Cell and Tissue Engineering

Cell and tissue engineering has the potential to change how we think about disease and aging is happening at BME. Regenerative medicine uses stem cells and biomaterials to repair, replace or regenerate damaged tissue, organ structures and function.

Check out the case studies below to learn about the exciting research done here at BME:

Biomaterials

Milica Radasic in a lab with graduate student
Growing heart and liver tissue for safer drug testing and more

Professor Milica Radisic’s team works on growing human tissue in artificial environments as platforms for developing and testing new drugs, and with the potential to one day, repair or replace damaged organs.

Their creations have included Biowire™, a method of growing heart cells around a silk suture, “Hook-in-Tissue,” a biocompatible scaffold that allows sheets of beating heart cells to snap together like Velcro®, and AngioChip, a system built in a normal cell culture dish that allows lab-grown heart and liver tissue to function and interact like the real thing.

Today, the team is already working on commercializing these technologies through TARA Biosystems Inc., a spinoff company co-founded by Radisic.

Tissue Engineering

Portrait of Craig Simmons
Advancing treatments for heart failure

Professor Craig Simmons leads an interdisciplinary team of eight researchers and their students from U of T Engineering, Medicine and Dentistry to advance discoveries and accelerate new treatments for heart failure and cardiovascular disease.

As the scientific director of the Translational Biology & Engineering Program (TBEP), the U of T arm of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (TRCHR), he brings together experts in engineering and medicine to uncover mechanisms of disease, develop new diagnostic tests for early detection, and create therapeutic strategies using molecules, cells and biomaterials to regenerate heart tissues.

The goal: improve the lives of one million Canadians with heart failure and reduce the estimated $3-billion cost to our health-care system.

Regenerative Medicine

Molly Shoichet and Penney Gilbert conversing in hallway
Designing regenerative medicine to treat degenerative diseases

More than 100 researchers from the University of Toronto and its partner hospitals are collaborating as part of U of T’s Medicine by Design initiative to enhance fundamental discoveries and develop new therapies to treat degenerative diseases.

Led by University Professor Michael Sefton with a historic $114-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, this initiative fosters multidisciplinary collaboration among engineers, scientists and clinicians to solidify Canada’s position as a leader in regenerative medicine, cell therapy discovery and translation.

Read more news about cell & tissue engineering

New Canada Research Chairs advance research in regenerative medicine, sustainable housing and more

New ways of growing human tissues outside the body, developed by Professor Alison McGuigan and her team, will help expand the ability of researchers to understand and control cell behaviour.

Two BME faculty members were awarded the Accelerate Seed Grant and Accelerate Moonshot grant

Milica Radisic and Leo Chou are two BME faculty members who were awarded the Accelerate Seed Grant and Accelerate Moonshot grant, as a part of a $1.2 million total funding from the Acceleration Consortium

BME student awarded the University of Toronto Student Leadership Award 

Joseph Sebastian, a BME PhD student at Professor Craig Simmons’ lab, has recently been awarded the University of Toronto Student Leadership Award (UTSLA). Recipients of the UTSLA join the esteemed community of past Cressy Award recipients in being recognized for their impactful leadership and volunteerism at the University of Toronto.

Four Biomedical Engineering Faculty Members Secure CIHR Funding for Research Projects

Four esteemed faculty members from the Institute Biomedical Engineering (BME) at the University of Toronto have successfully secured funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through the Project Grant Program’s fall 2023 funding cycle. The CIHR funding will support their cutting-edge research projects aimed at advancing health-related knowledge and outcomes.

With heart-on-a-chip, researchers study genetic mutation underlying cardiac muscle disease

Researchers at the University of Toronto and its partner hospitals have led the development of a heart-on-a-chip device to study the effects of a genetic mutation that causes dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that impairs blood flow throughout the body.

Engineering soft connective tissues with biomimetic mechanical properties 

A team of researchers at the University of Toronto, led by Professor Craig Simmons, has introduced a novel method to engineer soft connective tissues with prescribed mechanical properties similar to those of native tissues. This finding, published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, can propel the generation of more realistic tissues and organs for regenerative medicine in the future.