Advanced Tissue Engineering

Module aims

Students will learn about modern developments in tissue engineering, and about the principles on which they are based.

Learning outcomes

Cellular responses to the local environment (Dr I Dunlop)

·         Describe and explain the role of cellular responses to the local environment in tissue engineering.

·         Distinguish between empirical and rational design approaches to tissue engineering.

·         Describe and explain the principles and basic mechanisms of cellular signalling, in the abstract, and with reference to the examples given in the course. Apply this knowledge to newly encountered systems.

·         Describe and explain the principles and mechanisms of cellular mechanotransduction.

·         Describe and explain the aspects of surface chemistry and protein adsorption that are most relevant to tissue engineering. Explain the importance and relevance of this topic.

Materials synthesis for tissue engineering  

·         Describe and provide reasoning for the property requirements of scaffold materials for regenerative biological applications.

·         Describe, with aid of suitable recent examples, various strategies to fabricate porous materials. Suggest drawbacks and advantages of these approaches.

·         Describe different approaches to functionalisation of porous materials and apply this to newly encountered systems.

·         Demonstrate the ability to inter-link the above three learning outcomes to address new (i.e., potentially “unseen”) materials.  

Clinical aspects of tissue engineering

·         Describe and explain the role and importance of the extracellular matrix in tissue engineering

·         Understand the advantages and disadvantages of hydrogels and other scaffolds for tissue engineering.

·         Give examples of the applications of scaffolds for tissue engineering of tissues such as heart, bone, liver, kidney, nervous system.

·         Describe the application of polymers in drug delivery as a basis of polymer structure

·         Describe and explain the clinical case studies presented, and relate them to the concepts taught previously.

Module syllabus

24 lectures

Pre-requisites

None

Teaching methods

24 lectures: Spring term

Assessments

Examination

The course is examined in the summer term. The paper is 2.5 hours and students are required to answer 3 questions from the 5 set on the examination paper.  

The pass mark for the MEng cohort is 40% and for an MSc course is 50%.  The module contributes 100 marks of the fourth year of the MEng courses.

Module leaders