Abstract

For the author there are three major challenges in Tissue Engineering (TE), namely to develop strategies which are translatable, materials which are responsive and methods which are predictive. New strategies in TE depend on a concerted interdisciplinary effort between the exact and engineering sciences on the one side and the life sciences, including medicine on the other. A further major task of the life sciences is to understand the so-called „regenerative niche“, which differs from tissue to tissue. Great progress made in stem cell biology has opened up new vistas on the possibility to target a regenerative niche. However, we still need to understand regeneration in hostile environments, as are present following trauma and in cancer and multimorbidity. This will be discussed using examples from the author’s own research, which involves coculture systems consisting of relevant human cells with and without complex 3D biomaterial scaffolds. Lessons learned from so-called „cellular crosstalk“ and the relevance of the latter for TE will be discussed.

Supported by the EU Institute of Excellence, EXPERTISSUES , and research grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the BMBF /DAAD German-Chinese Cooperation in Regenerative Medicine.