Tissue engineering is a rapidly expanding field that promises to regrow, restore, and help maintain new tissues to treat disease and injury. For a tissue engineering scaffold to succeed, several critical factors are required, including material biocompatibility, cell adhesion and ingrowth, and a suitable biodegradation rate. Scaffolds should ideally possess some properties that are similar to the natural tissue environment, including extracellular matrix organization, material elasticity, and the ability for cells to communicate. This project will attempt to mimic ECM molecular alignment by developing scaffolds with controllable polymeric molecular orientation. We hypothesize that molecular orientation will augment cell fate and biodegradation rate of the material. Students will participate in experiments in manufacturing technology, polymer characterization, biodegradation, and cell biology.
