Precision Bioprocess Engineering for Regenerative Medicine

再生医学是一个快速发展的价值数十亿美元的多学科领域，是医学、工程和科学的交叉点。它的目标是创造活的、功能性的组织，可以修复或替换受损、患病或老化的组织或器官。干细胞对再生医学治疗的成功至关重要。我们需要的是弥合基础生物学和干细胞临床应用之间差距的技术。有效利用干细胞的主要障碍之一是可获得的供体细胞数量有限，以及培养和分化干细胞的小规模、劳动密集型方法。拟议的干细胞生物工程研究计划的总体目标是开发生物反应器技术、生物材料和数学模型，这将解决目前限制将干细胞发现转化为改善加拿大人健康的主要技术瓶颈。具体来说，这项发现基金将研究强大的生物过程的发展，以产生足够数量的干细胞及其分化后代，用于多种应用。具体结果包括：1)定量干细胞生物过程计算机模型，可以更好地预测生物反应器的性能（对生物过程的可重复性至关重要）。2)新的微载体和组织工程材料设计（对有效生长和分化至关重要）。3)高通量干细胞生物过程设计新技术（对加速发现至关重要）。长期成果包括创新的生物工艺设计，以及关于输出细胞产品参数（即细胞类型、行为）如何受到细胞加工参数（即生物反应器氧水平）影响的关键知识。这是对烧伤、骨折和其他疾病进行个性化治疗的关键一步，也代表了加拿大成为再生医学行业生物制造领导者的机会。

Regenerative medicine is a rapidly growing billion-dollar multidisciplinary field at the intersection of medicine, engineering and science. It aims to create living, functional tissues that can repair or replace damaged, diseased or aging tissues or organs. Stem cells are critical to the success of regenerative medicine therapies. What are needed are technologies to bridge the gap between basic biology and the clinical application of stem cells. One of the major stumbling blocks on the road to effective use of stem cells is the limited number of available donor cells, and the small-scale, labour-intensive methods for culturing and differentiating them. The overall goals of the proposed stem cell bioengineering research program are to develop bioreactor technologies, biomaterials and mathematical models, which will address major technology bottlenecks currently limiting the translation of stem cell discovery into improved health for Canadians. Specifically, this Discovery Grant will research the development of robust bioprocesses to generate sufficient numbers of stem cells and their differentiated progeny for multiple applications. Specific outcomes include: 1) Quantitative stem cell bioprocess computer models, resulting in better predictions of bioreactor performance (essential for bioprocess reproducibility). 2) New microcarrier and tissue engineered material designs (essential for effective growth and differentiation. 3) New technologies for high-throughput stem cell bioprocess design (essential for accelerated discovery). The long-term outcomes include innovative bioprocess designs, as well as critical knowledge of how output cell product parameters (i.e. cell type, behaviour) are influenced by cell processing parameters (i.e. bioreactor oxygen level). This is a critical next step to personalized treatments for conditions such as burns, fractures, and other ailments, and represents an opportunity for Canada to be a leader in biomanufacturing for the regenerative medicine industry.