WFU | Regenerative Medicine

The field of regenerative medicine seeks to extend life through the artificial development of replacement organs. Today medical centers across the nation are racing to utilize tissue engineering technologies in the development of organ constructs, that is tissue scaffolds in the form of the intended organ coupled (or seeded) with the cell lines necessary for organ function that have been extracted from the intended patient. The Nanotech program in regenrative medicine is focused on extending current tissue engineering capabilities in "sheet organ" like bladders and tubes, to bulky three dimensional organs like kidney. To do this in a useful way, we seek to enhance the functionality of the artificial tissue construct on which the organ is built.

The NANOTECH program on Regenerative Medicine focuses primarily on cell-scaffold interations. Using a variety of spectroscopic and scanning probe techniques, our work seeks to understand the unique roles that nanomechanical interactions driven by the tissue construct have in cellular invasion, proliferation, and function. Toward this end, specific engineering principles can be applied to create highly effecient tissue constructs that allow for the "intellegent" delivery of growth proteins, nutrients, oxygen, etc. while providing feedback to the tissue engineer as to the health and progress of organ function.

Bioprinting program at NANOTECH is based upon novel bio-ink blends for the creation of tissue scaffolds or bacterial assays. Our research utilizes printing equipment developed at WFU specifically for 3-D prototyping of biomaterials.

Through the use of nano-formulated inks, unique/novel scaffold surface structures can be created. Further these scaffolds can have certain functionalities added into them.

Read about our latest work here:

F. Coldren, N. Levi, B. McGuirt, E. Palavecino and D.L. Carroll, Ink-Jet Printing of Encapsulated Bacteria,Manuscript # 0921-T05-26, published in: Proceedings of the Materials Research Society Meeting Symposium T (2006)

N.H. Levi, J.B. McGuirt, F.M. Coldren, and D.L. Carroll. Biodegradable Nano-Material Composites for Use in an Inkjet Printing System, in Nanomanufacturing, edited by F. Stellacci, J.W. Perry, G.S. Herman, R.N. Das (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 921E, Warrendale, PA, 2006), 0921-T06-05.