Understanding and Harnessing Variability in Regenerative Engineering

Abstract: Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine aim to eliminate the shortage of donor organs and restore tissue or organ function through products that promote cellular regeneration. However, these fields have not been able to deliver on the transformation of healthcare with regenerative products. Convergence research, the deep integration of disparate disciplines with the goal of solving a societal grant challenge, may potentially revolutionize our approach to regenerative medicine with the creation of new scientific language, frameworks, and workforce. Regenerative engineering is a convergence field whereby materials science, physical sciences, biological sciences, and translational medicine converge with the goal of creating scalable and reliable tools that regenerate or reconstruct functional tissues and organs. Key challenges associated with regenerative engineering product variability and potential strategies to overcome those problems such as the development of smart regenerative systems are discussed. These topics were covered in the “Exploring Sources of Variability Related to Clinical Translation of Regenerative Engineering Products” workshop that took place on October 18, 2018. Lay Summary: The Holy Grail for researchers in the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering has been to eliminate the shortage of donor organs or restore tissue or organ function through commercially available products. However, the expected transformation of healthcare with regenerative products has not occurred. Convergence research, the deep integration of very different disciplines with the goal of solving a society’s major problems, may potentially revolutionize our approach to regenerative medicine with the creation of new scientific language, frameworks, and workforce. Regenerative engineering is a convergence field whereby materials science, physical sciences, biological sciences, and translational medicine converge with the goal of creating scalable and reliable tools that regenerate or reconstruct functional tissues and organs. Key challenges associated with regenerative engineering product variability and potential strategies to overcome those problems such as the development of smart regenerative systems are discussed. These topics were covered in the “Exploring Sources of Variability Related to Clinical Translation of Regenerative Engineering Products” workshop that took place on October 18, 2018.