Regenerative Engineering and Developmental Biology

Book excerpt: Regenerative Engineering and Developmental Biology: Principles and Applications examines cutting-edge developments in the field of regenerative engineering. Specific attention is given to activities that embrace the importance of integrating developmental biology and tissue engineering, and how this can move beyond repairing damage to body parts to instead regenerate tissues and organs. The text furthermore focusses on the five legs of the field of regenerative engineering, including: materials, developmental biology, stem cells, physics, and clinical translation. This book was written by leading developmental biologists; each chapter examines the processes that these biologists study and how they can be advanced by using the tools available in tissue engineering/biomaterials. Individual chapters are complete with concluding remarks and thoughts on the future of regenerative engineering. A list of references is also provided to aid the reader with further research. Ultimately, this book achieves two goals. The first encourages the biomedical community to think about how inducing regeneration is an engineering problem. The second goal highlights the discoveries with animal regeneration and how these processes can be engineered to regenerate body parts. Regenerative Engineering and Developmental Biology: Principles and Applications was written with undergraduate and graduate-level biomedical engineering students and biomedical professionals in mind.