MSE 571 Artificial Organ Engineering
Due to shortage of donor organs, hybrid tissue-engineered organs, skin and urinary bladders, are being increasingly designed and used successfully for various purposes such as: burn-injury and replacing cancerous bladder. Students will be introduced to a variety of cultured cells and tissues which are grown in controlled environments of bioreactors with the precursors of amino-acids and growth factors assembled on biodegradable biomaterials, e.g. polylactate and polyglycolate in the shape of replaceable organs. Students will learn how the biodegradable polymers with donor cells are slowly degraded by regional tissues enzymes. An interdisciplinary approach using basic biology, biomaterials science and cellular assembly will be incorporated to introduce students to design artificial organs to prolong human life. A variety of materials (metals, alloys, polymers (synthetic and natural), immobilized drugs and their combination) will be evaluated for organ designing purposes. Differences in reaction of the human body for prosthetic materials and organ transplants will be covered to demonstrate the issues involved in organ transplants.