Research in Tissue Engineering include applications of synthetic hydrogels in tissue engineering; coupled field modeling of tissue engineered constructs; non-linear parabolic control applications in tissue engineering; vascular grafts and synthetic arterial shunt systems in tissue engineering.
Research is also being conducted on methods for the controlled hydroxylation of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) using radio frequency plasma. Addition of hydroxyl groups on the surface allows for covalent coupling of proteins of interest such as collagens for ePTFE endothelialization. This will allow the tissue engineering of small diameter vascular grafts. A novel scaffold consisting of collagen modified ePTFE will designed such that the anti-thrombogenic phenotype of vascular endothelial cells is preserved..
Associated Faculty: Khalid Kader; Alan Moy, Jose Assouline, Stephen K. Hunter, Aliasger K. Salem , and Tadaarsu Satomi