If I only had a heart: engineering living tissues

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[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Jones_Kim-02.jpg” caption=”Kim Jones: Photo credit: Graham Jansz”]In Canada, up to 30 percent of people in need of a solid organ transplant die while waiting – there continues to be a chronic need for organs that is not met by the current supply of donations.

Bioengineer Kim Jones hopes to help alleviate the unrelenting demand for organ donations through her work in the field of tissue engineering. This evening, Jones will discuss the future of, and past successes, in this exciting and groundbreaking field at the latest lecture in the Science in the City series.

According to Jones, “Tissue engineering devices are the next generation of biomedical devices.” These devices are manufactured artificially and include both living biological materials, such as cells, and non-living materials.

Tissue engineering devices range from skin and cartilage to artificial corneas and possibly one day to complete, functioning artificial organs. Worldwide, many researchers are working towards the production such devices. At McMaster, Jones is exploring a unique aspect of the field; she is studying the interactions between the body and the materials used in tissue engineering devices.

Jones notes, “One of the major goals of my program is to understand the body's biological response to biomaterials well enough to allow us to design better materials that have specific and desirable interactions with the body – ultimately allowing us to design tissue engineered constructs that allow us to save millions of lives.”

Tonight's lecture takes place at the McMaster Innovation Park, 175 Longwood Rd. South in Hamilton. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the lecture begins at 7 p.m. To reserve your seat, e-mail sciencecity@mcmaster.ca or by phone, 905-525-9140, ext. 24934. This lecture is free and all are welcome.

(The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) program was launched in 1999 at 10 universities across Canada. Through SPARK, students with an aptitude for communications are recruited, trained and paid to write stories based on the NSERC supported research at participating universities.)