Biomimetic Synthetic Grafts for Bone Regeneration and Epithelial Healing

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Millions of patients worldwide suffer from severe injuries involving skin and skeleton due to accidents, cancer, infection or birth defects. These conditions have devastating impact on the quality of life of the patients, are often life-threatening, and result in high costs to healthcare agencies. Currently, reconstruction of body parts that include skin and bone (i.e. limbs, face) has been made possible through complex surgical transplantation of living tissues from fresh cadavers. Although this technique has shown great potential, transplantation of living organs requires strong immunosuppressive therapies that reduce considerably the life expectancy of the patients. Currently there are no artificial materials designed to regenerate injuries involving both bone and skin. Dr. Tamimi's research program aims at developing synthetic materials that would eliminate the need for cadaver grafts.