IRES Track I: Process Development for Cell and Tissue Biomanufacturing

该IRES项目为美国学生提供了与美国和德国团队合作的国际生物工艺开发和细胞和组织生物制造研究经验。尽管我们的国家在识别可用于修复人体损伤或疾病的生物技术方面进行了大量投资并取得了巨大进展，但迫切需要工程专业知识来实现这些发现，将它们从实验室的工作台上带到商业产品上。实现工业规模细胞和组织生物制造的知识和平台对于实现临床治疗和最大化这些领域长期研究的社会效益至关重要。虽然人类多能干细胞（hPSCs）现在原则上可以可靠地分化为多种治疗细胞类型，但生产足够数量的用于临床治疗的细胞通常还不可行。建立制造用于商业和临床再生应用的细胞和组织所需的生物处理能力需要国际和跨学科的学生研究人员培训。这个IRES项目在德国/汉诺威医学院/乐宝的研究地点吸引和培训学生将他们的工程和生物专业知识应用于这一问题，这是该领域的前沿。我们的总体目标是培养具有很强的技术沟通和解决问题能力的科学家和工程师，他们具有很强的文化能力，能够与国际合作伙伴有效地合作，进一步提高我们修复人体的能力。这个IRES项目建立了奥本大学（AU）和汉诺威医学院（MHH，德国）之间在细胞和组织生物制造过程开发方面的国际研究和教育合作伙伴关系/计划。这个国际合作研究项目将在德国MHH培训15名本科生和研究生研究人员，在三年的时间里，他们将参与有关细胞和组织生物制造工艺开发的相关项目。学生既参与个人研究项目，也参与综合研究团队的凝聚力努力。本科生和研究生研究人员是通过与阿拉巴马州立大学（HBCU）和非盟工程学院的全州社区学院网络现有的强大生物制造研究联系招募的，此外还招收了已经与乐保教师合作的非盟学生。反思性写作和电子作品集用于指导学生的学习经验。学生将通过定期向IRES学生群体和PI介绍个人项目，获得学科专业知识并练习技术沟通技巧，最终为主办机构及其当地家庭机构的成员展示研究海报。通过组建这个多元化的本科生和研究生研究团队，以及他们在国际学习和研究环境中的参与，该计划有助于获得跨文化技能和更大的全球竞争力。该IRES项目的目标是为学生提供高质量的国际研究经验，增加学生的保留率和多样性，提高学生的文化和科学教育知识，促进他们在跨机构和跨大西洋层面的个人网络发展和载体机会。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This IRES program provides U.S. students with a collaborative, international bioprocess development and cell and tissue biomanufacturing research experience with a U.S. and German team. Although our nation has made large investments and achieved great progress in identifying biotechnologies that can be used to repair the human body following injury or disease, there is a critical need for engineering expertise to implement these discoveries, bringing them from the lab bench to commercial products. Knowledge and platforms to enable industrial scale cell and tissue biomanufacturing are critical for realizing clinical treatments and maximizing the societal benefits from the long-term research in these fields. Whereas human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can now, in principle, be reliably differentiated into multiple therapeutic cell types, production of sufficient numbers of cells for clinical therapy is not yet typically feasible. Establishing the bioprocessing capabilities required to manufacture cells and tissues for commercial and clinical regenerative applications requires international and interdisciplinary student researcher training. This IRES program engages and trains students in applying their engineering and biological expertise to this problem in a research location, Germany/Hannover Medical School/LEBAO, which is at the forefront in this area. The overall goal is to produce scientists and engineers with strong technical communication and problem-solving skills and who have strong cultural competency and can work effectively with international partners to further our ability to repair the human body.This IRES project establishes an international research and education partnership/program in process development for cell and tissue biomanufacturing between Auburn University (AU) and Hannover Medical School (MHH, Germany). This collaborative international research program will train 15 undergraduate and graduate student researchers over the course of three years in interrelated projects on process development for cell and tissue biomanufacturing at the MHH in Germany. Students are engaged both in an individual research project and in cohesive efforts of the integrated research team. Undergraduate and graduate student researchers are recruited through existing, strong biomanufacturing research ties with Alabama State University, an HBCU, and the AU Engineering’s state-wide network on community colleges, in addition to engaging AU students already working collaboratively with LEBAO faculty. Reflective writing and ePortfolios are used to guide students learning experiences. Students will gain subject expertise and practice technical communication skills through regular individual projects presentations to the IRES student cohort and PI, culminating a research poster presentation for members of the host institute and their local home institutions. Through formation of this diverse team of undergraduate and graduate researchers and their engagement in an international learning and research environment, the program facilitates acquisition of intercultural skills and greater global competency. The objective of this IRES project is to provide students with a high-quality international research experience, increase student retention and diversity, advance students’ knowledge of culture and scientific education and to promote their personal network development and carrier opportunities on a trans-institutional and trans-Atlantic level.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.