1. Integrating Science, Engineering, and Technology
A look at Tissue Engineering and Scaffold Materials
Project presentation and lesson plans
Michael Gibbs,
Jason Heim, and
Diane Zaia
July 2009

2. Inquiry

5. Technology Design Link

6. - Technology Design Skills
How to find scaffold material with the
correct characteristics to be used in tissue
engineering?

7. Read and research the literature on tissue engineering.
- Technology Design Skills
Read and research the literature on tissue engineering.

8. What about a gelatin based scaffold?
- Technology Design Skills
What about a gelatin based scaffold?

9. - Technology Design Skills
Too Stiff
Not Porous enough
Is it biocompatible?

10. - Technology Design Skills
Prototype

11. - Technology Design Skills
New design successful
Material not stiff enough,
Patients reject scaffold.

12. - Technology Design Skills
Nobel Prize

13. Now that you have been introduced to the Nature of Science and Technology, your task is to design an experiment using scientific inquiry and the technology available to you to determine the best concentration of a gel solution to use in the following
situation.
Pre-activity: Students will read the articles about the variety of scaffolds scientists create to control cell behavior. Scientists choose existing scaffolds or design a new one, that possess the properties needed to influence the cell behavior they are trying to control. The choice of scaffold depends on the type of cell and the experiment to be done.
ARTICLES: 1. Growing Organs and Restarting Life in Vitro
2. Engineering Tissues- which cell, which signal, which scaffold?
3. Vocabulary – See next slide

14. What is scaffolding material in tissue engineering?
Naturally derived or synthetic biomaterials are made into
scaffolds.
These scaffolds are cultured with cells and then
implanted into human tissue.
These scaffolds provide a template or matrix that allows
new soft and hard tissues to grow.
The scaffold gradually breaks down and is finally
metabolized.

15. Scaffold Characteristics
STIFFNESS- Is the scaffold hard, soft, stiff, or flexible?
BIOCOMPATIBILITY- Is the scaffold toxic to cells?
DEGRADATION- Will the scaffold bread down appropriately?
ADHESIVE PROPERTIES- Will cells attach to scaffold?
POROSITY- Can nutrients diffuse in? Can wastes diffuse out?

16. Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Scaffolds
Tissue engineering is a truly multidisciplinary field which applies the principles of life science, engineering, and basic science to the development of viable substitutes which restore, maintain, or improve the function of human tissues. Modern isolation and culturing techniques of any type of human cells including fibroblasts, keratinocytes, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, endothelial and mesenchymal stem cells provide the basis for tissue engineering.
Naturally derived or synthetic biomaterials are fashioned into scaffolds which when cultured and implanted in combination with cells provide a template that allows such constructs to form new soft and hard tissues during which time the scaffold gradually degrades and is finally metabolised. Based on this tissue engineers, the Department focus on the following core capabilities:
Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Scaffolds
Cell Isolation, Proliferation, Differentiation and Characterization (including stem cells)
Control Drug Release Technology
Bioreactor Design
Transplantation Technology

17. Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Scaffolds
Scaffold Text
Tissue engineering is a truly multidisciplinary field which applies the principles of life science, engineering, and basic science to the development of viable substitutes which restore, maintain, or improve the function of human tissues. Modern isolation and culturing techniques of any type of human cells including fibroblasts, keratinocytes, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, endothelial and mesenchymal stem cells provide the basis for tissue engineering. Naturally derived or synthetic biomaterials are fashioned into scaffolds which when cultured and implanted in combination with cells provide a template that allows such constructs to form new soft and hard tissues during which time the scaffold gradually degrades and is finally metabolised. Based on this tissue engineers, the Department focus on the following core capabilities:
Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Scaffolds
Cell Isolation, Proliferation, Differentiation and Characterization (including stem cells)
Control Drug Release Technology
Bioreactor Design
Transplantation Technology
Graphical illustration showing the principles underlying scaffold-based tissue engineering. A scaffold or matrix, living cells, and/or biologically active molecules are used in variable strategies to form a “tissue-engineered construct (TEC)” to promote the repair and regeneration of tissues

18. Gel for scaffolding Tissue Engineering
Tissue Engineering

19. Your assignment is to create gels of various concentrations and determine their porosity
by measuring the amount of diffusion of food coloring injected into each gel.
Determine which of your gels provide the stiffest matrix.
Determine which of your gels has the greatest porosity .
Which scaffold characteristics did your experiment determine?
What further experiments could you conduct to determine other characteristics of your
scaffold?
Which of your gels would provide the best scaffold for cell growth in human tissue?
Support your answers with results from your lab .