Tissue engineering combines the skills of engineering and knowledge of principle biology to generate, restore and replace damaged tissues and organs. To engineer living tissues mimicking conditions in living organism is essential. Therefore, tissue engineering is considered a biomedical engineering discipline and a potential alternative to tissue and organ transplantation. This course is built on three main pillars of tissue engineering: cells, scaffolds, and growth factors. Initially stem cells and differentiation is discussed as well as cell-based tissue engineering applications. Then design and characterization of biomaterials and nanomaterials as tissue scaffolds are covered. Here, various bio-fabrication techniques including 3D bioprinting are detailed. This course also covers the interaction with biomaterial surface, mechanical loading, biologic regulators, and culture conditions. Finally, examples of tissue engineering- based procedures that can alleviate specific diseases and clinical translation of regenerative therapies are analyzed as case studies with student presentations. This course also contains a laboratory session. At this session students will learn to handle mammalian cell cultures, prepare hydrogel and polymer scaffolds, perform tissue culture and characterization.

Students will learn certain aspects of tissue engineering and how to utilize this information to generate overall strategic approach used to solve a clinical problem.

Jan de Boer, Clemens van Blitterswijk (2022, Third Edition), Tissue Engineering, Academic Press. ISBN: 978-0-12-824459-3
Robert Lanza, Robert Langer, Joseph P. Vacanti, Anthony Atala (2020, Fifth Edition), Principles of Tissue Engineering, Academic Press. ISBN: 978-0-12-818422-6