Drs Deepak Kumar and James Dixon.
Dr Deepak Kumar presented at the British Heart Foundation iPS Interest Group on March 22nd 2016. The annual meeting had a focus on the use of iPS cells for heart and blood vessel related applications. A broad range of topics was presented including: pluripotency, modelling molecular cardiomyopathies, iPS-derived endothelial cells, contraction coupling of iPSC-derived cardiac myocytes and optical control of excitation waves in cardiac tissue.
Fabrication of tubular architectures with the required mechanical strength and biological activity has hindered the engineering of functional tube structure replacements. Pioneering work from the University of Nottingham1 has resulted in development of a novel automated platform that allows accurate, standardised and repeatable fabrication of tubular architectures. These fabricated tissues are comprised of multiple compact, stable and secure cell and/or material layers that can be transferred directly to perfusion reactors without further manipulation. Rolling of each layer takes less than a minute; this technology is easily adaptable to fabricate multiple biomaterial-types to engineer a variety of biologically stable tissues directed for regenerative or in vitro diagnostic protocols. Many tissues within the body contain tubular structures and clinical applications include coronary artery bypass engraftment for the treatment of coronary heart disease.
Following on from the work on blood vessels, Dr Kumar (Materials Science Centre, University of Manchester) is working on fabrication of oesophageal replacements as part of the UKRMP Acellular Hub Programme. Professor Julie E Gough (Materials Science Centre UoM) is a core member of the acellular technologies hub and is responsible for the development of 3D anisotropic tissue structures and architecture. Novel tissue engineering constructs are being developed using state of the art synthetic hydrogels as well as electrospun scaffolds using FDA approved polyesters. The centre has expertise in using various biomaterial fabrication techniques, producing a plethora of biomaterials for various tissue-engineering applications, and has a world-class imaging suite for characterisation of biomaterials and their interaction with biological material.
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