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September 9, 2003

Media Contact: Denine Hagen, (858) 534-2920

First Textbook on Tissue Engineering Defines Emerging Field
at the Convergence of Engineering, Biology and Medicine

Marking a milestone in the evolution of the field of tissue engineering, bioengineers with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering have completed the first textbook on the subject. “Tissue Engineering” (Prentice Hall, 2004) was co-authored by Sangeeta Bhatia and Bernhard O. Palsson, and is now available at http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/academic/product/0,4096,0130416967,00.html

“The book is solid, informative, and well-written,” said Edwin N. Lightfoot, professor emeritus of chemical and biological engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Bhatia and Palsson have taken fundamental knowledge about several fields and shown how it fits together at higher levels of complexity.”

“Up until now, there has not been a comprehensive resource available for teaching tissue engineering,” said Y.C. Fung, UCSD professor emeritus of bioengineering. “Bhatia and Palsson have brought together their separate expertise of the components of tissue engineering into a very useful and powerful work that will have an important impact on this field.”

Prentice Hall Sangeeta Bhatia research page Bernhard Palsson research page

Tissue engineering combines basic biological sciences, engineering fundamentals, medicine and biotechnology in the study of tissue dynamics that coordinate tissue repair, replacement, and reconstruction. In “Tissue Engineering” these diverse concepts are laid out in a clear framework organized around four themes: Quantitative Cell and Tissue Biology, including tissue organization, tissue dynamics, morphogenesis, stem cells, cellular fate processes and their coordination; Cell and Tissue Characterization, including high-throughput technologies, cell and tissue properties, cell and tissue culture, and gene transfer; Engineering Methods and Design, including time constant analysis, scale-up procedures, cell separations, biomaterial scaffolds and how to tailor biomaterials; and Clinical Implementation, including conventional approaches to tissue repair, host integration, and producing tissue-engineered therapies.

The book is targeted to instructors teaching senior-level and first-year graduate courses in tissue engineering; and to students researching tissue replacement and restorations as well as those working with primary and complex cell biology.

“We’ve tried to cover important fundamental concepts so that the book will serve as a practical guide in the field even as tissue engineering changes, and in order to help students establish a conceptual framework within which to place further advances in the field,” said Palsson.

“The book is broad based so instructors can build comprehensive courses and have to flexibility to emphasize and expand on any particular topic. We’ve also provided homework sets to give students the opportunity to apply the concepts they are learning throughout the text.”

The book was made possible through support from the Whitaker Foundation.