Unit 1 Research Paper 1
Injectable Tissue Engineering
Brand Zae
GS1140

Injectable Tissue Engineering
Introduction
Every year more than700,000 Americans undergo a form of joint replacement surgery. The procedure-in which a knee or a hip is replaced with an artificial implant-is highly invasive, and many patients delay said surgery for as long as they can. A doctor by the name of Jennifer
Elisseeff
, a biomedical engineer at Johns Hopkins University, hopes to change that with a simple and quick procedure that does away with surgery entirely. Dr. Elisseeff and her colleagues have developed a way to inject joints with specially designed mixtures of polymers, cells, and growth stimulators that solidify and form healthy tissue.
This form of technology can eliminate the need for many expensive and dangerous surgeries.
Surgeries involving muscle development, the cardio vascular system, and even limb repair after a traumatic incident. This form of technology can improve our health care system dramatically and open new windows of opportunity for new forms of medicine. Even the possibility for new cures for diseases that we currently fight every day such as cancer and possibly even HIV, eliminating the need for long and expensive treatments.
As well as repairing worn or damaged tissue, this form of engineering can also be used in the future for growing new organs or limbs to replace old damaged or missing ones. If a patient is in need of a new heart, they will no longer have to wait for months or years for one to become available. One can be systematically grown over the course of a few weeks and be transplanted much more efficiently.
With the ability to repair, replace or remove bad tissue. The average human life span will greatly increase, as well as the average health of all patients. The affordability also plays a huge role in how this technology will advance. The cost may be high in the current day, but in 20 years this could become common practice and cost little to nothing for a person to replace or repair there damaged tissue.
Conclusions
Engineering of all types today are constantly opening new windows of growth in every field.
Whether it’s in the field of medicine, or the field of information technology, we constantly look for new ways to improve our lives. Injectable tissue engineering will help the nation as well as the world greatly over the next 20 years as we find new ways to implement it into everyday uses.

Sources www.johnhopkins.edu Dr. Jennifer Elisseeff www.technologyreview.com February 2003