Abstract

Constructing Organ-Specific Microvasculature for Disease Modeling and Regeneration

Ying Zheng, Associate Professor, University of Washington

Engineered tissues have emerged as promising new approaches to repair damaged tissues as well as to provide useful platforms for drug testing and disease modeling. Challenges remain to reconstruct organ-specific vasculature and tissue environment for disease modeling. Here I will present our progress in generating complex vascular structure with large range of diameters and curvatures, by combining multiple fabrication tools, to support its remodeling, thick tissue growth and blood perfusion. I will present means to study organ-specific vascular structure and function. Finally I will summarize the remaining challenges and perspective in exploiting engineering tools to advance our understanding of biology and medicine.