Tissue Engineering Resource Center

The Tissue Engineering Resource Center (TERC) was initiated in August 2004, with the unifying mission to engineer human tissue systems for medical impact. The goal of the Center is to impact medicine in a number of important ways, including: (a) engineering functional grafts of clinically relevant human tissues for application in regenerative medicine, (b) developing in vitro models of human disease to provide new experimental tools for disease understanding and therapeutic discovery, and (c) establishing high-fidelity bioengineering tools for rigorous cell biology studies in the context of tissue development and regeneration. In addition, the Center will continue to foster service, dissemination, training and collaborative research in support of the scientific and technological community. The core themes for TERC evolve along with the scientific and technological progress. The main focus is on functional tissue engineering by integration of the key elements – cells, scaffolds and bioreactors - via a systems approach. The Center also has interest in several areas of clinical relevance – human stem cells, disease models, and research tools applicable to biological inquiry. We maintain focus in two critical areas: (a) skeletal systems and (b) cardiovascular systems, while progressing toward new fundamental and translational projects. The common aspects for both areas include: cell sources, genetic tools, imaging (molecular, cellular, tissue levels), biomechanics (from cells to tissues), modeling (computational biology, transport, electrical and mechanical signal transduction) and the utilization of animal models. Two long-time collaborators: David Kaplan at Tufts University and Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic at Columbia University, lead the Center and direct the Biomaterials Core (Kaplan) and Bioreactors Core (Vunjak-Novakovic).