Introduction Tooth loss remains a significant health problem even in developed countries such as the United States. Our research focuses on the development of non-synthetic, bioengineered materials for dental and craniofacial tissue engineering. We hypothesize that dental stem cells harvested from extracted teeth provides a potential source for human progenitor cells for tissue engineering. Our...

Chitosan is a versatile polysaccharide of biological origin. Due to the biocompatible and biodegradable nature of chitosan, it is intensively utilized in biomedical applications in scaffold engineering as an absorption enhancer, and for bioactive and controlled drug release. In cancer therapy, chitosan has multifaceted applications, such as assisting in gene delivery and chemotherapeutic delive...

Objectives There is strong current interest in the use of biodegradable scaffolds in combination with bone growth factors as a valuable alternative to the current gold standard autograft in spinal fusion surgery (Yong et al. 2013). Here we report on 6vs 12month data set evaluating the longitudinal performance of a CaP coated polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold loaded with recombinant human bone mor...

Pectus excavatum is the most common congenital chest wall deformity. Customised silicone implants have been used to camouflage this deformity with good short-term outcomes. In long term, permanent a significant risk of capsular contracture, migration and extrusion. Scaffold-guided tissue engineering provides an alternative autologous solution which avoids issues associated implants. We implante...

Growth performance and heavy metal uptake by willow (Salix viminalis) from strongly and moderately polluted calcareous soils were investigated in field and growth chamber trials to assess the suitability of willow for phytoremediation. Field uptakes were 2-10 times higher than growth chamber uptakes. Despite high concentrations of cadmium (>/=80 mg/kg) and zinc (>/=3000 mg/kg) in leaves of will...

INTRODUCTION Heart valve replacements are required for a number of heart diseases and replacements, as well as for both pediatric and adult populations. It is estimated that 2.5% of the population has valvular heart disease [1], and annually, over 250,000 people worldwide receive heart valve replacements [1]. Tissue engineering (TE) strategies hold the most promise for permanently restoring the...

Poly(1,8-octanediol-co-citrate) (POC) is a biocompatible, biodegradable elastomer with potential application for soft tissue applications such as cartilage. For chondrogenesis, permeability is a scaffold design target that may influence cartilage regeneration. Scaffold permeability is determined by many factors such as pore shape, pore size, pore interconnectivity, porosity, and so on. Our focu...

Current methods for screening cell-material interactions typically utilize a two-dimensional (2D) culture format where cells are cultured on flat surfaces. However, there is a need for combinatorial and high-throughput screening methods to systematically screen cell-biomaterial interactions in three-dimensional (3D) tissue scaffolds for tissue engineering. Previously, we developed a two-syringe...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a promising approach for cancer treatment. Site specific and controlled delivery of RNAi could be beneficial to the patient, while at the same time reducing undesirable off-target side effects. We utilized electrospinning to generate a biodegradable scaffold capable of incorporating and delivering a bioactive plasmid encoding for short hairpin (sh) RNA against the cel...