Innovative designs in tissue engineering: improvements on scaffold fabrication and bioreactor design

Abstract

This study consists of two projects related to Tissue Engineering: Engineering biomimetic scaffolds for bone regeneration and ear reconstruction, and bioreactor design for ex-vivo bioengineered scaffold. The co-electrospinning method was used to produce composite membranes with different layers from gelatin and polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers, followed by paper-stacking cell seeded membranes to mimic the twisted plywood structure found in lobster cuticles. 3D laser scanner was used to capture the precise shape of a human ear model; and the negative molds were fabricated to compress scaffolds into the shape of human ear. Design for assembly (DFA) method was used to analyze and improve the design of the current bioreactor. A new design is proposed to ease operation, save time and increase the application efficiency. The proposed solution is evaluated in a virtual environment using 3D assembly modeling and simulation.