Tissue Engineering & Stem Cells

Students studying Tissue Engineering and Stem Cells will become familiar with the history, scope and potential of tissue engineering, and the potential role of stem cells in this field. This subject will address the use of biomaterials in tissue engineering; major scaffold materials and fabrication methods, scaffold strength and degradation; cell sources, selection, challenges and potential manipulation; cell-surface interactions, biocompatibility and the foreign body reaction; the role and delivery of growth factors for tissue engineering applications; in vitro and in vivo tissue engineering strategies, challenges, cell culture, scale-up issues and transport modelling; ethical and regulatory issues; clinical applications of tissue engineering, such as bone regeneration, breast reconstruction, cardiac and corneal tissue engineering, and organogenesis (e.g. pancreas). This subject provides students with exposure to and understanding of a range of new and emerging applications of biomedical engineering. It includes research-led learning with opportunities to interact with experts and active researchers in the fields of stem cells and tissue engineering. The subject covers aspects of biology, materials engineering and process engineering which underpin tissue engineering and provides examples of the applications of this evolving area of technology.

• 1Explain the significance, current status and future potential of tissue engineering
• 2Identify key challenges in tissue engineering of different human tissues
• 3Describe the design, fabrication and biomaterials selection criteria for tissue engineering scaffolds
• 4Describe the sources, selection, potential manipulations and challenges of using stem cells for tissue engineering
• 5Use simple models to quantify aspects of bioreactor design
• 6Discuss the challenges of in vivo implantation of biomaterials and scale-up issues relating to human clinical applications and explain the ethical and regulatory issues of significance in tissue engineering.