2 - BIOMATERIALS

Question 1

Integrating biology with engineering to create tissues or cellular products outside the body (ex vivo) or to use the gained knowledge to better manage the repair of tissues within the body (in vivo)

Answer 1

Tissue Engineering

Question 2

• Diverse biological fields, including cell and molecular biology
• Physiology and systems integration
• Stem cell proliferation and differentiation
• Extracellular matrix chemistry and compounds and endocrinology

Answer 2

Requires understanding in (medical)

Question 3

• Biochemical and mechanical engineering
• Polymer sciences, bioreactor design and application
• Mass transfer analysis of gas and liquid metabolites
• Biomaterials

Answer 3

Requires knowledge in (engineering)

Question 4

• Broad field that includes tissue engineering but also incorporates research on self-healing
• “Tissue Engineering” and “Regenerative Medicine” have become largely interchangeable, as they focus on cures instead of treatments for complex, often chronic diseases

Answer 4

Regenerative Medicine

Question 5

• Small role in patient treatment
• Supplemental bladders, small arteries, skin grafts, cartilage, and full trachea
• Implanted in patients, but the procedures are still experimental and very costly
• Complex organ tissues (heart, lung, liver tissue)
• Successfully recreated in the lab
• Long way from being fully reproducible and ready to implant into a patient
• Help into research on drug development
• Using functional human tissue
  1. To help screen medication candidates could speed up development
  2. Provide key tools for facilitating personalized medicine while saving money
  3. Reducing the number of animals used for research

Answer 5

Current Medical Practices of Regenerative Medicine

Question 6

• Technologies that carry drugs into or throughout the body
  1. A pill that you swallow
  2. A vaccine that is injected
• Unacceptable side effects
• Side effects occur because drugs interact with healthy organs or tissues, and this can limit our ability to treat many diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and infectious diseases
• Continuing advances will help to facilitate the targeted delivery of drugs while also mitigating their side effects

Answer 6

Drug Delivery System

Question 7

• A topical (used on the skin) antibacterial ointment for the treatment of a localized infection or a cortisone injection to relieve pain in a joint can avoid some of the systemic side effects of these medications
• Vaccines work by providing our immune system with instructions to recognize and attack a pathogen

Answer 7

Current Medical Practices of Drug Delivery System