From “organs on a chip” to bioengineering whole organs, and back

Zoom Link: https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/93315594357?pwd=eE4wQS9lZjA2aloyMkQ2dG5CS21kZz09

 Meeting ID: 933 1559 4357, Passcode: 689715

abstract:

Tissue engineering involves an integrated use of human stem cells (the actual “tissue engineers”), biomaterial scaffolds (providing a structural and logistic template for tissue formation) and bioreactors (providing environmental control, molecular and physical signaling). In regenerative medicine, this approach allows us to tailor the tissue grafts to the patient and the condition being treated. In “organs on a chip”, our goal is to model human physiology by recapitulating the environmental milieu of tissue development, regeneration and disease. To reflect on the state of the art in the field and the current challenges and opportunities, this talk will discuss bioengineering of whole organs and “organs on a chip”, and the possible synergies between these two complementary areas of tissue engineering.

bio:

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is a bioengineer appointed University Professor, the highest academic rank at Columbia University reserved for only a few active professors out of 4,000, as the first engineer in the history of Columbia to receive this highest distinction. She is also the Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences, and a faculty in the Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, College of Dental Medicine, the Center for Human Development and the Mortimer B Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. She directs the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering that is serving as a home for the NIH-funded Tissue Engineering Resource Center, and Columbia’s Center for Dental and Craniofacial Research. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Belgrade in Serbia where she was a faculty until 1993 (as full professor), holds a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Novi Sad in Serbia, and was a Fulbright Fellow at MIT.