Tissue Engineering Research Paper

“Every ten minutes, someone is added to the national transplant waiting list. On average, twenty people die each day while waiting for a transplant” (1). One solution for the shortage of transplantable organs is creating long-lasting engineered devices that can be implanted into human beings with the purpose to replicate the function of a natural organ. Researchers have continually developed bioartificial organs that have functioned well enough to sustain life until a real organ is available. However, future generations urge the importance of artificial organs being able to function for years, eliminating the need for the donor altogether. Within the biomedical engineering realm, there are multiple subspecialties that graduates have a choice from. Because multiple subspecialties coincide, those who decide to develop or test artificial organs, can be referred to as tissue engineers. Tissue engineering can be defined as the use of cells and engineering materials to
The exploration of artificial devices remained solely experimental until the 20th century. That is when the advancement of biomedical knowledge increased and the success of transplantation occurred. Substantial research and innovation has occurred since Hooke’s time. Studies dating back to as early as 1885 document artificial heart-lung apparatuses being built in order to study organ perfusion (4). In 1939, J. Gibbon first used an artificial lung and it remained a tool used by researchers only, due to its complexity and difficulty to use (5). After the first heart transplant in 1963, the development of an implantable artificial heart began (Roth & Lenfant, 1990). Since then many devices have been created to allow patients to survive until a suitable donor was found. In 2001, Robert Tools was the first person to successfully receive a total artificial heart transplant (6).