Abstract

Engineering Organ-Specific Microvasculature for Regeneration and Disease Modeling

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. Obstacles remain to recreate organ-specific vasculature and tissue environment for disease modeling. In this talk, 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. I will summarize the remaining challenges and perspective in exploiting engineering tools to advance our understanding of biology and medicine.