(4z) Engineering Biomaterials for Regenerative Medicine: Elucidation of Factors That Regulate Stem Cell Fate

The development of human embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell technology has created enormous potential for the field of regenerative medicine, but the use of these cells in translational tissue engineering applications remains limited because of the dearth in understanding of the biological mechanisms that regulate stem cell fate. My research is focused on elucidating these mechanisms by combining bioengineering and stem cell biology to develop novel tools and biomaterials for investigating and controlling the intracellular signaling pathways and extracellular microenviromental cues that regulate stem cell fate. Several research projects will be presented that center around defining the biological mechanisms that control neural stem cell fate at both the genetic and extracellular microenvironment levels. Approaches to discovery and nanoscale engineering of factors that regulate stem cell fate and methods for incorporation of such factors into biomaterials in an effort to instruct lineage specific differentiation of stem cells will be discussed.