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: 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: 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-organize into useful...
Charles Gersbach
Rooney Family Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Gene therapy, genomics and epigenomics, biomolecular and cellular engineering, regenerative medicine, and synthetic biology.
Samira Musah
Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), disease mechanisms, regenerative medicine, molecular and cellular basis of human kidney development and disease, organ engineering, patient-specific disease models, biomarkers, therapeutic discovery, tissue and organ transplantation,...
William M. Reichert
Theo Pilkington Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Biosensors, protein mediated cell adhesion, and wound healing.
Tatiana Segura
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: The design of biomaterials to promote endogenous repair and reducing inflammation through the design of the geometry of the material, and delivering genes, proteins and drugs.
Xiling Shen
Hawkins Family Associate Professor
Research Interests: Precision medicine for cancer, regeneration, microbiome, and gut-brain axis. Multi-omics approaches including organoid, epigenetics, CRISPR, single-cell, metabolomics, machine learning, droplet microfluidics, humanized immune model and intravital imaging.
George A. Truskey
R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Cardiovascular tissue engineering, mechanisms of atherogenesis, cell adhesion, and cell biomechanics.
Shyni Varghese
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and Orthopaedics
Research Interests: Musculoskeletal tissue repair, disease biophysics and organ-on-a-chip technology
Jennifer L West
Fitzpatrick Family University Distinguished Professor of Engineering
Research Interests: Biomaterials, nanotechnology and tissue engineering that 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 Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Radiation Oncology
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,...
Cynthia Ann Toth
Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Distinguished 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
Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and 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...
Research Faculty
Nassir Mokarram-Dorri
Consulting Associate in the Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Immunomodulation for nervous system repair; medical devices for brain tumor therapy; biomaterials for tissue engineering.