Our research is in the field of tissue engineering. Broadly defined, tissue engineering is the process of creating living, physiological, 3D tissues and organs. The process starts with a source of cells derived from a patient or from a donor. The cells may be immature cells, in the stem cell stage, or cells that are already capable of carrying out tissue functions; often, a mixture of cell types (e.g., liver cells and blood vessel cells) and cell maturity levels are needed. Coaxing cells to form tissue is inherently an engineering process, as they need physical support (typically in the form of some sort of 3D scaffold) as well as chemical and mechanical signals provided at appropriate times and places to form the intricate hierarchical structures that characterize native tissue. more