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Advisor: Liping Tang, Ph.D.
The Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering track encompasses a wide variety of disciplines. This leads to a diverse faculty and allows the student to select from a variety of courses in pursuit of his/her degree. Having such a diverse faculty also affords the student the opportunity to participate in a wide range of research opportunities.
BME 5335 Biological Materials, Mechanics and Processes - Typical functional behavior of various biological materials, flow properties of blood, bioviscoelastic fluids and solids, mass transfer in biological systems.
BME 5340 Finite Element Applications in Biomechanics - Variational and Galerkin finite element formulations, linear and Hermitian elements, accuracy and convergence, applications in field problems: elasticity (plane stress, plane strain, torsion), steady state heat transfer, seepage fluid flow, and diffusion. Projects in biomechanical applications with the above engineering topics are emphasized.
BME 5360 Design and Application of Artificial Organs - fundamental principles of fluid mechanics, mass transfer and chemical reaction in engineered biological systems. Simple solutions are developed for the design of artificial hearts, lungs and kidneys. Examples are given of application in clinical situations and evaluations of system performance.
BME 5361 Biomaterials and Blood Compatibility - introduction topolymer structure and fabrication methods. Blood and tissue interactions with materials, and methods to improve biocompatibility of materials are discussed.
BME 5364 Tissue Engineering I - introduction to cell anatomy and physiology; extra cellular matrix interactions, integrins, adhesion peptides and cell signaling. Growth factors, cytokines, cell function, and differentiation. Wound healing, introduction to immunology. Laboratory practice - Introduction to cell culture techniques, analysis and instrumentation.
BME 5365 Tissue Engineering Lab - polymer extrusion, polymer drug loading, and degradation with drug release kinetics. Each student will be given the opportunity to perform these experiments and to culture cells and test their culture for cell growth, proliferations and function under several different substrate and media conditions.
Other course selections may be chosen from the following areas:
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
ME 5344 Viscous Flows
ME 5348 Fundamentals of composites
AE 5305 Laminar Boundary Layers
Materials Science & Engineering
MSE 5347 Polymer Materials Science
Chemistry
CHEM 5308 Determination of Molecular Structure by Physical Methods
CHEM 5309 Organic Chemistry I
CHEM 5310 Organic Chemistry II
CHEM 5350 Advanced Polymer Chemistry
Drug Delivery Microspheres
There are many disease states that require a high local concentration of a drug while, at the same time, reducing any unwanted side effects that accompany a high systemic dose. In other settings, it is desirable to locally deliver a biological molecule to a host that has an extremely short plasma half-life. These situations require a convenient, minimally invasive means of delivering the drug of interest directly to the point of application. To meet this large clinical need, we (along with a number of other groups around the world) are investigating loading microspheres with the drugs, enzymes, cytokines, etc. The microspheres are made of a biodegradable polymersuch that, upon degradation, small molecules are released that are taken up and metabolized by surrounding cells. They are then converted into energy for the cell, with only carbon dioxide and water remaining as byproducts of degradation. We are collaborating with two oncologists at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas who are interested in using our microspheres to treat tumors.
Drug Delivery Fibers
There are many occasions where a biodegradable device would be desired that could provide mechanical support as well as the ability to release drugs, genes, proteins, etc. in a controlled, time-released manner. Potential uses of this technology include stents to support various anatomical structures: blood vessels, nerves, bile duct, trachea, esophagus etc. There is also a need in wound healing to develop a dressing material that can release various drugs over time to coincide with the phases of wound repair. The field of Tissue Engineering is, in large part, based upon the ability to produce biodegradable scaffolding to temporarily support growing tissues which will degrade as the cells excrete and build their own scaffolding. We have developed the ability to extrude very thin fibers of poly(L-lactic acid) that are able to deliver drugs in a controlled manner.
Neural Stents
Thin fibers of poly(L-lactic acid) are coated with laminin, a naturally occurring protein which has a very high affinity for growing axons. In this way, it is possible to guide axons from dorsal root ganglia along these fibers. The preliminary results are very promising. In vitro experiments prove that the laminin coating is durable and that axons prefer to grow on the surface of the fiber.
Cell Material Interactions
Finding the appropriate scaffold materials for cell growth is a very important step in Tissue Engineering. Researchers are currently investigating such things as the role of tensegrity on cell function and phenotype. Other areas of interest include cell surface interactions in terms of surface chemistry, surface roughness, and the role of the adsorbed proteins. |
