MTEL

Main Focus
The goal of the Microscale Tissue Engineering Laboratory is to manipulate and study the role of the local environment or 'micro'environment around individual cells. The influence of the microenvironment on cell function depends on many factors- extracellular matrix, soluble cytokines, physical forces, substrate topology, and interactions with neighboring cells. Dr. Bhatia's laboratory, the Microscale Tissue Engineering laboratory (MTEL) applies microfabrication techniques developed in the semiconductor industry to control and study cell-microenvironment interactions. In particular, we have focused our research in two areas, BioMEMS and Hepatic Tissue Engineering.

Research Interests

Biomimetic Porous Silicon with "Trapped" hepatocyte

BioMEMS
In this area, our efforts have focused on the development of microtechnology tools for cell biology research and tissue engineering applications. These include optoelectronic addressing of cells on microfabricated substrates, micro bioreactors, cell-based biosensors, and techniques to modify cell-surface interactions.
Hepatic Tissue Engineering
In this area, we study the effects of the tissue microenvironment on the hepatocyte phenotype in vitro, for applications in cell-based therapies. Microenvironmental factors of interest include: cell-cell interactions (homotypic and heterotypic), cell-extracellular matrix interactions, shear stress, and oxygen tension.

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