2020 Otto Schmitt Lecture (Vunjak-Novakovic) | Institute for Engineering in Medicine Archives

"Engineering Human Tissues for Medical Impact"

12:00 - 1:00 PM
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Zoom Webinar

ABSTRACT

The classical paradigm of tissue engineering involves the integrated use of human stem cells, biomaterial scaffolds (providing a structural and logistic template for tissue formation) and bioreactors (providing environmental control, dynamic sequences of molecular and physical signaling, and insights into the structure and function of the forming tissues). This approach results in an increasingly successful representation of the environmental milieu of tissue development, regeneration and disease. Living human tissues are now being tailored to the patient and the condition being treated. A new paradigm is emerging in recent years, with the development of the “organs on a chip” platforms for modeling of integrated human physiology, using micro-tissues derived from human iPS cells and functionally connected by vascular perfusion. In all cases, the key requirement is to recapitulate the tissue-specific niches, using bioengineering tools. To illustrate the state of the art in the field and reflect on the current challenges and opportunities, this talk will discuss: (i) anatomically correct bone regeneration, (ii) bioengineering of the lung, and (iii) the use of “organs on a chip” for patient-specific studies of injury, regeneration and systemic diseases (such as cancer).

Funding: NIH, NSF, NASA, New York State, Mikati Foundation, Blavatnik Foundation

BIOGRAPHY

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is University Professor, the highest academic rank at Columbia University and the first engineer in the history of Columbia to receive this highest distinction. She is also the Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences, and a faculty in the Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, College of Dental Medicine, Center for Human Development, and Mind Brain Behavior Institute. She directs the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Columbia’s Center for Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the NIH Tissue Engineering Resource Center. The focus of her research is on engineering functional human tissues for regenerative medicine and studies of development and disease. She published 3 books and over 400 journal articles (h=124) and founded with four students four biotech companies.

Among her many recognitions, Gordana was elected to the NIBIB Council, HHMI Scientific Review Board, AIMBE (2000) where she was Chair of the College of Fellows (2016-17) and was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. She gave the Director's lecture at the NIH, as the first woman engineer to receive this distinction. She received the Clemson Award (2009), the Pritzker Award (2017). Shu Chien Award (2018), the TERMIS award for innovation and commercialization (2019), and the NCATS-ASPIRE Design Challenge Award for Translational Innovation in Pain, Opioid Use Disorder and Overdose. She is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society and AAAS, and one of the Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers (2014). She was recently decorated by the Order of Karadjordje Star, Serbia’s highest honor.

She is an elected member of the New York Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.