BIOM 6620 - Tissue Engineering

Prerequisite: biomedical engineering graduate standing or instructor's consent. This course will provide an overview of cell biology fundamentals, extracellular matrix, basics of receptors, topics on cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions at both the theoretical and experimental levels. Subsequent lectures will cover the effects of physical (shear, stress, strain), chemical (cytokines, growth factors), and electrical stimuli on cell function, emphasizing topics on gene regulation and signal transduction processes. Tissue engineering will be introduced by reviewing tissue structure and function and the clinical need for tissue repair. An overview of scaffold design and processing for tissue engineering will be reviewed and the application of tissue engineering to specialized tissues and organs will then be addressed in depth. Specific organ systems include skin, muscular skeletal system (vascular grafts, blood substitutions, cardiac patch, and heart valve), nervous system (peripheral and central nervous systems), liver, pancreas, and kidney.

3 credit hours.