The Extracellular Matrix, Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering: An Introduction to Cells and their Environment for Engineers and Biologists (Biomedical Engineering)

Until now there have been no textbooks - especially for students from the engineering disciplines - that address the fundamentals of how cells interact with their engineered environment, or introduce the topic at an appropriate level.

Written specifically as an introductory textbook by authors with extensive experience of teaching this broad and complex topic, this book covers each of the standard required topics for those who need a firm grounding in tissue engineering and biomaterials.

* It establishes a common vocabulary and knowledge base between engineering and biology.
* The ideal textbook for courses across the engineering disciplines, as well as for biologists coming to applied biomaterials and tissue engineering for the first time.
* Carefully organized and presented to clearly orient students entering the field: the first half of the text is devoted to developing an understanding of underlying concepts in the control of cell function, and the second half is focused on how to apply these ideas in an engineering setting to create new products and therapies
* Covers key topics including cell and tissue Structure and function; the basics of molecular biology; the extracellular matrix; cell signalling and interactions; the mechanics of the ECM; and the development of engineered cellular environments.
* Frequent case studies illustrate how the material in the text has been and can be applied supplement the material in each chapter.
* Includes clear teaching and learning goals, comprehensive problem sets and homework exercises, and extensive supporting teaching resources including an image bank and downloadable concept maps to help non-biologists quickly understand basic princilpes.

With its focus on communicating the priciples of engineering and biology clearly, along with strong treatment of biomaterials and the tissue/biomaterial interface, plus appropriate problems for a wide range of students and courses, this book offers a key resource that instructors can use to teach a successful introductory course.


* Written for students of biomedical engineering taking introductory courses in tissue engineering and biomaterials. Also appropriate for chemical engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering and biology majors taking cross-listed tissue eng/biomaterials courses: none of these groups (other than biologists) are currently directly served by a textbook specifically written for them in their terms or langauge.

* Introduces the main biological concepts in a format and language appropriate to engineers.

* Focuses on the fundamental building blocks of tissue/biomaterials engineering: environmental control of cell function and the extracellular matrix.

* Addresses the common weakness of current Tissue Engineering texts, which cover too much of a very broad field, resulting in survey style books that are superficial on most of the topics they cover, or leave out important elements of the field for non-biologists, or lack any textbook pedagogy, resulting in them being ill-suited to most courses

* Covers the fundamentals of tissue and biomaterials engineering: how cell function is controlled by the extracellular environment and the extracellular matrix

* A key challenge in moving the teaching of tissue engineering forward both at the educational and research levels is the need to train students across disciplines (biology and engineering), and to help them integrate and apply knowledge across these disciplines. Stegemann & Plopper address this problem by explaining the fundamental properties of the extracellular environment that are of interest to both disciplines in a language that both groups can readily understand. Importantly, one author (GEP) is a biologist and the other (JPS) is an engineer. This textbook brings their twin expertise together to specifically target the needs of engineering students.

* The text will focus on applications, with an overall approach predicated on providing students with the tools and knowledge to apply engineering principles and to come up with new or improved products and therapies.

* The book is written to be used as a single semester course text, following ABET criteria and the typical structure of many biomedical courses and cross-listed courses offered to bioengineering, chemical engineering, mechanical and materials majors. The book is roughly divided so that the first half of the book deals with fundamental knowledge, and the second half focuses on applications of this knowledge.

* In order to clearly and effectively teach concepts of biology to engineering students, the book incorporates concept mapping as a tool to represent the relationships between biology and engineering concepts. These maps will be provided in electronic format and can be easily edited/adapted by the students as their comprehension of the material increases.

* Has great instructor resources to accompany the text, included extensive worked examples, graded homework problems and web-based teaching help.