Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: Fundamentals and Applications
Type | Lecture |
Module | Master |
Credits | 5 ECTS |
Term | Summer semester |
Language | English |
Registration & Dates (Lecture) Registration & Dates (Exercise) | See TUMonline See TUMonline |
E-Learning Course | See Moodle |
Description (Lecture)
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) is a fast-growing field that addresses some of the major healthcare challenges, which result from the human incapability to regenerate diseased or lost tissues and organs. The biofabrication of living tissues and organs can potentially solve issues such as donor shortage and increasing waiting lists for organ transplantation, the lack of devices able to grow with the pediatric patients and the unavailability of therapies for yet untreated diseased. Furthermore, bioengineered human tissues and organs can serve as models for disease modeling and drug testing, with the advantage of being more predictive of the human response than the animal models, and the additional potential benefit of reducing the number of animals required for preclinical testing. This course will provide the students with the fundamentals to understand how the convergence of different disciplines such as engineering, biology, material science and medicine can result in new therapeutical solutions and have transformative implications for the future health care. The course ‘Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine’ will provide a general understanding of tissue growth and development as well as the tools and theoretical information necessary to design tissues and organs.
Specifically, the following topics will be covered in this module (subjected to change):
- Principles of tissue engineering
- Scaffolds: materials and characterization
- Scaffold design, biomimicry
- Biofabrication technology
- Cell source, isolation, growth, differentiation
- Bioreactor technology (from microfluidics to whole organ bioreactors)
- Mechanical loading and culture conditions
- Tissue/organ design and development
- Tissue analysis and characterization
- Current applications (e.g. cardiovascular, bone, skin, neural, muscle tissue engineering etc)
- Cell therapy
- Regulatory and ethical considerations
- Translational approaches to the clinical settings
Description (Exercise)
The exercise is offered in presence and online. Each exercise comprises a Q&A session and proposes problems to which the students will find solutions based on the gained theoretical knowledge and by applying practical thinking and innovative approaches. The students will be able to work alone or in groups, depending on their preference.
Learning outcomes
After successful participation in the module "Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine", the students are able to
- understand the principles of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
- evaluate the existing strategies and their specific advantages and disadvantages
- apply tissue engineering principles to the solution of medical problems requiring the regeneration of tissue
- demonstrate an understanding of the rationale to employ cells, biomaterial scaffolds, biochemical and mechanical stimulation, for the (re)generation of tissues and organs in vitro and in vivod
- demonstrate knowledge of current clinical applications for different organs & tissues
- analyze current challenges in the field of TERM
- formulate regulatory consideration
Description (Exercise)
The exercise is offered in presence and online. Each exercise comprises a Q&A session and proposes problems to which the students will find solutions based on the gained theoretical knowledge and by applying practical thinking and innovative approaches. The students will be able to work alone or in groups, depending on their preference.