Title:

Biomaterials for Engineering Fibrous Tissues and Their Interfaces

Speaker:

Prof. Johnna Temenoff

Affiliation:

Assistant Professor, Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech/Emory University

When:

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 3:00:00 PM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Love Building, Room 183

Host:

Valeria Milam
valeria.milam@mse.gatech.edu

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of injuries to ligaments, tendons or the joint capsule occur in the U.S. each year, resulting in significant reduction of quality of life for many patients. Current reconstruction techniques for torn tendons/ligaments cannot fully recapitulate the native joint biomechanics, leading to secondary degeneration over time, such as premature (osteo)arthritis. Thus, alternate sources of tissue grafts and better methods of graft fixation are greatly needed. In response, the Temenoff laboratory is investigating a novel laminated hydrogel system and a custom tensile bioreactor as an in vitro model to study the formation of both fibrous (ligament) tissue and the ligament-bone interface. Our system provides a controlled mechanical and biochemical environment to elucidate effects of specific factors on cellular differentiation in a complex environment, such as would occur at interfaces between orthopaedic tissues. For more direct in vivo applications, the hydrogels developed in our laboratory may also be employed as injectable carriers to deliver marrow stromal (stem) cells (MSCs) to overuse injuries in tendon. The presentation will highlight progress in both of these research areas, demonstrating that our synthetic hydrogel materials can be used in multiple contexts to better understand stem cell behavior for tendon and ligament regeneration applications.

Biography

Western Reserve University in 1998 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.A. in French. Her thesis work, completed under the guidance of Dr. A. G. Mikos, centered on development of a novel injectable poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogel material for bone and cartilage tissue engineering. Johnna chose to remain at Rice 2003-2005 to co-author an undergraduate biomaterials textbook with Dr. Mikos. The result, Biomaterials: The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science, published in 2008 by Pearson-Prentice Hall, has already been adopted by over 40 universities in the U.S. and has been published in two international editions. In 2005, Johnna joined the faculty of the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech/Emory University in Atlanta, GA as an Assistant Professor. Her research in the area of novel polymeric materials for regeneration of tendons/ligaments and their interfaces has earned her an Arthritis Foundation Investigator Award in 2006 and a NSF CAREER Award in 2008. She was also recently awarded the Georgia Tech CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Award for 2010.