New biomaterial designed for repairing damaged human tissue doesn’t wrinkle up when it is stretched
A new biomaterial designed for repairing damaged human tissue doesn’t wrinkle up when it is stretched. The invention from nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego marks a significant breakthrough in tissue engineering because it more closely mimics the properties of native human tissue.
Shaochen Chen, professor in the Department of NanoEngineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, hopes future tissue patches, which are used to repair damaged heart walls, blood vessels and skin, for example, will be more compatible with native human tissue than the patches available today. His findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
The new biomaterial was created using a new biofabrication platform that Chen is developing under a four-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. This biofabrication technique uses light, precisely controlled mirrors and a computer projection system -- shined on a solution of new cells and polymers -- to build three-dimensional scaffolds with well-defined patterns of any shape for tissue engineering.
The team includes postdoctoral researchers in multiple disciplines: David Fozdar with the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Li-Hsin Han with the Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Orthopeadic Surgery; and Pranav Soman and Jim Woo Lee at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering Department of NanoEngineering.
Contact: Catherine Hockmuth [email protected] 858-822-1359 University of California - San Diego
SOURCE