Lund University seminar by Ashok Kumar on Tissue Engineering

Dr. Ashok Kumar, Professor of Bioengineering at the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, Kanpur, held a guest lecture at Lund University on Wednesday 23 May 2012. He talked about ”Tissue Engineering: Where Medicine and Engineering Merge”. Venue: Dora Jacobsohn lecture hall, Biomedical Centre (BMC), entrance D 15, Klinikgatan 32, Lund.
Ashok Kumar received his Ph.D in Biotechnology in 1994 jointly from Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi and Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. He conducted his postdoctoral research at IIT Delhi, Nagoya University, Japan and Lund University, Sweden. He worked as faculty of Biotechnology at BITS Pilani, and at the Department of Biotechnology, Lund University. He also served as a co-coordinator for the center for Bioseparation in the area of nano/microparticle separations in Sweden during the period 2001-2004.
Seminar abstract: Tissue Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that utilizes the principles of engineering and medical sciences towards the development of tissue/organ substitutes that maintain, restore, or improve their function. It is a unique subject where medicine and engineering have a real integration. Based on these merging concepts, tissue engineering has evolved today as an emerging field of medical sciences, where it has helped people achieve better health care possibilities. Some of the examples which has seen real time clinical applications, are skin tissue engineering where it has shown applications for burn injuries and wound healing. Bone tissue engineering has today changed the concept from replacement to regeneration of bone tissue. This field has grown significantly over the last decade because of the emergence of stem cell use in clinical applications. This particular seminar will highlight the developments made in the laboratory at IIT Kanpur, India with National and International co-operations. Starting from the biomaterial development to its assessment with biological molecules and different cell types, how engineering thoughts are inculcated in developing three-dimensional tissue mimicking a real organ. An overview on some of the developing technologies will include bone, cartilage, skin and neural tissue engineering and bioartificial lever support system.