TISSUE ENGINEERING

Abstract

Despite the growing sophistication of medical technology, organ or tissue failure remains a frequent, costly, and serious problem in health care. Physicians and scientists alike dream of being able to replace damaged tissue with living, laboratory-grown substitutes. Functioning cells and tissues, available in plentiful supply and able to elude the destructive power of the patient's own immune system, would have enormous promise for improving health. The groundwork for developing these substitutes is being prepared by the new, rapidly evolving field of tissue engineering. This field, at the intersection of engineering and biology, is one of chemical engineering's promising frontiers. It draws on the chemical engineer's expert knowledge of fluid dynamics, mass transport, process modeling, materials design, and chemistry. Working with physicians and other biological specialists, chemical engineers are designing biocompatible casings for cell transplants, polymer composites for patching wounds, scaffolds that guide and encourage cells to form tissue, bioreactors for ...