This contributed volume is the first of a series that introduces safe, feasible, and practical decellularization and recellularization techniques for tissue and organ reconstruction. We have put special emphasis on the research areas most likely to develop well-engineered scaffolds for tissue and organ engineering, while presenting easily applicable bench-to-bedside approaches highlighting the latest technical innovations in the field. This book includes both a fundamental discussion for a broad understanding of the basis of tissue repair and substitution, as well as chapters written by world renowned specialists from 20 countries providing deeper discussions and analysis of related sub disciplines. Within these pages, the reader will find state-of-the-art protocols and current clinical challenges in cell and tissue biology, including accurate and comprehensive information on extracellular matrices, natural biomaterials, tissue dynamics, morphogenesis, stem cells, cellular fate progressions, cell and tissue properties for in-vitro and in-vivo applications. This comprehensive and carefully organized treatise provides a clear framework for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers new to the field, but also for researchers and practitioners looking to expand their knowledge on tissue and organ reconstruction.

This practical, hands-on volume examines the use of decellularized tissues and organs as biologically-active scaffolds by providing numerous approaches from experts in the field. While knowledge of how to grow and differentiate cells in culture has dramatically improved over time, the book addresses the challenges of how to instruct particular cells of interest to recognize and respond to their environment so as to proliferate, differentiate, and function for restoration of original tissue and organ form and function. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and easy to use, Decellularized Scaffolds and Organogenesis: Methods and Protocols share novel approaches and insights that will provide new opportunities for those already in the field or moving to enter the field.

This book will consist of 8 chapters, in which important issues regarding decellularized materials (DMs) will be discussed. This book will provide special knowledge of materials for the persons with biomedical background, and special biomedical knowledge for the persons with the background of materials, which will hopefully become a valuable informative read for the researchers and students of biomedical engineering major.

Non-thermal irreversible electroporation is a new minimally invasive surgical p- cedure with unique molecular selectivity attributes – in fact it may be considered the first clinical molecular surgery procedure. Non-thermal irreversible electro- ration is a molecular selective mode of cell ablation that employs brief electrical fields to produce nanoscale defects in the cell membrane, which can lead to cell death, without an effect on any of the other tissue molecules. The electrical fields can be produced through contact by insertion of electrode needles around the undesirable tissue and non-invasively by electromagnetic induction. This new - dition to the medical armamentarium requires the active involvement and is of interest to clinical physicians, medical researchers, mechanical engineers, che- cal engineers, electrical engineers, instrumentation designers, medical companies and many other fields and disciplines that were never exposed in their training to irreversible electroporation or to a similar concept. This edited book is designed to be a comprehensive introduction to the field of irreversible electroporation to those that were not exposed or trained in the field before and can also serve as a reference manual. Irreversible electroporation is broad and interdisciplinary. Therefore, we have made an attempt to cover every one of the various aspects of the field from an introductory basic level to state of the art.

Materials science and engineering are strongly developing tools with increasing impact in the biotechnological and biomedical areas. Interestingly, research in molecular and cellular biology is often at the core of the design and development of materials-based approaches, providing biological rationale. Focused on research relying on biology-materials interaction, IJMS launched a Special Issue named “Cells and Materials for Disease Modeling and Regenerative Medicine”. The aim of the Special Issue was to generate a compilation of in vitro and in vivo strategies based on cell-material interactions. This book compiles the papers published in that Special Issue and includes a selection of six original scientific experimental articles and six comprehensive reviews. We are convinced that this collection of articles shows representative examples of the state of the art in the field, unveiling the relevance of materials research in generating new regenerative medicine and disease modeling approaches.

Dynamic soft materials that have the ability to expand and contract, change stiffness, self-heal or dissolve in response to environmental changes, are of great interest in applications ranging from biosensing and drug delivery to soft robotics and tissue engineering. This book covers the state-of-the-art and current trends in the very active and exciting field of bioinspired soft matter, its fundamentals and comprehension from the structural-property point of view, as well as materials and cutting-edge technologies that enable their design, fabrication, advanced characterization and underpin their biomedical applications. The book contents are supported by illustrated examples, schemes, and figures, offering a comprehensive and thorough overview of key aspects of soft matter. The book will provide a trusted resource for undergraduate and graduate students and will extensively benefit researchers and professionals working across the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, polymer chemistry, materials science and engineering, nanosciences, nanotechnologies, nanomedicine, biomedical engineering and medical sciences.

This book summarizes the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on “Nanoengineered Systems for Regenerative Medicine” that was organized under the auspices of the NATO Security through Science Program. I would like to thank NATO for supporting this workshop via a grant to the co-directors. The objective of ARW was to explore the various facets of regenerative me- cine and to highlight role of the “the nano-length scale” and “nano-scale systems” in defining and controlling cell and tissue environments. The development of novel tissue regenerative strategies require the integration of new insights emerging from studies of cell-matrix interactions, cellular signalling processes, developmental and systems biology, into biomaterials design, via a systems approach. The chapters in the book, written by the leading experts in their respective disciplines, cover a wide spectrum of topics ranging from stem cell biology, developmental biology, ce- matrix interactions, and matrix biology to surface science, materials processing and drug delivery. We hope the contents of the book will provoke the readership into developing regenerative medicine paradigms that combine these facets into cli- cally translatable solutions. This NATO meeting would not have been successful without the timely help of Dr. Ulrike Shastri, Sanjeet Rangarajan and Ms. Sabine Benner, who assisted in the organization and implementation of various elements of this meeting. Thanks are also due Dr. Fausto Pedrazzini and Ms. Alison Trapp at NATO HQ (Brussels, Belgium). The commitment and persistence of Ms.