Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering in Cancer

 Biomaterials are every material including synthetic and biological materials that must be biocompatible with living organs/tissues and succeeds, assists, or replaces a normal function and is applied and adapted for biomedical/medical applications.

Cancer therapeutics comprises early diagnosis, preventive medicine, radiation therapy, hyperthermia, photodynamic therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. Nowadays, the biomaterials utilized in diagnostics instruments (i.e. biosensors), tissue engineering scaffolds and drug delivery systems were also applied to diagnostic agents delivery, and this led to a new discipline called theranosis (diagnosis and then therapy).

Furthermore, biomaterials are also serious in investigating cancers via in vitro models. Previous to in vivo and clinical surveys to be conducted, in vitro models are utilized to understand the mechanisms of drug action and drug delivery systems. Promoting the three dimensional (3D) tumor sphere models is crucial for accurate survey of drug delivery to solid tumors. Many biomaterials have been used in development of in vitro 3D tumor spheroids and tumor spheroid containing devices.

Researchers at the department of biomaterials & tissue engineering in cancers (BCRC) are working on next generation biomaterials engineering and technology that integrate synthetic/biological materials with physiological functionalities to generate novel materials/biomaterials that selectively/specifically interact with physiological systems to achieve appropriate responses and physiological integration.

Research area:

1. Micro/nanodevices for cellular and molecular studies

We are investigating the influences of biological, mechanical and chemical signals on cell response at the single and both cell high-throughput level by developing integrated microfluidic platforms.

2. Tissue engineering and organ-on-chip for tumor modeling and drug screening

Our research are focused on combination of biomaterials engineering, micro/nano technologies and tissue engineering approaches to make organ-on-chip platforms with the applications in cancer modeling, drug screening and tissue engineering.

3. Biosensors for early detection of cancers

The biomaterials Laboratory will utilize the knowledge in basic sciences, medical sciences, engineering and microfluidics, micro/nanotechnology, surface chemistry and engineering, and cellular/molecular biology to develop inventive sensors and point-of-care microdevices for biomedical/medical applications with the specific focus on electrochemical biosensors for monitoring cancers.

4. Controlled-drug delivery systems for cancer therapy

The research area is at the interface of chemical engineering, bioengineering, biotechnology and biomaterials science. Our main focus is the investigating and developing biopolymers to deliver drugs, particularly antibodies, genetically engineered proteins, DNA and RNAi, chemotherapy drugs continuously at controlled rates for time delayed periods. Effort is make progress in the following outlines:

• Exploring the release mechanism from polymeric drug delivery systems with associated micro/nanostructural manipulation and mathematical modeling.
• Investigating on the fabrication of these systems including the development of effective long-term delivery systems for anti-cancer drugs, antibodies and gene therapy agents.

Research Capabilities

• Microfabrication facilities

3D printer

• Syringe pump

  Invert microscope

• Biosensor Research Laboratory

Electrochemical equipment

UV-Visible spectroscopy

• Biomaterials synthesis

Hot plate stirrer

pH meter

Sonicator

Oven

Heat treatment equipment

Chemical hood

• Cell culture facilities

Biological hood

Eliza reader

Centrifuge

Shaker incubator

• Animal studies

Faculty Members:

	Mehdi Rahmanian Koshkaki Group Head Biomedical Engineering, Biomaterials, MSc Fields of Research Interests: Nanobiomaterials, Tissue Engineering, microfluidic in cancer and tumor on a chip Email: mrahmanian1@gmail.com                   Phone: +98 (21) 88791120; +98 93605584842
	Amir Seyfoori  PhD student, Materials Engineering, Biomaterials, University of Tehran Fields of Research Interests: Magnetic microfluidic, Tumor modeling,  3D printing and drug screening Email: klm.1985@yahoo.com        CV
	Seyed Morteza Naghib Biomedical Engineering, Biomaterials, PhD Faculty of Iran University Science and Technology Fields of Research Interests: Biosensors modeling and fabrication, Controlled release and drug delivery,  Nanobiomaterials and Tissue Engineering Email: naghib@iust.ac.ir          CV

Other Member: