Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biological tissues. Tissue engineering often involves the use of cells placed on tissue scaffolds in the formation of new viable tissue for a medical purpose, but is not limited to applications involving cells and tissue scaffolds. While it was once categorized as a sub-field of biomaterials, having grown in scope and importance, it can is considered as a field of its own.
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), founded at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2000, is located in Bethesda, Maryland. It is one of 27 institutes and centers that are part of NIH, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Ali Khademhosseini is the CEO of the Terasaki Institute, non-profit research organization in Los Angeles, and Omeat Inc., a cultivated-meat startup. Before taking his current CEO roles, he spent one year at Amazon Inc. Prior to that he was the Levi Knight chair and professor at the University of California-Los Angeles where he held a multi-departmental professorship in Bioengineering, Radiology, Chemical, and Biomolecular Engineering as well as the Director of Center for Minimally Invasive Therapeutics (C-MIT). From 2005 to 2017, he was a professor at Harvard Medical School, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
Tejal Ashwin Desai is Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering at Brown University. Prior to joining Brown, she was the Deborah Cowan Endowed Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at University of California, San Francisco, Director of the Health Innovations via Engineering Initiative (HIVE), and head of the Therapeutic Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory. She was formerly an associate professor at Boston University (2002–06) and an assistant professor at University of Illinois at Chicago (1998–2001). She is a researcher in the area of therapeutic micro and nanotechnology and has authored and edited at least one book on the subject and another on biomaterials.
Kyriacos A. Athanasiou is a Greek Cypriot-American bioengineer who has contributed significantly to both academic advancements as well as high-technology industries. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine. He joined UCI from the University of California, Davis where he also served as the Chair of the Biomedical Engineering department. Before joining the University of California in 2009, he was the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor at Rice University. He has published hundreds of scientific articles detailing structure-function relationships and tissue engineering approaches for articular cartilage, the knee meniscus, and the temporomandibular joint.
Nano-scaffolding or nanoscaffolding is a medical process used to regrow tissue and bone, including limbs and organs. The nano-scaffold is a three-dimensional structure composed of polymer fibers very small that are scaled from a Nanometer scale. Developed by the American military, the medical technology uses a microscopic apparatus made of fine polymer fibers called a scaffold. Damaged cells grip to the scaffold and begin to rebuild missing bone and tissue through tiny holes in the scaffold. As tissue grows, the scaffold is absorbed into the body and disappears completely.
A fibrin scaffold is a network of protein that holds together and supports a variety of living tissues. It is produced naturally by the body after injury, but also can be engineered as a tissue substitute to speed healing. The scaffold consists of naturally occurring biomaterials composed of a cross-linked fibrin network and has a broad use in biomedical applications.
The in vivo bioreactor is a tissue engineering paradigm that uses bioreactor methodology to grow neotissue in vivo that augments or replaces malfunctioning native tissue. Tissue engineering principles are used to construct a confined, artificial bioreactor space in vivo that hosts a tissue scaffold and key biomolecules necessary for neotissue growth. Said space often requires inoculation with pluripotent or specific stem cells to encourage initial growth, and access to a blood source. A blood source allows for recruitment of stem cells from the body alongside nutrient delivery for continual growth. This delivery of cells and nutrients to the bioreactor eventually results in the formation of a neotissue product.
Muscle tissue engineering is a subset of the general field of tissue engineering, which studies the combined use of cells and scaffolds to design therapeutic tissue implants. Within the clinical setting, muscle tissue engineering involves the culturing of cells from the patient's own body or from a donor, development of muscle tissue with or without the use of scaffolds, then the insertion of functional muscle tissue into the patient's body. Ideally, this implantation results in full regeneration of function and aesthetic within the patient's body. Outside the clinical setting, muscle tissue engineering is involved in drug screening, hybrid mechanical muscle actuators, robotic devices, and the development of engineered meat as a new food source.
Treena Livingston Arinzeh is an American biomedical engineer and academic.
Song Li is a Chancellor Professor and Department Chair of Bioengineering at University of California, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from University of California, San Diego. Dr. Li was a Bioengineering faculty at University of California, Berkeley (2001-2015), and he moved to UCLA in 2016. His research is focused on cell engineering, mechanobiology, biomaterials, and regenerative medicine. He is well recognized bioengineer, and has been elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Society and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Antonios Georgios Mikos is a Greek-American biomedical engineer who is the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. He specialises in biomaterials, drug delivery, and tissue engineering.
Jennifer Hartt Elisseeff is an American biomedical engineer, ophthalmologist and academic. She is the Morton Goldberg Professor and Director of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wilmer Eye Institute with appointments in Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Orthopedic Surgery. Elisseeff's research is in the fields of regenerative medicine and immunoengineering.
Susmita Bose is an Indian-American scientist and engineer, best known for her research on biomaterials, 3D printing or additive manufacturing of bone implants and natural medicine. She is the Herman and Brita Lindholm Endowed Chair Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University.
Kristi Lynn Kiick is the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware. She studies polymers, biomaterials and hydrogels for drug delivery and regenerative medicine. She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and of the National Academy of Inventors. She served for nearly eight years as the deputy dean of the college of engineering at the University of Delaware.
Milica Radisic is a Serbian Canadian tissue engineer, academic and researcher. She is a professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. She co-founded TARA Biosystems and is a senior scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute.
Jennifer L. West is an American bioengineer. She is the current Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. She was the Fitzpatrick University Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University from 2012-2021. In 2000, West cofounded Nanospectra Biosciences in Houston to develop a cancer therapy based on gold nanoparticles that destroy tumor cells and has been listed by MIT Technology Review as one of the 100 most innovative young scientists and engineers world wide.
Tatiana Segura is an American biomedical engineer who is a professor at Duke University. Her research considers biomedical engineering solutions to promote cell growth. She was elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2017 and awarded the Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal in 2021.
Kristyn Simcha Masters is an American bioengineer who is professor and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Colorado Denver. She works as Director of the Anschutz Medical Campus Center. Her research looks to create tissue-engineered models of disease, with a focus on cancer and cardiac disease.
Kelly Stevens is an American bioengineer and associate professor at the University of Washington. Her research considers the study and development of human platforms to understand and treat disease. She was named a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Fellow in 2022.
