세미나

Smart Design of Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering

Junmin Lee
Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)

Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field aimed at maintaining, restoring and pr omoting the normal function of organs and tissues using biomaterials and live cells by incorporating concepts from materials science, bio engineering, biological sciences, and medicine. Understanding the interface between biomaterials and cells is critical because cells in contact with biomaterials can not only sense microenvironmental cues such as mechanical properties, matrix protein, and external stimuli but also respond to subtle differences of these cues to eventually regulate cell phenotypes and fate decisions. However, engineering cell culture micro environments to mimic the 3D dynam ic and complex nature of tissues at the biomaterial cell interface is a major challenge. Nevertheless, to address the engineering issue, hydrogel-based biomaterials could be smartly designed as cell culture platforms to increase tissues’ function, structure, and maturity comparable to native tissues in the body. Here I will present several model hydrogel systems where cells can be guided through multiple biophysical, mechanical, and biochemical signals to program (e.g., stem cell differentiate & cardiomyocyte maturation) and reprogram (de-differentiate of cancer cells). These studies reveal the importance of the precise coordination of microenvironment parameters existed in engineered biomaterials during cellular decision making, which can be potentially used for the development of healthcare engineering approaches especially for disease modelling and regenerative therapies.