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A Personal Website on Biomaterials and Related Sciences

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Scaffold - A three-dimensional biocompatible construct (may be seeded with cells) that serves as a temporary implantable tissue; generally fated to biodegrade and be replaced by natural tissue (http://www.ptei.org/ Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative)

Signal molecules - the biological molecules responsibles for signal transduction.
Signal transduction - In biology , signal transduction is any process by which a cell converts one kind of signal or stimulus into another. Processes referred to as signal transduction often involve a sequence of biochemical reactions inside the cell, which are carried out by enzymes and linked through second messengers . Such processes take place in as little time as a millisecond or as long as a few seconds. Slower processes are rarely referred to as signal transduction.
In many transduction processes, an increasing number of enzymes and other molecules become engaged in the events that proceed from the initial stimulus. In such cases the chain of steps is referred to as a " cascade " and the result is that a small stimulus elicits a large response
(... see very complete description of Signal transduction in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_transduction)

Stem Cells - Undifferentiated cell in embryo or adult which can undergo unlimited division and give rise to one or several different cell types. In adults, an undifferentiated cell from which some renewable tissues (blood, skin, etc.) are formed (http://www.ptei.org/ Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative)

Stereophotolithography - one of the methods of rapid prototyping, which achieves construction of 3D objects using monomers or particles, bound together by chemical or physical processes conducted through driving softwares developed from computer aided designs. See Rapid prototyping.


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Telemanufacturing - Telemanufacturing permits centralized manufacturing with decentralized design teams. Telemanufacturing through the Internet allows designers to create a part model, transfer it to a manufacturing facility, and there produce a physical model through rapid prototyping (RP) techniques. Information security should be inherent to file transfers. In this project, we focus on incorporating the Internet in RP production and on the manufacturability and dimensional stability of physical RP parts. We have found eperimentally that components produced by fused deposition have dimensions that compared favorably with design specifications, except when corrupted by the security and file transfer processes. (http://prism.asu.edu/research_projectarchives.asp)

TGF a and b = Transforming growth factors - Transforming growth factor alpha (TGF alpha) is a small 50 amino acid residue long mitogenic protein that contains three disulfide bridges. TGF alphas are secreted by human cancer cells and retrovirus-transformed fibroblasts. TGF alpha acts alongside other growth factors such as type-beta transforming growth factor (TGF beta) to activate phenotypic cellular changes in certain cell lines.
(http://www-nmr.cabm.rutgers.edu/photogallery/structures/html/page4.html)
TGF-beta exists in at least five isoforms, known as TGF-beta-1 , TGF-beta-2 , TGF-beta-3 , TGF-beta-4 , TGF-beta-5 , that are not related to TGF-alpha. (...) The biological activities of TGF-beta are not species-specific. The various TGF-beta isotypes share many biological activities and their actions on cells are qualitatively similar in most cases although there are a few examples of distinct activities (...) The most pronounced differences in the TGF-beta isoforms is their spatially and temporally distinct expression of both the mRNAs and proteins in developing tissues, regenerating tissues, and in pathologic responses.
(http://www.grt.kyushu-u.ac.jp/spad/account/ligand/tgf-beta.html)

Tissue Engineering - The application of the principles of life sciences and engineering to develop biological substitutes for the restoration or replacement of tissue or organ function (http://www.ptei.org/ Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative)

Tissue Regeneration - Process which, using signalling molecules, growth factors, scaffolds and/or cells, tries to regenerate in situ damaged or partly destroyed tissues.


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WNT - Wnt proteins form a family of highly conserved secreted signaling molecules that regulate cell-to-cell interactions during embryogenesis. Wnt genes and Wnt signaling are also implicated in cancer. As currently understood, Wnt proteins bind to receptors of the Frizzled family on the cell surface. Through several cytoplasmic relay components, the signal is transduced to beta-catenin, which then enters the nucleus and forms a complex with TCF to activate transcription of Wnt target genes. These pages contain some diagrams of the pathway. Wnt signaling has been discussed in several reviews (...) (http://www.stanford.edu/~rnusse/wntwindow.html)


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