Regeneration of the vascular network in whole organs for tissue engineering    

Paolo De Coppi (primary)
Child Health
University College London
Nicola Elvassore (secondary)
Child Health
University College London

Abstract

Focusing on the intestine, the liver and the lung, the aim of this project is to develop techniques to engineer the cells of the vasculature and to define the conditions necessary for their growth and development. Specifically, the principal deliverable will be to engineer organs with a fully restored and functional vascular bed.

The students will deal with the decellularisation of tissues and organs and with the culture of endothelial and perivascular cells derived from pluripotent and aminiotic fluid stem cells. Furthermore the student will design a bioreactor to deliver the culture for the re-endothelialisation of decellularised organs.

 


References

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  2. Epub 2016 Mar 28. 2. Badylak SF Et al., Whole-organ tissue engineering: decellularization and recellularization of three-dimensional matrix scaffolds. Annu Rev Biomed Eng. 2011 Aug 15;13:27-53.
  3. Orlova, V.V., et al., Generation, expansion and functional analysis of endothelial cells and pericytes derived from human pluripotent stem cells. Nature Protocols, 2014. 9(6): p. 1514-1531.
  4. Ginsberg M, Schachterle W, et al. Direct conversion of human amniotic cells into endothelial cells without transitioning through a pluripotent state. Nat Protoc. 2015 Dec;10(12):1975-85.
  5. Ren X, Moser PT, et al. Engineering pulmonary vasculature in decellularized rat and human lungs. Nat Biotechnol. 2015 Oct;33(10):1097-102. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3354.

BBSRC Area
Genes, development and STEM* approaches to biology
Area of Biology
BiotechnologyCell Biology
Techniques & Approaches
BiochemistryGeneticsImage ProcessingMicroscopy / ElectrophysiologyMolecular Biology