the heart with engineered tissue following myocardial infarction and organ-on-a-chip technology, which combines biomaterials, microfluidic engineering, and cell biology to produce constructs that model the tissue microenvironment and have been used to simulate many tissues including heart, liver, kidney and lung. However, the field faces many challenges. These include fabrication scale-up, cell sourcing, vascularization, valid recapitulation of cellular environments, and integration of implanted constructs with native tissue. This predoctoral training program centered on tissue engineering addresses these challenges. Participating faculty are drawn from university units including Biomedical Engineering, Cardiovascular Disease, Radiology, Materials Engineering, Genetics, and Electrical Engineering. The program takes advantage of recent institutional investments in tissue engineering as well as existing research strengths in physiology, stem cell biology, imaging, and other tissue engineering subfields.
Read more about how the program faces these challenges here.
