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The Next Wave: Tissue Replacement and Organ Replacement
Hickerson, D., Somara, S., Martinez-Fernandez, A., Lo, C., Meinecke, T., Wilkins-Port, C., & Allickson, J. G. (2020). The Next Wave: Tissue Replacement and Organ Replacement. In Second Generation Cell and Gene-based Therapies Biological Advances, Clinical Outcomes and Strategies for Capitalisation 2020 (pp. 243-268). Elsevier.
Tissue engineering promises to repair or replace damaged or diseased tissues or organs. Organ shortage and transplantation complications are driving the need for autologous or immune-modulated bioengineered organs and tissues. To produce a tissue-engineered construct, one or more cell types from appropriate sources and differentiation states are identified for each organ or tissue. These cells are expanded and seeded onto biological or synthetic scaffolds to replicate the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the organ. The translation process from research bench to clinical application requires adoption of regulatory oversight specific to combinatorial therapies. Currently, numerous regenerative tissue therapies are approved by regulatory authorities or are in clinical trials or translation, with an extensive portfolio of future applications in development. 3D bioprinting promises to someday produce entire organs in one step. The nature of the personalised medicine approach in tissue engineering presents a challenge for manufacturing, scale up and funding.