(Department)  Biomedical Engineering         (Division)      Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
 
 (Level and Major)   MSc and PhD, Tissue Engineering         
 

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Course Title                Clinical Applications of Tissue Engineering                                
 
Number of Credits       3             Prerequisite -

Course Description:
Tissue engineering, a rapidly growing scientific field, aims to combine cells, biomaterials and bioactive agents to create, repair, and/or replace tissues and organs. Tissue engineering has the potential to revolutionize health care. Although this technology has been clinically successful in thin and/or avascular tissue, such as skin and cartilage, there are big challenges when applied to thicker and more complicated tissues and organs. This course aims to briefly review the fundamental concepts in tissue engineering and discuss the challenges and limitations in the road from the lab to the clinic. At the end, recent advances in engineering of different tissue and organs are reviewed and examples of successful clinical applications or commercial products are presented.
 
Course Goals and Objectives
At the end of the course, students are expected to learn the basic concepts of tissue engineering, technical aspects and challenges in path from the lab to the clinic. They are also expected to get familiar with recent advances in the field and development history of several successful tissue engineering products/treatments already in the clinical use.
 
Course Topics     
1) Principles of tissue engineering

Scaffolds
Signaling factors
Cell sources
Bioreactors for tissue engineering

2) Technical aspects and challenges in tissue engineering from lab to clinic

Current problems in tissue engineering
Defining design targets for tissue engineering scaffolds (mechanical strength, bioabsorption rate, ultrafine structure, cell nutrition, neovascularization, carriers for growth factors)
Sites for neotissue creation
Immune system issues
Assessment of tissue responses to tissue-engineered devices
In vivo animal models in tissue engineering
Moving into the clinic
The regulatory path from concept to market
Economic aspects
Ethical issues in tissue engineering

3) Clinical use

Skin and wound repair
Bone tissue engineering
Muscle Tissue Engineering
Tendon and Ligament Tissue Engineering
Adipose Tissue Engineering
Cartilage tissue engineering
Cardiovascular tissue engineering (heart valves, myocardial tissue, blood substitutes)
Nervous system tissue engineering
Liver tissue engineering
Pancreas tissue engineering
Intervertebral disc regeneration
Tissue-Engineered Urinary Bladder
Gastrointestinal System

 
 
 Reading Resources
 
1.  Pallua, N. & Suschek, C. V. Tissue Engineering: From Lab to Clinic. (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011).
2.  Lanza, R. R. P., Langer, R. S. & Vacanti, J. P. Principles of Tissue Engineering. (Elsevier Academic Press, 2007).
3.  Ikada, Y. Tissue Engineering: Fundamentals and Applications. (Elsevier Science Limited, 2006).
4.  Meyer, U., Meyer, T., Handschel, J. & Wiesmann, H. P. Fundamentals of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2009).
5.  Palsson, B., Hubbell, J. A., Plonsey, R. & Bronzino, J. D. Tissue Engineering. (CRC Press, 2003).
6.  Minuth, W. W., Strehl, R. & Schumacher, K. Tissue Engineering: From Cell Biology to Artificial Organs. (Wiley, 2005).
7. Saltzman, W. M. Tissue Engineering: Engineering Principles for the Design of Replacement Organs and Tissues. (Oxford University Press, USA, 2004).
8. Bronzino, J.D., Peterson, D.R. Tissue Engineering and Artificial Organs, (CRC Press, 2002)
9. Howard, M. Tissue Engineering Essentials for Daily Laboratory Work. (2002)
 
 Evaluation
 
Midterm exam, final exam, presentation, final project