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Featured Talk

Polymeric Tissue Scaffolds and Biomaterials: Issues and Opportunities

Derrick Dean

Biomedical Engineering Program, Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama 36104. *Email: ddean@alasu.edu

Our laboratory is focused on the fabrication of polymeric tissue scaffolds. Our work seeks to understand how tissue scaffolds mimic the size scale, chemistry and functionality of the extra cellular matrix. This work is poised at the interface of nanotechnology, materials engineering and the life sciences.  Our approach utilizes nano and microfabrication techniques to develop bioactive, multifunctional tissue scaffolds in which we control surface chemistry, spatiotemporal interactions, impart developmental cues and structural stability. The efficacy of our scaffolds is investigated through studies of the interactions of cells with our scaffolds. This talk will briefly describe the current issues and opportunities in the field as well as some of our recent efforts to elucidate the processing-structure-property relationships of some polymeric tissue scaffolds.