Dr. Kim S. Jones visits Regenerative Medicine Today and gives us an insight into her exciting research in regenerative medicine. Dr. Jones is an Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University.
Her research interests center on the interactions between tissue engineering and the host response. Tissue engineering is intended to repair, replace or regenerate diseased or damaged tissue. Typically, tissue-engineered constructs are composed of a biomaterial scaffold and functional cells. Such constructs are intended to supplement the supply of organs for transplant. Examples include vascular grafts, skin, artificial kidneys, livers and hearts. Dr. Jones research uses prototype systems to focus on two fundamental issues.
- Host Response to Tissue-Engineered Constructs
- Effect of Host Response on Remodeling in Tissue Engineering
When a body receives an implant, it responds with scarring, inflammation, wound healing or regeneration. It is thus inevitable that tissue-engineered constructs will be remodeled once implanted. Her goal is to divert the remodeling response toward regeneration, but this may be confounded by the nature of the implant. Many of the mediators and cells involved in immune and inflammatory responses are also involved in wound healing and regeneration. As such, we expect that methods used to minimize damaging responses will interact with regeneration. Understanding this interaction is critical in order to direct intelligent design for the next generation of tissue engineering. On the podcast, Dr. Jones describes her work and shares her vision for the future.
Details of Dr. Jones’ work are available here.
Host John Murphy.
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