05/25/2022
By Sanika Suvarnapathaki

The Francis College of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology Program, invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Sanika Suvarnapathaki on “Biomaterials that Breathe for Tissue Engineering.”

Candidate Name: Sanika Suvarnapathaki
Defense Date: Friday, June, 10, 2022
Time: 9 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Location: Southwick 240, North Campus

Thesis/Dissertation Title: Biomaterials That Breathe for Tissue Engineering

Committee:

  • Advisor Gulden Camci-Unal, Ph.D., Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Thomas A. Wilson, Ph.D., Department of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences
  • Yanfen Li, Ph.D., Department of Biomedical Engineering

Brief Abstract:
Tissue engineering approaches to engineering clinically relevant three-dimensional (3D) tissues have proved to be effective in lowering the sole reliance on organ donors. Adequate and homogeneous supply of oxygen is a major challenge to the clinical translation of tissue-engineered constructs. To address this issue, strategies to improve the vascularization of engineered tissues have been employed. However, these efforts have not been sufficient to meet the oxygen demands of implanted constructs during the process of homogeneous integration with the host. The survival and metabolic health and function of the engineered tissues during the implantation within the host are critical to the long-term success of in vivo engineered tissue constructs. To ensure this, there has been a shift in the scientific impetus beyond improving vascularization. The use of biomaterials that can encapsulate cells and release oxygen in a controlled sustained manner until homogeneous vascularization are being increasingly explored. This dissertation compiles the scientific findings from the research conducted to develop oxygen-generating scaffolds with a release potential of 5 weeks. The experiments documented show that these oxygen-generating scaffolds successfully release oxygen in a controlled sustained manner for 5 weeks, support optimum cellular metabolic activity, do not elicit any harmful cellular response in vitro. Moreover, these scaffolds also support the process of tissue regeneration and show the potential to promote vascularization. Overall, this research has led to the development of novel oxygen-generating scaffolds with enhanced release potential, improved in vitro and in vivo cellular response and regeneration potential. This research can thus effectively address the problems of oxygen diffusion limitations in organ scale 3D tissue constructs and successfully improve the in vivo translation of 3D engineered tissue constructs.