(328e) Division 15 Award Lecture: Advancing Biomaterial Strategies for Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering

Biomaterial strategies for musculoskeletal tissue regeneration range from the production of novel biodegradable, cytocompatible tissue engineering scaffolds that can be tailored with appropriate mechanical and biological signals to regenerate tissue in specific sites in the body to applying existing biomaterials approved for use in certain clinical applications in approaches to encourage tissue regeneration. For example, our laboratory has developed a variety of biodegradable polymers for the controlled delivery of biologically active agents and/or progenitor stem cell populations to promote regeneration of tissues such as bone and cartilage. Further, our laboratory has explored the application of bioreactor culture of progenitor cell populations to produce extracellular matrix constructs containing biologically active signals to direct cellular differentiation and tissue formation. This talk will present recent examples of biomaterials from our laboratory to illustrate designer approaches for tissue engineering scaffolds, as well as examples of emerging applications of clinically available biomaterials as components of strategies to promote tissue regeneration.