News & Events

When

Date - September 16, 2016
12:00 am

What

Professor & Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence
Department of Biomedical Engineering
The University of Memphis

“Electrospinning Tissue Regeneration Templates to Facilitate Innate Immune System-guided In Situ Regeneration”

Abstract:

When one considers engineering the native cellular microenvironment for tissue engineering/regeneration, the focus is on recapitulating the composition and architecture of the fibrous (80 – 300 nm diameters) network surrounding and supporting the cells, a.k.a. extracellular matrix (ECM). Over the past 15+ years, the process of electrospinning has provided the tissue engineering field a revolutionizing process to fabricate and thus replicate tissue-specific complex ECM architecture in both form and composition. The progression of the electrospinning process from a little known, unexplored process to a tissue engineering revolutionizing tool capable of utilizing synthetic and natural polymers associated with the native ECM and tissue repair/regeneration (i.e. collagen, elastin, and fibrinogen) will be the focus of this presentation. More importantly, immediately upon implantation, blood protein adsorption occurs leading to an innate immune response mounted against the template, foreign substance, in a non-specific manner. The innate immune cellular (i.e. monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils and mast cells) responses that have recently garnered a great deal of attention due to their role in tissue regeneration are a critical aspect to study due to the capacity of the device architecture and composition playing a role in regulating and guiding their temporal responses. Thus, this talk will also review our recent advancements related to understanding the innate immune cellular responses to electrospun templates, which could ultimately determine success or failure. More critically, the focus will be on the sentinel of the innate immune response, neutrophils, and their misconceptualized and understudied role. Finally, Dr. Bowlin will take time at the end of his presentation to discuss his ever evolving career path and commercialization successes to provide motivation and encouragement to the future scientists in attendance.