On Friday, January 15th @ 11:00AM ET, we welcome Prof. Treena Arinzeh from NJIT as she presents, "Functional Biomaterials for Tissue Regeneration."

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine approaches for rebuilding damaged or diseased tissues have shown promise. Stem cells have been sought as an attractive cell source to be used in combination with biomaterials that act as scaffolds to regenerate tissues. Recent discoveries have shown that the properties of the scaffold can influence stem cell self-renewal and/or differentiation, which has had a tremendous impact on identifying strategies for using these cells effectively in the body.  This presentation will describe studies examining the influence of biomaterials on stem cell behavior with an emphasis on identifying biomaterial properties and designs that impart appropriate cues to stem cells to affect their behavior in vitro and in vivo. Biomimetic materials, specifically piezoelectric polymers and composites that provide electromechanical cues to stem cells and other cell types, will be discussed. Recent findings demonstrating stem cell differentiation and tissue formation using novel glycosaminoglycan mimetics, which are polysaccharides that also exhibit piezoelectric properties and prolong the bioactivity of growth factors, will be presented. The utility of these biomaterials for neural and orthopaedic applications will be demonstrated.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Treena Livingston Arinzeh, PhD is a Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Dr. Arinzeh received her B.S. from Rutgers University in Mechanical Engineering, her M.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.  She worked for several years as a project manager at a stem cell technology company, Osiris Therapeutics, Inc.  Dr. Arinzeh joined the faculty of NJIT as one of the founding faculty members of the department of Biomedical Engineering and served as interim chairperson and graduate director.  Dr. Arinzeh has been recognized with numerous awards, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). She is currently a co-PI and the Director of Diversity of the NSF Science and Technology Center on Engineering Mechanobiology, which is a multi-institutional center with the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University in Saint Louis.

ABOUT THE 2020-2021 BME WEBINAR SERIES

The Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University is proud to host an annual weekly webinar series on the latest developments and research in Biomedical Engineering. The weekly series takes place on Friday mornings at 11:00AM Eastern and includes a variety of renowned academics from top universities to talk about their specific research and experience.