Fundamentals of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

FundamentalS of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (257 - 15555)
Study: Bachelor in Biomedical Engineering
Semester 2/Spring Semester
3rd Year Course/Upper Division

Students are Expected to have completed:

Cell and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

Compentences and Skills that will be Acquired and Learning Results:

Tissue engineering (TE) is a multidisciplinary field which applies the principles of life science, engineering, and basic science to the development of viable substitutes which restore, maintain, or improve the function of human tissues.
This course is designed to provide a basic knowledge of Tissue and organ organization and an introduction to tissue engineering: Dynamic and structural interactions between mesenchyme and parenchyme, the role of the tissue microenvironment, stem cells, gene and cell-based therapies.
Students will be required to acquire understanding and expertise from analysis of primary literature and will participate in group discusions on the status of state-of-the-art designing tissue functional units.
Students will be required to use a conventional and virtual microscope to recognize and document normal and pathological structures. Students will be required to follow a SPOC (small private online course) that will intensify the knowledge acquired through the continuous evaluation.

Description of Contents: Course Description

- Obtain an overview of tissue engineering in clinical medicine and biomedical research
- Understand the role of emerging technologies and engineering and life science disciplines in tissue engineering

1) Review of current status of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Introduction to TE and overview of course objectives
2) Tissues morphological and functional units
Organization of cell into higher ordered structures
Dynamics of Cell-ECM Interactions
Analysis of the physicochemical processes that affect limit and control cells and tissues function.
- connective, muscle, nervous, and epithelial tissue
3) Organs morphological and functional units
Structural and dynamic interactions between mesenchyme and parenchyma
The role of tissue microenvironment, extracellular matrix and communication by growth factors
4) Designing tissue functional units
Stem cells and Genetic Engineering
5) Seminars on tissue recognition using virtual microscope.

6) "SPOC" about tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that wil firm up the continuous evaluation contents.

LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS: (Every student will perform 15 hours of practical sessions in UC3M bioengineering laboratories)

a. Use of conventional microscopy for the understanding of tissue structure.
b. Understand microscopic organization of Tissues into Organs and systems.
c. Tissue observation and image capture
d. Histology as a diagnostic tool
e. Use of Immunohistochemical techniques

Learning Activities and Methodology:

The program will be divided into master classes (regular and invited lectures), discussion/problem classes (seminars) virtual microscope seminars, and the students will course a SPOC (small private online course) and finally laboratory classes. Students are required to read assigned chapters/articles, or solve problems before the corresponding classes. In the discussion and problems sections, relevant scientific articles and problems will be discussed by the students and the teaching team. In the laboratory sessions students, divided in small groups will perform different experiments with the help of a supervisor and Lab guide prepared by the teaching team. Students will be required to pass an exam at the end of laboratory sessions.

Assessment System:

TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Teaching methodology will be mainly based on lectures, seminars, an online course: SPOC (small private online course) and finally practical sessions.
Students may be required to read assigned documentation before lectures and seminars. Lectures will be used by the teachers to stress and clarify some difficult or interesting points from the corresponding lesson, previously prepared by the student.
Grading will be based on continuous evaluation tests and a final exam covering the whole subject. Help sessions and tutorial classes will be held prior to the final exam upon student's request.
Attendance to lectures and seminars is not compulsory. However, failure to attend any test will result in a mark of 0 in the corresponding continuous evaluation block (see below).

The practical sessions will consist on laboratory work (15 hours in 5 sessions) and a written test at the end of the sessions. The attendance to 80 % of practical sessions is mandatory otherwise the score will be 0 in this item.

GRADING:
Total score: 10 points
Continuos evaluation: 4 points out of 10
Final exam: 6 points out of 10

CONTINUOUS EVALUATION: It accounts for up to 40% of the final score of the subject (4 points of the TOTAL SCORE), and includes two components:
1) Continuos evaluation tests : (3 points of THE TOTAL SCORE).
2) Laboratory: One written laboratory test will take place at the end of the laboratory sessions. (1point of the TOTAL SCORE).

Attendance to at least 80% of the practical sessions is mandatory; otherwise the score will be 0 in this item.

FINAL EXAM: The final exam will cover the whole subject (including the material learned in the laboratory sessions, seminars and SPOC) and will account for the 60 % of the final score. The minimum score in the final exam to pass the subject is 4.5 over 10, notwithstanding the mark obtained in continuous evaluation.

EXTRAORDINARY EXAM: The mark for students attending any extraordinary examination will be:
a) 100% exam
b) 60% exam and 40% continuous evaluation if it is available in the same course

ACADEMIC CONDUCT: Unless specified all exams will be closed-book, closed-notes, no PC or mobile phone, or anything else other than a writing implement and the exam itself. Plagiarism, cheating or other acts of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Any infractions what so ever will result in a failing grade as well as any other disciplinary action imposed by the University.

Basic Bibliography:

Claudio J. Conti, Irma B. Gimenez-Conti, Fernando Benavides, Anita F. W. Frijhoff, Maria. Atlas of Laboratory Mouse Histology. Texas Hitopages. 2004
Lanza RP, Langer R, Vacanti J. . Principles of Tissue Engineering. . Third edition. Academic Press.. 2007 (suggested)
Melissa Kurtis Micou, Dawn Kilkenny. A Laboratory Course Tissue Engineering. CRC Press . August 2012
Mescher AL,. JUNQUEIRA'S BASIC HISTOLOGY: TEXT AND ATLAS. Mc Graw Hill. 2013
Saltzman MW. . Tissue Engineering: Engineering Principles for the Design of Replacement Organs and Tissues. . Oxford University Press, . 2004.
The course syllabus and, in particular, the academic weekly planning, . may be subject to some variation due to unforeseeable circumstances . or academic events . which will be duly announced in advance