Fischell Department of Engineering (BioE) graduate student Kimberly Ferlin, co-advised by Professor John Fisher (BioE) and Dr. David Kaplan (FDA), was elected to a three-year term as the Communications Officer for the Americas Branch of the Student and Young Investigator Section of TERMIS, the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS SYIS-AM).

She will be responsible for increasing the online and social media presence of SYIS-AM on networks and sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Ferlin conducts her research in both Fisher’s Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Laboratory and at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, where she is an ORISE Fellow. She is currently investigating the impact of cell/substrate interactions on mesenchymal stem cell enrichment, proliferation, and differentiation. Ferlin joined SYIS-AM after attending a TERMIS conference in December 2011. She plans to attend the Third TERMIS World Congress in Vienna, Austria this fall, and looks forward to meeting SYIS members from the society’s worldwide branches.

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The Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE) and the A. James Clark School of Engineering extend their congratulations to John Fisher, who has been promoted to the rank of Professor, effective July 1. Fisher, who received his Ph.D. from Rice University in 2003, currently serves as one of the department’s two Associate Chairs and as its Director of Undergraduate Studies.

“John consistently strives to reach a high level of excellence in all aspects of our work as members of the faculty: scholarship, education, and service,” says BioE professor and chair William E. Bentley. “It’s been his guiding philosophy. It’s served him well, and it’s had a positive impact on our department. It’s very satisfying to see him recognized for his hard work on all fronts and for his tireless commitment to excellence.”

Fisher, the director of the Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Laboratory, has been widely recognized for his potentially life-changing research in tissue, cartilage and bone regeneration, which has applications ranging from craniofacial reconstructive surgery to new treatments for joint injuries and arthritis. His research focuses on the development of novel, implantable, biocompatible materials that can support the development of both adult progenitor and adult stem cells, and particularly examines how biomaterials affect endogenous molecular signaling among embedded cell populations.

In 2005, Fisher received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for his study of the control of cell-to-cell signaling within engineered tissues.

In 2006, he received the University of Maryland’s Invention of the Year Award (Life Sciences category) for his development of implantable biomaterials that avoid premature degradation, and the Arthritis Foundation’s Arthritis Investigator Award. He received the Foundation’s Engalitcheff Research Award the following year in honor of his outstanding work on the interaction between cartilage cells and biocompatible materials used to support their growth.

In 2007 he was awarded the College Park campus’ first Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund grant for his work on regenerating human facial bone.

Fisher took first place in University of Maryland’s Professor Venture Fair Competition in 2009 for his design of a patent-pending bioreactor that grows bone and other types of tissue for implantation. The system, which is made from affordable, off-the-shelf components, increases the amount of nutrients the cells inside receive, resulting in a more prolific culture. In 2011, he received a $1.35 million National Institutes of Health R01 grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to further the development of the device and expand other tissue engineering techniques used in conjunction with it. The project will include the incorporation of pre-vascular networks with bone cells and the development of a rigid outer scaffold, created using stereolithography, to house the tissue culture on implantation into large and load-bearing bones.

In 2012, Fisher was elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. His other professional activities include serving as the founding Editor-in-Chief of Tissue Engineering Part B, Reviews and contributing to and editing two comprehensive books on tissue engineering

In his role as the department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies, Fisher has been instrumental in shaping the undergraduate experience in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. He developed the department’s required physiology course and a popular tissue engineering elective, and led the department’s ABET reaccreditation process. He has mentored many undergraduate researchers in his own lab, including two who were named University of Maryland Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers, four who have received Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowships, and eighteen supported by Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute ASPIRE Awards.

Since 2007, Fisher has also directed the department’s highly competitive Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, administered in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

In 2011, he was recognized for the efforts and accomplishments as an educator with the Fischell Department of Bioengineering Teaching Excellence Award.

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A proposal to advance the development of a system for regenerating large areas of bone in patients with serious injuries has received a four year, $1.35 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Clark School Associate Professor and Associate Chair John Fisher (Fischell Department of Bioengineering [BioE]) is the lead investigator on the project, which seeks to provide cultured tissue with a better blood supply and more structural support after implantation.

In 2009, Fisher and members of his Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Laboratory designed a novel, patent-pending bioreactor system that makes tissue engineering more efficient by exposing proliferating cells to an increased amount of oxygen and nutrients. The bioreactor is also more cost-effective, thanks to its use of off-the-shelf components.

While the efficacy of the bioreactor system has been demonstrated, additional challenges associated with implanting the new tissue, particularly over large areas, remain.

“When you engineer a large area of new bone tissue it needs a blood supply,” explains Ph.D. candidate Andrew Yeatts (BioE), who works with Fisher on the project. “The body will naturally grow new blood vessels, but too slowly for the implanted tissue to survive. Another problem is the need for load-bearing support during the healing process. We grow our bone tissue in beads made out of a natural polymer called alginate. The cells do very well in it, but it doesn’t have sufficient mechanical strength. If an injury is not in a substantial load-bearing region you can add filler tissue to the site to help it regenerate. But if the injury is a broken thigh bone, for example, the new tissue is going to need to be housed in a strong construct to ensure everything stays in place and heals true to form.”

To solve these problems, Fisher, Yeatts and their collaborators have introduced two innovations into the bone repair process: The first is the creation of a pre-vascular network within the tissue culture that will lay the groundwork for the construction of new blood vessels. The second is the use of a strong, synthetic biodegradable polymer, poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF), as a carrier and scaffold for the new tissue that can be custom fit to the shape of the injury.

The team plans to incorporate endothelial cells, which line blood vessels, into the bioreactor system with the growing bone cells. There, they will naturally begin to organize into a prevascular network. Once implanted, the cells will have a head start on forming new blood vessels, and can also signal other endothelial cells nearby, encouraging existing blood vessels to penetrate the new tissue, where the two networks will connect.

When the new tissue is ready, the alginate beads containing it will be transferred from the bioreactor into hollow regions of a rigid PPF scaffold. Nesting the cells in two environments creates a complimentary solution in which the best growth conditions are surrounded by the best structure.

In their proposal, Fisher and his colleagues have outlined a plan to construct the scaffolds using a process called stereolithography, also known as rapid prototyping or “3-D printing,” which is already sometimes used by surgeons preparing to implant plastic or metal in place of bone. After scanning the injury site, the process will be used to interpret the data and build a perfectly matched replacement for the missing bone made out of PPF.

“The PPF scaffold will support the load, slowly degrading over the course of months until it is replaced with the patient’s native bone in the same shape,” says Yeatts.

Fisher and Yeatts will perform the work in collaboration with David Dean (Department of Neurological Surgery, Case Western Reserve University) who specializes in stereolithography; and Eric Brey (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology), who specializes in endothelial cell cultures.

Article taken from http://www.bioe.umd.edu/news/news_story.php?id=6058