With the Texas Medical Center and Rice University in collaboration, Houston is poised to be one of the hubs for such activity in the field known as tissue engineering. Tissue engineering involves the clinician's knowledge of what patients need, the life scientist's understanding of how cells interact, and the engineer's development of biomaterials that can function with cells in the body to form new tissue. When these three disciplines come together, the objective is to develop new ways of replacing tissue using biodegradable materials that interact with the cells in the body to spark tissue growth.
Tissue engineering is very exciting.
According to Antonios G. Mikos, Ph.D., an associate professor of bioengineering and chemical engineering at Rice University and organizer of the annual short course, the FDA has approved three products for skin and cartilage replacement in the last year - good news for patients with such problems as burn wounds and damage to knees. While researchers continue to study and refine the areas of skin and cartilage replacement, Dr. Mikos and Dr. Miller, in collaboration with Alan W. Yasko, M.D., associate professor of orthopaedic surgical oncology at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, have set their sights on developing bone tissue. In contrast, skin is a two-dimensional cellular system, which makes it easier for vascularization to occur. Cartilage, like bone, is three-dimensional but has fewer cells to maintain, so development of a blood vessel network is not necessary, says Dr. McIntire. Maintaining adequate blood supply to bone cells is one of the major challenges scientists face in growing bone tissue.