Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Research in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine seeks to replace or regenerate diseased or damaged tissues, organs, and cells – a challenging endeavor, but one that has tremendous potential for the practice of medicine.

Technologies under investigation range from biomaterial/cell constructs for repairing various tissues and organs, to stem cell therapies, to immune therapies. Our work in this area is highly multidisciplinary, combining materials science, cell biology, clinical science, immunology, stem cell biology, genome science, and others.

Accordingly, researchers in this area within Duke BME are broadly interactive with departments throughout the university including Duke University Medical Center clinical departments, the Duke University School of Medicine departments of Cell Biology and Immunology, the Duke Department of Chemistry, and others. This community is also supported by centers and programs such as Regeneration Next and the Center for Biomolecular and Tissue Engineering (CBTE).

Primary Faculty

Ravi Venkat Bellamkonda

Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Engineered devices for brain tumor therapy; immunomodulation for peripheral and central nervous system repair; biomaterials; brain-machine interfaces.

Nenad Bursac

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Bursac's research interests include embryonic and adult stem cell therapies for heart and muscle disease. Cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue engineering. Cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias. Genetic modifications of stem and somatic cells. Micropatterning of proteins and hydrogels.

Joel Collier

Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Collier's research interests relate to the design of biomaterials for a range of biomedical applications, with a focus on understanding and controlling adaptive immune responses. Most materials investigated are created from molecular assemblies- proteins, peptides or bioconjugates that self-...

Charles Gersbach

Rooney Family Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Dr. Gersbach's research interests are in gene therapy, biomolecular and cellular engineering, regenerative medicine, and synthetic biology.

William M. Reichert

Theo Pilkington Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School of Engineering

Research Interests: Reichert's research interests include biosensors, protein mediated cell adhesion, and wound healing.

Tatiana Segura

Professor of Biomedical Engineering (effective March 1, 2018)

Research Interests: Therapeutic angiogenic biomaterials

Xiling Shen

Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Dr. Shen's research integrates systems biology and implantable devices to study non-coding RNA, colon cancer, stem cells, and the enteric nervous system. His multidisciplinary approach provides a new window for developing novel therapeutics against heterogeneous diseases such as cancer.

George A. Truskey

R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Dr. Truskey's research interests include cardiovascular tissue engineering, mechanisms of atherogenesis, cell adhesion, and cell biomechanics.

Jennifer L West

Fitzpatrick Family University Professor of Engineering

Research Interests: West's research in biomaterials, nanotechnology and tissue engineering involves the synthesis, development, and application of novel biofunctional materials, and the use of biomaterials and engineering approaches to study biological problems.

Secondary Faculty

Mark Wesley Dewhirst

Gustavo S. Montana Professor of Radiation Oncology, in the School of Medicine

Research Interests: Dr. Dewhirst's research interests focus on the tumor microenvironment and how it influences treatment responses. Areas of particular focus are hypoxia, acidosis, angiogenesis and oxidative stress.

Geoffrey Steven Ginsburg

Professor of Medicine

Research Interests: Dr. Geoffrey S. Ginsburg's research interests are in the development of novel paradigms for developing and translating genomic information into medical practice and the integration of personalized medicine into health care.

Bruce Klitzman

Associate Professor of Surgery

Research Interests: The primary basic science research interests of our laboratory are in the area of physiological mechanisms of maintaining substrate transport from blood to tissue. This broad topic covers studies on whole animals, such as rats and mice, as well as studies on whole organ, hemorheological,...

Cynthia Ann Toth

Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Professor of Ophthalmology

Research Interests: Translational research and early-application clinical trials with a focus on novel retinal imaging with spectral domain and swept source optical coherence tomography (SD and SSOCT)

Stefan Zauscher

Sternberg Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Research Interests: Nano-mechanical and nano-tribological characterization (elasticity, friction, adhesion) of materials including organic thin films; self-assembled monolayers, polymeric gels, and cellulosics; Fabrication of polymeric nanostructures by scanning probe lithography; Colloidal probe and atomic force...

Research Faculty

Nassir Mokarram-Dorri

Consulting Associate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Immunomodulation for nervous system repair; medical devices for brain tumor therapy; biomaterials for tissue engineering.

Lisa L Satterwhite

Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Satterwhite studies the genomics and epigenetics of environmental exposures in populations with clear health disparity. Her group identified the first genomic signature for pesticide exposure and is developing simple blood tests to diagnose early stage asymptomatic neurodegenerative disease and...